The announcement was made at the 2019 Airport Council International (ACI) - North America (NA) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Tampa, Florida.
“We are proud to be one of the 47 airports in North America to achieve the Airport Carbon Accreditation,” said WCAA CEO Chad Newton. “The Detroit Metropolitan Airport is committed to creating a sustainable airport. By collaboratively working with our internal and external stakeholders, we continue to make strides in decreasing the airport’s impact on the environment and future generations.”
The Airport Carbon Accreditation is a carbon management certification standard for airports across the world developed by ACI Europe. The program assesses and recognizes the efforts of airports to manage and reduce their carbon emissions. There are four levels of accreditation: Mapping, Reduction, Optimization and Neutrality.
Mapping requires carbon footprint measurement by the airport. Reduction requires a reduction in the airport’s carbon footprint and a carbon management plan. Optimization builds on the first two levels and engages airport stakeholders in carbon footprint reduction. The final level, neutrality, includes the previous requirements, along with neutralizing remaining direct carbon emissions by carbon offsetting.
“We have worked for the past three years to achieve Level Three carbon accreditation,” said WCAA Sustainability Program Administrator Sara Kaplan. “We have replaced fluorescent and metal-halide light fixtures with Energy Star certified LEDs throughout the campus, installed electric vehicle charging stations and have made many improvements to our power plant. We have also constructed more energy efficient buildings, and most recently added an all-electric vehicle to our fleet. Our current runway and taxiway construction project will make our airfield operations more efficient, reducing emissions from airplanes.”
The Airport Carbon Accreditation is an independent, voluntary program sponsored by ACI Europe. The program launched in Europe in 2009 and extended to five additional regions (Asia-Pacific, Africa, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean) by 2014.