Today's Guest blogger is Robert O'Meara who is Communications Manager at ACI Europe.

So, it's that time of year again. Peak summer season. If you have been through an airport recently, you'll doubtless have seen for yourself just how busy it is. But in the journey from check-in to security to boarding your flight, what activities did you notice on the airport site?

In the midst of security threats, extreme weather and the many other surprises that aviation can often be affected by (volcanic ash, anyone?), sometimes it's all too easy to overlook the environmental efforts being made by an airport.

Airports all over Europe are undertaking all kinds of environmental projects: from changing the airport car fleet to electric or hybrid technology, to photovoltaic parks, enhanced water management and recycling projects. So much of these activities go unnoticed by the passenger.

Airport Carbon Accreditation - mentioned on a number of previous occasions in this blog - celebrated its first birthday in mid-June. In that first year, 20 European airports became accredited at one of the four different levels possible: 'Mapping', 'Reduction', 'Optimisation' and 'Neutrality'.

Year 2 of the programme kicked off on 17 June 2010. And already, it's clear that momentum has moved up a gear. In less than 2 months, all of these airports have already renewed or become accredited for the first time:

- Milan Linate & Milan Malpensa in Italy
- Istanbul Airport in Turkey
- Bologna Airport in Italy
- Stockholm Arlanda and Stockholm Bromma airports in Sweden
- Ankara Esenboga Airport in Turkey
- Athens Airport in Greece
- Farnborough Airport in the UK
- Umea City Airport in Sweden
- Antalya Airport in Turkey

Some of these airports are at the beginning of the programme -  mapping the emissions sources under their control on the airport site. But nearly 50% of those listed are reducing CO2 emissions, actively engaging with others on the airport site to reduce theirs and offsetting any remaining CO2 emissions under the airports' direct control - effectively running carbon neutral operations.

So if you're passing through an airport terminal in the weeks or months ahead, take a look around. You may notice more recycling bins. The bus taking you to the aircraft may well be gas-powered. And the aeroplane you're travelling on probably won't leave its engines running on the ground, as occurred in the past. And you may see a banner that says 'This airport is participating in Airport Carbon Accreditation'.

This may not be a glamourous shot of a new type of sexy aircraft, but those two yellow pipes are delivering pre-conditioned air to the passengers on board this A380 and are helping to make aircraft ground operations more fuel efficient.

Yesterday a group of 15 airports in the United Kingdom which together represent 70% of the passenger traffic announced the implementation of a set of guidelines to reduce emissions from aircraft while they are on the ground. Over 95% of aviation's carbon emissions occur as aircraft fly, but airports can make a significant dent in the remaining 5% by implementing a number of small projects - many of which are outlined in the UK Airport Operators Association guidelines.

The guidelines have been developed by airport operator BAA and taken up by Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Southampton, Manchester, Bournemouth, East Midlands, Humberside, Belfast City, Birmingham, Bristol, Gatwick and Newcastle airports. They include reduced engine taxiing (such as taxiing on one engine) as well as use of fixed electrical ground power and pre-conditioned air, instead of keeping auxiliary power units running on planes when stationary. It is estimated that these two projects at Heathrow are already saving 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

All across Europe, airports are part of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme that has been developed by ACI Europe. At their annual conference a couple of weeks ago, ACI announced that, through this programme, airports in Europe had saved an estimated 411,390 tonnes of CO2 in 2009 alone as they move towards carbon-neutral status.

And airports might need to consider expanding their cargo areas, if Professor Sir David King has his crystal ball shined correctly - he is forecasting that within a decade we will see some non-urgent shipments being flown by a new generation of air ships, reducing emissions and leaving the normal planes to concentrate on passengers...

Climate change negotiations have kicked off again in Bonn this week, as representatives from across the globe continue in their constant efforts for an agreement on how the world should move forward in the battle against climate change. So whilst industry representatives are busy in Bonn, explaining their commitments to collective efforts in combating global warming and how exactly they plan to meet the united industry targets, aviation companies back at home have been giving a real live demonstration of the progress that is being made.

