Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, France, has renewed its Level 3+ Carbon Neutrality status with the Airports Council International’s (ACI) Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) program.
The airport was first recognized as being carbon neutral in May 2017 following a series of environmental initiatives including: fully switching to green electricity; installing energy efficient lighting; deploying fully electric ground vehicles; the decentralization and improvement of the water heating networks; installation of a car sharing station; adopting A-CDM to reduce aircraft waiting and taxiing times; implementing staff and stakeholder training and awareness programs; and the construction of the fully HQE certified Terminal 1 (T1) facility.
These efforts are reflected in Lyon-Saint Exupéry’s carbon emission results, with an average decrease of 9% in CO2 emissions from 2012 to 2016 (equivalent to 6879 tons of CO₂).
Tanguy Bertolus, chairman of the management board of Aéroports de Lyon, the airport operator, said, “This certification is remarkable because, out of the 133 European airports in the program, only 33 have reached the maximum level of certification; a global standard for the management of greenhouse gas emissions from airports. Aéroports de Lyon would like to thank the Vinci Airports AirPact program, which has been an Aéroports de Lyon concession holder since 2016. Actions are already underway on the four pillars of AirPact for the next two years.”
Further scheduled AirPact developments include the reintegration of the ISO 14001 standard in 2019; obtaining ACA Level 1 certification for Lyon-Bron Airport from 2020 and maintaining the ACA 3+ certification for Lyon Saint-Exupéry; achieving a 20% reduction in energy intensity between 2013 and 2020 by committing to the ISO 50001 (Energy Management System) approach; and the formalization of a biodiversity strategy based on the results of the company’s global fauna-flora diagnosis.