SPECIAL REPORT: PLANNING & DESIGN
Sustainable mission Joffrey Maï explains how VINCI Airports is rolling out the group’s pioneering global environmental strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.
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INCI Airports is leveraging its position as one of the world’s biggest airport operators to enhance the environmental performance of its Asia-Pacific gateways and help set the sustainability bar for airports across the globe. Asia, of course, has a special meaning for us as it is where we took our first steps in the airport concessions industry in 1995, by taking over responsibility for operating and developing Cambodia’s Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville airports. We have since added Kansai international, Osaka and Kobe airports in Japan, so now operate six airports in the region that handled a total of 63.4 million passengers between them in 2019. This long-term presence has given us the experience and capacity to genuinely understand the changing socio-economic and environmental issues in Asia. And with the World Economic Forum estimating that the number of middle-class people across the region will grow from two billion now to 3.5 billion in 2030, Asia faces a long-term mobility demand, which will require efficient and quality infrastructure while accelerating the path towards environmental sustainability. In 2016, VINCI Airports became the first global airport operator to launch an international environmental action plan for its entire network. And just five years after this major decision, all our airports have committed to a net zero carbon transition. In Japan, Osaka and Kansai international airports were the first in the country to achieve Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) Level 2 status in 2016, and upgraded to Level 3 in 2018. Kobe airport also achieved ACA Level 2 in 2018.
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 5, 2021
In doing so, operator, Kansai Airports, reduced its CO2 emissions by 11% between FY2016 and FY2019 and will continue to upgrade its ACA. While in 2020, despite the COVID-19 crisis, all our Cambodian airports reached Level 2 for their CO2 emissions scope 1 and 2 reduction. This positive dynamic is the result of a global environmental action plan we have been implementing in Asia for the past five years, with two major focuses. The desire to improve our airports’ environmental performance and bring solutions to our clients and stakeholders beyond our perimeter.
Leading by example At Kansai international Airport, we have been constantly improving the operational efficiency of equipment, solar and water treatment plants and infrastructure, based on an energy dashboard that relies on a building energy management system (BEMS). The solution analyses data from the airport’s air conditioning and heating systems in order to make energy savings. While in Cambodia in December 2020, our teams completed a project to replace the runway lights at our airports with more efficient and less consuming LED lights, which will reduce their respective airfield electricity costs by 20% to 25% per annum. Still in Cambodia, back in 2016, we invested in building wastewater treatment plants at Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports, which reduced the load on the city’s own treatment station. Indeed, by using the latest-generation technologies, sludge from the wastewater treatment process is recycled into fertilizer, which is provided to communities surrounding the airports.