In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai Airports have launched their ‘silent airport’ scheme, a project aimed at reducing noise pollution both inside and outside the airport, lowering their environmental footprint as well improving the ambiance of the airport. To reduce emissions and cut down on noise outside the airport, Dubai Airports will begin a phased withdrawal of older generation aircraft that do not conform to international noise and emission standards set by ICAO. As the fleet of aircraft becomes newer and more efficient, fuel consumption will be cut significantly, resulting in reduced carbon emissions from the aircraft using the airport. Inside the airport, the scheme involves the elimination of unnecessary announcements, creating a quieter and more pleasant atmosphere for travellers!

Elsewhere, Heathrow Airport has completed the installation of Vokes Air pocket filters on air handling plant – a new air filtration arrangement developed by the Vokes-Air Group who has been working in partnership with Heathrow Airport to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The British Airports Authority is predicting that the new air filters could lead to savings of more than £1 million and reduce CO2 emissions at the airport by 6,000 tonnes per year.

And finally, as proof that the work taking place across the industry does not go unnoticed, Auckland Airport has been recognized this week by EarthCheck – the world’s leading sustainable travel and tourism certification organization, for its commitment to sustainable business practice. Auckland Airport was awarded Bronze Benchmarked status by The EarthCheck Programme, which measures key environmental indicators such as energy and water consumption, total waste production as well as community commitment.

This Wednesday, representatives from airports across the U.S. came together for a ‘Green Airports’ seminar, hosted by South Carolina’s  Department of Health and Environmental Control and launched under the Green Airports Initiative. The seminar educated airports on how they can become more environmentally friendly and reduce their operating costs through the promotion of alternative fuels, recycling initiatives and energy efficiency.

Dallas/Fort Worth International made a timely demonstration of how airports can make an impact in this way by moving up the rankings on the American EPA Top 20 Local Government list of large green power purchasers. The airport was recognised by the EPA for its commitment to protecting the environment by proactively choosing to switch away from traditional sources of electricity generation and support cleaner renewable energy alternatives. The airport currently purchases 60 million kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet 20% of the airport's electricity use, and resulting in significant savings both in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Alice Springs Airport in Australia has launched their own energy project, with works underway building a solar power station. The power station will deliver approximately 600 megawatt hours of electricity directly to the airport's internal electricity grid, making up roughly 28% of the airport's electricity demand and reducing the airport's carbon emissions by around 470 ton of CO2 per year.

Elsewhere, South America’s TAM Airlines has been busy preparing for non-commercial demonstration flight later this year, marking the continent’s progress in biofuel development. The flight will take place on an Airbus A320 equipped with CFM56-5B engines and will run on a mixture of aviation biofuel produced using jatropha oil. According to research from Michigan Technological University, a flight of this kind can achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of between 65 and 80% compared to petroleum-derived jet fuel.

Thanks to a little surprise from Mother Nature herself, recent days have seen air transport in Europe grinding to an abrupt halt. But that hasn’t stopped the industry from continuing work on the various initiatives being adopted across the sector, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and limiting aviation’s impact on the environment.

Earlier this month, the Port of Seattle released there 2010 Environmental Annual Report, detailing the various initiatives that are being taken at Sea-Tac airport which facilitates their progress in key environmental areas such as their energy use and conservation, as well as material use and recycling. One of their projects is to convert more than 650 of their vehicles from fossil fuels to electricity. This is expected to save more than 400,000 gallons of fuel as well as reducing CO2 emissions by more than 4,000 metric tonnes per year.

In the UK, Bournemouth Airport is busy constructing its new arrivals hall, whose innovative structure makes maximum possible use of solar gain, solar shading, daylight and natural ventilation. Collectively, this will reduce the need for mechanical and electrical installations which, in turn, reduces the building’s energy requirements. The new building, which will be ready for use by summer 2011, is expected bring a reduction in CO2 emissions by 70% compared to the previous design, and is the first airport building of its type in the UK.

