Brussels Airport set to become carbon-neutral in 2018

As part of its sustainability strategy, Brussels Airport came up with the plan to attain carbon neutrality in the course of next year. The airport operator is committed to further drive down the emissions from operations managed by the airport itself, and to offset the residual emissions which cannot be reduced any further.

“Sustainability is a key component of our strategy. As such, this decision to arrive at carbon-neutrality is embedded as part of a broad, all-encompassing environmental strategy. We are currently still in the process of examining all options open to us to further step down the airport’s carbon emissions , for instance by further reducing the power consumption of existing installations. In recent years, we have also invested in putting up solar panels, switching to alternative energy sources wherever possible and we are investing in vehicles that are powered by less conventional fuels such as CNG,” explains Brussels Airport Company CEO Arnaud Feist.

Achieving carbon-neutrality will also see Brussels Airport attain the 3+ certification level of the Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme put in place by ACI Europe, the association of airport operators. Further details on ACI Europe’s Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme are available in Brussels Airport’s Environmental Report.

Concrete actions and results for 2016

Brussels Airport’s environmental policy revolves around 8 major focus areas: emissions, noise, soil, waste, water, energy, mobility and biodiversity.

Some results:

• 27% fewer carbon emissions in 2016 compared against 2010
• a 58% drop in the number of potentially highly inconvenienced people in 2016 compared against 2000
• 94.8% of the soil is clean and, 4% of it is historically contaminated with further sanitation efforts planned
• 26% of the non-hazardous waste recycled in 2016
• A 15% cutin water consumption in 2016 compared against 2010
• an 11% reduction in power consumption in 2016 compared against 2010
• 3% of the power consumption in 2016 is supplied by solar panels in situ at the airport, the equivalent of the consumption of 808 households
• 1,000 buses and 200 trains stop off at the airport each day
• 515 hectares of green areas at the airport, of which 9 hectares are classed as woodland
• 38 species of bees at the airport, 49 species of mushrooms (count performed by Natuurpunt non-profit nature conservation organisation)