The aviation industry accounts for 2.5% of global CO2 emissions and demand for air travel is only increasing. Despite a dip during the covid pandemic the number of flights has risen by 40% since 2010 and the trend is expected to continue for decades to come.
This means that for net zero targets to be reached the aviation industry is going to need to drastically change. Producing a carbon free plane capable of replacing polluting passenger jets would be the biggest single contributor to achieving a decarbonised aviation industry. But while work is going on to develop planes that work from hydrogen fuel cells or battery power, full commercialisation of these planes could be decades away. So while that work is going on the industry needs to look at other ways it can decarbonise immediately and one of the next biggest polluting areas to tackle is the airports.
From the construction, maintenance, and expansion of airports to their day to day running, to even the resiliency of airports, transitioning to a greener future will take a lot of different forms for major infrastructure assets like airports. One particularly key area will be working with airline companies to assist in the transition to greener planes.
“So, it is a challenge, but it’s one that actually the aviation sector is in a really privileged position to empower because it has the kind of size and sort of economic weight and the influence that they have on their supply chains.” Said Isabelle Smith, Director of Engineering Net Zero at SNC Lavalin.
SNC Lavalin have been working with airports to create roadmaps for airports to reach net zero, and what they have found is that airports can act as a great catalyst for creating change throughout the industry.
“The airport processes passengers so that they can be in-planned safely and efficiently for the airlines to then transport the passenger to his or her destination. So it’s a symbiotic relationship to whatever improvements the airlines are driving with regard to carbon.” Justin Jones, Global Aviation Market Lead for SNC Lavalin, explains.
Along with being a key player in helping airline decarbonise, with investment and support in the infrastructure required for a new generation of low carbon planes, airports also need to look at how to decarbonise their own operations. To do that they first need to understand where their emissions are coming from.
Decarbonomics
SNC Lavalin are bringing their Decarbonomics tool to airports. Decarbonomics was first used by SNC Lavalin in the building sector, Isabelle Smith explains “It was created for offices, retail, residential, education, light industrial building, typologies. And, really what, what we do through that is we created this enormous database, over 60,000, buildings that are mapped in there through kind of cost data, carbon data, energy data, asset data.”
With real world data on tens of thousands of buildings the Decarbonomics model was able predict with 95% accuracy the carbon emissions across a large portfolio of buildings without real world emissions data from those sites.
Using this detailed picture of where emissions are coming from, a detailed and tailored roadmap to decarbonising your assets can then be generated.
“So depending on what’s important for the client, we order those automatically, we ordered those interventions per building, per intervention, so that if you’re going to spend one dollar or a pound, then where do you spend that dollar or pound to have the best kind of carbon performance improvement or return on investment that’s important to you.” says Isabelle Smith.
Measuring an airports emissions
While a lot of the work done using Decarbonomics in the building sector will apply directly to airports, there are some unique aspects about airports operations that will need to be factored in.
Justin Jones explains “The largest facility, that is typically the terminal building, uses the most power and that tends to be the focus for most airport clients on their current reduction of the carbon footprint.”
Similar energy saving techniques can be applied to terminal buildings as can be applied to other buildings. For example, more energy efficient lights and better insulation of the building.
But airports also have other areas of emissions to consider. The airport’s ground support vehicles are another major source of emissions. The Decarbonomics road map can help outline the most energy and cost efficient time to transition the ground support vehicles to electric vehicles.
However, embarking on a big energy transition could put a strain on an airport’s utilities, so this is something else the Decarbonomics airports have to factor in. Isabelle Smith explains, “So when we look at the utility infrastructure, and how that has to be upgraded, you have to consider it, because otherwise you’re not accurately representing the cost and carbon impact of those decisions that you’re making. So when we apply the Decarbonomics to the airport space, we’re actually expanding its scope to include that utility infrastructure as well.”
The energy transition
Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy may provide airports with an opportunity to expand their economic model and become an energy supplier. By exploiting this new economic opportunity it could allow airports to make their net zero transition quicker, as Isabelle Smith explains, “I think that that has a huge opportunity to really start to commercialise their energy transition, and which is and to be honest like that the finances behind this is often one of the major blockers so being able to find new ways of doing that is really exciting.”
Some airports around the world have already started to take advantage of this transition. At Melbourne Airport a 192,00 sqm solar farm is being constructed to cover the power needs for all four passenger terminals. Bristol Airport in the UK is already powered by 100% renewable energy sources including 15% from wind and solar energy generated at the airport.
Embodied Carbon
Airports need to also consider the emissions that arise from any construction that takes place during maintenance or expansion of an airport, known as embodied carbon. As Justin Jones explains, “So that’s the emissions from the materials that are used in the expansion of the facilities where they’re produced, how they’re transported and how they’re installed, how they’re disposed of.”
This means when construction is required, Decarbonomics will factor in low carbo materials and techniques as well as ensuring suppliers are local or transporting materials is done in a low carbon way.
Considering embodied carbon is particularly important for new airports, but if carbon emissions are considered from the start it provides a great opportunity to build a net zero airport.
“When you look at new airports or new terminals, it’s a blank canvas, you can build our thinking from the very beginning. Neom is a good example in the Middle East, which has a net zero, sustainable outlook from the get go. And that just drives the decision making in the type of construction, the power supply, the alignment, the setup of the operation.” Says Justin Jones.
Airport Resiliency
With more extreme weather becoming increasingly the norm, airports are major pieces of infrastructure that are particularly vulnerable and therefore preparing airports to be resilient to the impacts of climate change is very important.
As Isabelle Smith points out, “Nearly a quarter of the world’s busiest airports are less than 10 metres above the sea level. So, it’s really essential that we find ways to future proof and to build resilience and adaptation into the infrastructure itself.”
Airports need to start considering flood prevention methods to deal with rising water levels and more frequent and powerful storms. For airports in hot climates, heat resistant runway surfaces will need to be laid to combat rising temperatures, and to ensure the safety of runways as well as to reduce the amount of maintenance required.
Creating the masterplan
Building in resiliency and creating a net zero plan for airports needs to start now. Airports have an opportunity to work with and influence the aviation industry as a whole, but they also need to work to decarbonise their own operations.
While many of these areas of focus for airports will be similar to one another, no two airports are the same. The stage of development, size and layout will all play an impact on what their journey to net zero will look like, and the first step in that journey is understanding their emissions and creating a roadmap.
“It’s really how do you model, how do you turn something that is a kind of strategic intent? And how do you operationalise it into a programme of works that can be started and delivered on site? I think that’s one of the main things that Decarbonomics does is being able to operationalise that strategic intent. It’s not a one size fits all, it’s always going to be bespoke.”