And whilst we’re on the airport theme, Incheon International Airport in Korea showed its commitment to industry efforts last week by signing an agreement last week to join the Korean government-led campaign to reduce GHG emissions and improve energy efficiency in its facilities. The airport together with 11 other large companies will invest a total of $14.2 million in related equipment including LED lighting and alternative energy equipment, and have set an average target of cutting energy consumption 2.79% with final targets to be set in May. It is estimated that the project could have an effect of saving energy equivalent to 8,000 tons of oil, and cut related costs by 5 billion won per year.

The picture above shows Neil Robinson and Penny Coates (Managing Director) of East Midlands Airport in the UK  planting the first seedlings in a new willow tree plantation - the first in a UK airport. These trees will be used as a sustainable source of fuel to power a bio-mass boiler which will heat their terminal and the airport reckons that it will reduce carbon emissions by 350 tonnes from its current fuel source. The 26-acre willow farm will be complete by 2013 and the trees will be grown in rotation to ensure a continuous supply.

This is certainly not the first carbon-reduction project from East Midlands Airport - it was the first airport in the UK to commit to carbon neutrality and is one of the launch participants in the ACI Europe Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. It has also gained consent to build a set of wind turbines at the airport which will generate up to 10% of the airport's electricity needs.

Another project undertaken last year saw the first six month trial of an airport passenger transfer bus powered by liquid biomethane fuel, a carbon neutral fuel. The bus uses gas produced by the decomposition of biomass (ie. organic waste, such as food byproducts) which is created by extracting the natural gas produced by biomass in landfill or by digestion of the biomass byproducts of industries, such as food manufacture and retail.

Neil Robinson, who is the airport's Director of Sustainability, explains the business case behind these projects in the following video:

Heathrow airport has been working on their latest initiative designed to cut emissions at the same time as improving the comfort and convenience at the airport. This initiative comes in the form of the Urban Light Transport (ULTra) – “a personal rapid transit” system in the form of driverless, electrically-powered "taxi pods" which transport people and their luggage to Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5. The ULTra taxi pods run on their own infrastructure, similar to that of a monorail system and have impressive environmental credentials, offering low emissions, a high level of service, efficient use of space and good value for money. But they do not only sound like something from the future, they actually look like something from a science fiction film. The idea being, to a certain extent, that if the ULTra is going to be around for years to come, its design will have to withstand the test of time!!

Elsewhere at Swansea University scientists have been researching into the aviation fuel of the future – microalgae. These scientists are undertaking a project using algae to create oil from seaweed, and have found that one particular type of algae, a microalgae named Botryococcus braunii algae, can produce particularly high levels of oil – around 50 to 140 tonnes of oil per hectare, compared to biofuel ethanol, which produces about 0.2 tonnes of oil equivalent, and rapeseed which generates around 1.2 tonnes. They are hoping that with their developments, the commercialization of biofuel across Wales will pick-up, especially as businesses become increasingly aware of the problems of relying on our resources of fossil fuels which are rapidly running-out and are known to contribute substantially to global warming.

And finally, to the air traffic management of the future… at ATC Global in Amsterdam on Wednesday, the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) presented results from the European flight demonstrations performed in the framework of the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE). The AIRE project looked at inexpensive ways in which airlines, airports and aviation regulators in the U.S. and Europe can cut fuel consumption, carbon emissions and flight times by cooperating more effectively on air traffic management. Whilst undertaking this project, which was designed essentially to test the feasibility of implementing such procedures, engineers were also able to measure concrete fuel and CO2 savings from these procedures. And the results…? Pretty promising! The improvements show savings of more than 400 tons of CO2 on the test flights, which is about the equivalent of the annual CO2 emission of 100 passenger cars!

Today's Guest Blogger is Tom Budd, a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Tom is completing a PhD thesis investigating future strategies for reducing the environmental impact of surface access travel to UK airports.

