I’m at the ACI Europe Annual Meeting in Manchester, where the European airports association has just launched its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. This is a significant step in the standardisation of emissions reduction across airports and follows a goal set down by ACI for its airports worldwide to move towards carbon neutral operations.

The programme allows airports to take inventory of their current carbon emissions (mapping) and then presents a rigorous series of steps at which they must reduce the emissions under their own control (reduction), work with suppliers and partners such as airlines and air traffic control to reduce overall airport emissions (optimisation) and then work towards carbon neutrality through verified offsetting of those emissions that can’t be eliminated (neutrality).

A large number of airports around the world have already started to undertake a few of these steps, particularly mapping and reduction. However, there has never been a standard to follow and so airports have many times had to rely on how other businesses have undertaken similar projects, or start a plan from scratch. Airports are fairly unique environments, with a number of different organisations operating under some fairly ‘strange’ conditions when compared to other industries.

Airport terminals have to be built to accommodate close to peak passenger numbers, even if those numbers are only reached at high season and for certain hours during the day. They also have to be built years in advance, taking into account passenger growth and other traffic considerations. So new and innovative solutions have to be found to heat, cool and light such structures in a smart way.

There are also multiple players that have to be taken into account – airlines, retailers, ground handlers, government agencies, air navigation service providers, car rental companies, catering companies, postal services, freight businesses and many others all operate on an airport site and must play a part in an overall airport emissions footprint, even though the airport company itself may be directly responsible for a small proportion of those emissions.

What impresses me about the ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation programme is just how rigorous it is. Airports apply for accreditation and move up the four steps towards carbon neutrality, but each step is very demanding and overseen by independent assessors – the details that airports must provide are significant and each process is overseen by a third party.

The 31 airports that have signed up so far range from very large to mid-sized airports in Europe but together they account for some quarter of passenger traffic across the continent – this is very significant and I expect that other airports in Europe (and other parts of the world) will soon take the plunge and join the project.

The full list of airports embarking on the programme (as of today) include:

• Aéroports de Paris (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly) in France.
• Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands.
• Athens International Airport in Greece.
• Avinor (Oslo, Trondheim/Værnes and Ålesund/Vigra airports) in Norway.
• Dublin Airport Authority (Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports) in Ireland.
• Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia.
• Fraport (Frankfurt-am-Main Airport) in Germany.
• LFV Airports (Göteborg, Landvetter, Kiruna, Luleå, Malmö, Ronneby, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stockholm-Bromma, Umeå, Visby and Åre Östersund airports) in Sweden.
• Manchester Airport Group (Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports) in the UK.
• SEA Milan Airports (Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate) in Italy.
• TAV (Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, Ankara Esenboğa International Airport, İzmir Adnan Menderes International Airport) in Turkey.