Bristol Airport in the UK has been awarded Airport Carbon Accreditation under the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe scheme, recognizing its efforts to map the carbon output of the business and commitment to reducing its impact.
Airport Carbon Accreditation is an independent, voluntary program which certifies airports at four different levels of accreditation covering all stages of carbon management (mapping, reduction, optimization and neutrality).
Bristol Airport becomes the 127th airport in the world and the 23rd in Europe to achieve accreditation, and has joined the scheme at the mapping level, having measured energy use over the past nine years and committed to a carbon management plan to reduce carbon emissions across the 176-hectare site.
Accreditation takes the airport’s carbon management to the next stage by incorporating a wider range of carbon emitting sources, such as fleet vehicles and air conditioning units.
In the past few weeks Bristol Airport has installed solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of the new east terminal extension. The panels will provide 35,028 kWh of electricity per year, enough to make over 1.4 million cups of tea. The new structure will also utilize air source heat pumps as an efficient, low carbon solution to heating the terminal.
Robert Sinclair, chief executive officer at Bristol Airport, said, “We are proud to have been recognized for our work in this area, and it is fitting that this has been achieved during Bristol’s year as European Green Capital. Reducing carbon emissions is essential to a sustainable future for aviation, and airports can play their part by taking control of energy use on the ground.”