The aviation industry cannot be accused of resting on its laurels when it comes to its environmental responsibility. In recent years there have been notable and important advances in areas such as alternative fuels and airframe design. While these technologies may prove invaluable in securing the environmental sustainability of air travel in the medium to long term, their potential for significant emissions cuts in the short term are limited.

One area where emissions cuts are perhaps more feasible is airport surface access;, the means by which people access/egress airports by ground transportation. However, there is still much work to be done. Perhaps most notably there is an urgent need to reduce the share of journeys made by private car.

In the UK, for example, private car trips currently dominate the share of surface access journeys to airports. Passengers may have heavy luggage with them that can be difficult to take on public transport. It is also commonplace for passengers to be dropped off and picked up at the airport terminal by friends or relatives. This is especially environmentally intensive as four journeys are made to the airport instead of two had the passenger driven themselves. Should this pattern continue, it is likely that forecasted growth in UK air travel will result in raised levels of traffic congestion on airport roads, local noise and air pollution and increased climate change emissions.

It is not all doom and gloom however. For example, dedicated rail links at airports such as Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo-Garmeon have increased public transport access to these airports in recent years. In the UK, the opening of rail stations at Luton Airport Parkway and East Midlands Parkway has encouraged rail access to Luton Airport and East Midlands airport respectively. The majority of airports are connected to local bus services, but it is vital that they are regular, reliable and suitable for transporting luggage and serve a suitable geographical area.

In addition, airport operators have an important role to play in encouraging sustainable employee access. Travel Cards offering reduced fares on public transport for employees, car sharing schemes, interest free loans to purchase bicycles and other similar initiatives are in operation at some UK airports.

Significant short term reductions in surface access emissions are a very real and achievable goal. However, it is vital that airport operators work closely with local authorities, governments and other decision makers to ensure there are genuine, viable alternatives to the private car when it comes to accessing airports. Passengers, on the other hand, must quickly realise that the environmental impacts of their journey are not confined to the duration of the flight, but start from the moment they leave their front door.

This week the aviation industry has had its focus on developing alternative energy both on the ground and in the air. East Midlands Airport announced plans to have four giant wind turbines built by the end of this year, which will be used to generate electricity for the airport. The turbines will generate 900 kilowatt hours of electricity – without any emissions to pollute the environment – which is enough to cover about 10% of the airport's energy needs. This project is part of a wider plan to make the airport's ground operations carbon neutral.

Airports in the US, in Texas, Dallas, Las Vegas and Houston, have the same goal of carbon neutrality, but are concentrating on a different initiative to take them there. Working together with Clean Energy Fuels, the airports have all set up major new airport compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling business. At these airports, Clean Energy will build a public access CNG fueling stations which will support the growing fleets of off-airport parking shuttle fleets, on-airport courtesy shuttle vehicles as well as taxis and private CNG fleet vehicles.

A new report has been published which outlines various case studies looking at the efforts that have been made over the past years by airports aimed at cutting emissions and improving efficiency… just so they know their efforts are not being ignored!

This week has also seen a major announcement from Qatar Airways, Qatar Science & Technology Park and Qatar Petroleum, with the support of Airbus. These companies are to jointly develop production of an alternative fuel for aircraft. Following a feasibility study into bio fuel seven months ago, the initiative now establishes the Qatar Advanced Biofuel Platform to develop the fuel. Initially Qatar Airways will be a dedicated end-user, but there is a view to opening the production out to other airlines and companies. Yet whilst deals are being struck on the ground, it is not without movement in the air - this initiative comes just months after Qatar Airways completed the world's first commercial flight powered by a Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) fuel blend. And again, efforts are not unnoticed - even Qatar's deputy premier Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah has shown excitement over the “tremendous” prospects this work has shown!

And there’s one more… monthly magazine Air Transport World selected Air New Zealand as its Airline of the Year for 2010. As well as recognition for its commitment to safety and operational excellence, the airline was specifically praised for its environmental initiatives, including conducting the world's first sustainable biofuel flight. While they are not doing it for the praise of awards, it does go to show that being an environmental leader is recognised.