Kermit was right—it’s not easy being green. We were seeing the first signs of the impacts of climate change when I gave an address at the AAAE/ACC Airport Planning and Design Symposium in early 2004. My goal was to communicate the growing importance of sustainability in the aviation industry. The audience was polite but not did not see it as a call to action. Twenty years later, one cannot read a magazine or listen to a news report when climate change and sustainability are not featured. The issues are especially pressing for airport operators, airlines and the traveling public.
With my new moniker of “on-call aviation consultant,” I’ve been reflecting just how far our industry has come and how lucky I’ve been to be at the forefront of the movement—from brainstorming with the ACI-NA Environmental Affairs Committee as we crafted the industry definition of Airport Sustainability, to working closely with other consultants and airport representatives to compile a list of hundreds of proven sustainability initiatives for the Sustainable Aviation Guidance Alliance (SAGA) resource. A real highlight was preparing the first sustainability management plans for Northeast Florida Regional Airport and Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport, which became the role models for the FAA’s Sustainability Management Plan funding programming in 2010. More than 44 airports prepared these plans, and I was honored to be involved with almost half of them.
Carol Lurie, AICP, LEED AP, ENV SP, served as VHB’s Airport Sustainability lead for more than 35 years. She chaired the Airport Consultants Council, served on the ACI- Environmental Affairs Steering Committee for many years, and participated in AAAE and TRB committees. Lurie helped develop 17 airport sustainability plans and served as a principal investigator and contributor on several ACRP publications about sustainability. |
Many of the efforts we undertook while preparing those plans remain etched in my memory. I recall the major waste audit (fondly known as dumpster diving) we held at Boston Logan International Airport, when staff courageously picked through trash collected from terminals and offices, grimaces on faces as they weighed and categorized the airport’s waste stream. As smelly and unpleasant as that task was, it helped us garner an understanding of the challenges operators and concessionaires face when recycling items such as pallets and composting organic products in an airport setting. And then there was the time we explored airside at Salt Lake International and learned how the airport minimized emissions from truck trips during construction by keeping demolition materials on site in carefully categorized piles awaiting reuse. The resulting airport sustainability management plans laid the groundwork for airports to prepare for the impacts of climate change and become more resilient.
Fast forward a decade, and many airports are focusing their sustainability efforts on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the other side of climate change coin. No longer is it enough to be sustainable; airports are signing on to ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Program to publicly declare their pledge to reduce GHGs through both bold and modest sustainability initiatives. Airports across the nation, and indeed the world, are making commitments to reduce their GHG/carbon emissions to net zero for activities under their control.
I’m part of the team implementing the Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Roadmap for a major East Coast airport. We’ve met with more than 30 departments to make the Net Zero goal vivid and real for individuals in their daily work. I’ve been struck by how informed and passionate many airport staff are on the topic—a far cry from the early days when being green or sustainable was seen as an unnecessary added cost. While we promoted the importance of encouraging the use of electric vehicles by passengers and rideshare services, we learned from the Airport Fire Department about preparing for the potential fire hazards of storing electric vehicles and bikes indoors. You should have heard the whoops as operations staff proudly took us for a super-fast ride in a new electric Ford 150 truck that accelerated from 0 to 60 mph in mere seconds! We developed an internal educational curriculum about sustainability and launched the “Net Zero Hero” program, which allows airport staff to recognize the green efforts of their colleagues.
Airports have an opportunity to make a major contribution in tackling the climate challenge of our generation, so it’s gratifying to see sustainability, resilience and GHG reduction becoming mainstream topics in our industry. Aviation’s premier sustainability conference, Airports Going Green, is no longer just attended by airport staff, environmental consultants and regulators. It’s now a showcase of energy-efficient HVAC suppliers, renewable energy providers and electric vehicle vendors—evidence that airports are seen as leaders in the field and great test beds for innovation. I am hopeful that soon we will see deployment of sustainable aviation fuel across North America, and the renewable energy industry will find creative solutions to power all those vehicles and equipment we are converting to electricity.
The next grand new innovation is just around the corner. I am grateful to have been present at the very start of our industry’s green transformation and look forward to the progress the next generation of airport professionals will dazzle us with.
