Toronto Billy Bishop wins environmental achievement award

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has won ACI-NA’s Environmental Achievement Award for Environmental Improvement with Limited Resources for the airport’s updated Master Plan.

The updated plan was released in November 2019 after a two year public consultation and stakeholder engagement programme and focuses on areas such as infrastructure requirements, activity forecasting, environmental initiatives and future planning.

Those consulted included First Nations leaders, elected officials, local businesses, airport stakeholders and community groups.

“Environmental sustainability is a top priority for North American airports, and these award recipients are a testament to our members’ extraordinary commitment to protecting the environment and supporting their communities,” enthuses ACI-NA president and CEO Kevin Burke.

“By consistently challenging themselves to innovate and adopt sustainable practices, the 2020 ACI-NA Environmental Achievement Award recipients stand out as industry leaders. I’m proud of the work underway at airports and look forward to continued progress.”

Gene Cabral, executive vice president of PortsToronto and Billy Bishop Airport, says: “One of the key factors in realising many of our environmental goals is our collaborative approach to community and stakeholder engagement, which, in the case of our updated Master Plan, involved going building to building in our community to hear first-hand about the challenges that exist today and how to mitigate these issues in the short- and long-term.

“We are thrilled to be recognised for our efforts to maintain thorough and transparent community and stakeholder outreach, to which we can attribute many of our positive results in sustainability thus far as well as the future strategic initiatives detailed in our Master Plan.”

This is the third time that Billy Bishop Airport has won an ACI-NA Environmental Achievement Award, including the Best Innovative Project honour in 2019 for the successful completion of its three-year Airfield Rehabilitation Program.

The project modernised the airfield with sustainable infrastructure that reduced energy usage by 75%.