Galápagos Ecological Airport and Geneva Airport are the latest hubs to be certified as carbon neutral through the independent and voluntary global program Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA).
There are 211 airports across the world now certified at one of the four levels of ACA, which represents 41.8% of global air passenger traffic with 3.2 billion passengers a year.
Of these, 37 airports are carbon neutral for emissions under their control. Galápagos Ecological Airport in Ecuador is the first carbon neutral airport in Latin America.
Jorge Rosillo, general manager of Galápagos Ecological Airport, said, “It is a great honor for us to receive this certification at Level 3+ Neutrality as the first airport in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most importantly, our Neutrality status is the fruit of a group effort.
“The support for our ecological approach to running an airport came from all levels of our organization – from the top management at Corporación América to each and every employee, who takes pride in being part of Galápagos Ecological Airport.
“At the same time, the whole process of measuring and reducing our carbon footprint was facilitated by the intelligible framework provided by Airport Carbon Accreditation.”
In addition to reducing their carbon footprint through energy efficiency measures and the use of renewable energy, these airports invested in carbon offsets funding biomass and cook stoves projects, purchased under the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Gold Standard.
André Schneider, general manager of Geneva Airport, commented, “We take pride in being able to say that we have delivered on the commitment we made last year, to reduce the net emissions under our control to zero.
“Now that we have reached Level 3+ of Airport Carbon Accreditation, we intend to continue our work on the various environmental aspects of our operations with the same zeal.”