Liege Airport receives Airport Carbon Accreditation!

Press Release from Liege Airport, 14 June 2012

Liege Airport receives Airport Carbon Accreditation

Liege Airport has received the level 1 Airport Carbon Accreditation certification for 2010. Airport Carbon Accreditation is a certification programme with 4 levels, pioneered by ACI Europe in 2009 and independently administered by WSP Environment & Energy, in order to encourage airports to reduce their carbon emissions. In this way, their efforts are officially recognised by obtaining certification.

The 4 levels of Airport Carbon Accreditation certification are the following:

1. Mapping: the airport company has calculated its carbon footprint.

2. Reduction: the airport has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions and defined a long term reduction objective.

3. Optimisation: the partners present on the airport site have also implemented measures to reduce carbon emissions.

4. Neutrality: airports have achieved carbon neutrality for their own operations.

In terms of the first level, 5 categories of emissions have been identified within the operational boundary of Liege Airport, Liege Airport Security and Liege Airport Business Park:

1. vehicles;

2. gas-fired boilers;

3. oil-fired boilers;

4. purchasing electricity;

5. fire testing.

“Liege Airport has undertaken to buy only green electricity”, explains Luc Partoune, the Director General. “Major investments have been made in order to participate actively in improving the quality of the environment: a system of waste separation at source, operation of a ‘recypark’ (shared by all companies on the site), a glycol recovery station, a waste water treatment plant and storm water basins with a settling system and oil separators”, he adds.

As concerns electricity, several hundred meters have provided more information on consumption and made it possible to take action. Typical examples are the gradual replacement of incandescent light bulbs by compact fluorescent lights in the buildings and the purchase of 900 LED signalling lights to replace the halogen lighting of the apron.

Various items have been carefully analysed and adapted: the lighting of the apron according to work hours and seasons, the lighting of the passenger terminal according to flight planning and availability of natural light, in the same way that the car park currently takes seasons into account as well as the level of use.
In this way, Liege Airport has assured the integration of environmental protection issues in its business strategy. While maintaining its Management System which meets the requirements of ISO 14001, Liege Airport has further strengthened its environmental programme by following the plan of action defined by Airport Carbon Accreditation.

Website : http://www.airportcarbonaccreditation.org/

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