Brussels Airport continues to make impressive strides on energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. It was the second airport in Europe to achieve full implementation of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM), which has resulted in significant efficiency gains for airlines and aviation partners. It doesn’t stop there. The airport is Airport Carbon Accredited at the ‘Reduction’ level and aims to progress to level 3 – ‘Optimisation’ – by the end of this year. Most recently, it also became the first airport in the world to obtain the ISO 50001 standard for energy management, which provides organisations with a recognised framework for integrating energy performance into their management practices.
As part of its comprehensive environmental strategy, a six-month trial project involving electric cars has been launched at Brussels Airport in collaboration with Opel Belgium. The airport is using the trial to investigate the possibilities of the technology for its fleet of company cars and on-site service vehicles. Indeed, for some time now it has used electric vehicles for special operational tasks, such as forklift trucks, electric tow tractors and a sweeping machine. The airport company has a fleet totalling 325 vehicles; if 10% of those were replaced with electric vehicles, it would save tens of thousands of euro in fuel and achieve an estimated annual carbon reduction of 160 tonnes. Additionally, two charging stations will be made available to travellers with electric cars.
Arnaud Feist, CEO, The Brussels Airport Company, commented “Of course, this trial project aims to be more than a free service for users of electric and hybrid cars. In the first place, we wish to acquire both technological and economical experience. We are testing the various aspects of installing and using charging stations to provide our passengers with electricity for their car. Before checking-in, passengers can leave their car at one of our car parks to find their car fully charged on their return. Smart Grid applications will help us to deal rationally with our own electricity consumption by allowing us to charge parked electric vehicles outside of peak electricity hours.”
Another carbon reduction initiative is the planned opening of a second solar energy park by the end of the year – the first opened at the end of 2011. These are expected to supply 3% of the airport’s annual energy consumption.
But Brussels Airport’s strategy isn’t limited to itself – at time of press, the airport also made a big announcement on intermodality, empowering more passengers to lower their own carbon footprint. It officially opened the new ‘diabolo’ high speed rail (HSR) link connecting the airport to the HSR network, boosting direct access to Paris, Amsterdam, London and Cologne.
