Christchurch Airport Becomes Carbon Neutral

Christchurch International Airport, in New Zealand's South Island, is the first Southern Hemisphere gateway to become carbon-neutral. Its role as the South Island's leading gateway for international tourism and New Zealand's reputation for environmental responsiblity made the decision to achieve carbon-neutral status an easy one for the airport's operator. Credit: Christchurch International Airport Ltd.

New Zealand’s Christchurch International Airport is the first gateway in the Southern Hemisphere to achieve carbon-neutral certification.

It is generally accepted that the aviation industry contributes somewhere in the realm of 2 to 3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. While these emissions are predominantly caused by the operation of aircraft, the emissions generated by airport operations also contribute to this total through the likes of airport company corporate operations, airfield and infrastructure maintenance, terminal building operations, and building construction.

Particularly in Europe and the UK, a groundswell of environmentally conscious opinion is beginning to be felt by those in the tourism and aviation industries. Driven by this public sentiment, tourists are beginning to consider the carbon footprints they generate by travelling outside of their region, and schemes such as airline carbon-offsetting programmes are beginning to take hold.

While airlines are beginning to play a significant role in addressing and tackling their emissions, airports themselves are in a position to contribute positively by working towards a carbon-neutral status. Christchurch International Airport Ltd (CIAL), the airport company managing the main gateway airport for New Zealand’s South Island, has recently had all airport company operations certified as carbon neutral, reports Airport World.

CIAL's chief executive, Rene Bakx, said the company’s focus on tourism and sustainability meant that the decision to attain carbon neutral status was a straightforward one.

“We firmly believe it is imperative that New Zealand takes a leadership role in addressing global warming," said Bakx. "CIAL’s commitment to sustainability and environmental management reinforces our contribution to New Zealand’s positioning as ‘100 Percent Pure’, which we see as crucial in growing the South Island tourism market.”

CIAL believes that the airport’s carbon-neutral status will assist tourists in their decision-making when considering New Zealand’s South Island as their next holiday destination.

CIAL has followed a detailed measurement and analysis process, through the carboNZero programme of Landcare Research, a Crown Research Institute. This certification process has seen the airport company measuring, managing, and further reducing and mitigating, the greenhouse gas emissions arising from its operational business activities.

To achieve the carbon neutral certification, CIAL has worked through a staged process requiring the measurement of the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases produced by the airport company operations.

Emissions inventory and reduction plan

From these measurements an emissions inventory was developed, which the Company will review and update annually. CIAL then developed an emissions reduction plan to manage the company’s emissions, and contracted external auditors to audit the emissions inventory and the Emissions Reduction Plan.

Some of the initiatives CIAL has introduced to reduce emissions include the use of building management systems to maximise energy efficiency in the terminal building, recycling asphalt in the runway maintenance programme, conversion of heating systems from diesel to LPG, investment in stormwater management systems to safeguard groundwater quality, and planting and landscaping policies that consider water conservation, amongst others.

The design of CIAL’s new Integrated (domestic and international) Terminal incorporates several environmentally sustainable design features, the most unique and beneficial of which is the use of artesian water directly from the aquifer below the Canterbury Plains for cooling, as a heat sink for heat rejection when mechanically cooling, and a heat source for heating.

This, coupled with efficient water cooled chillers, will produce both the chilled water for cooling and the low-temperature hot water for heating. As heat is produced as part of the process of mechanical cooling, heat can be moved from an area requiring cooling to an area requiring heating, and vice versa.

These modes of operation make the use of artesian water for heating and cooling the building highly efficient and greatly reduces the electricity consumption that would otherwise be required.

Any remaining emissions which cannot be reduced have been mitigated through the purchase of a combination of windfarm, native forest regeneration and landfill gas recovery credits, all earned from New Zealand-based programmes.

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