Dublin Airport has been officially designated as a carbon-neutral airport by the Airport Environmental Accreditation Program.
Dublin Airport is the first airport in Ireland to achieve carbon neutrality following an extensive program of activities to reduce and offset its carbon emissions in recent years.
The airport reduced its carbon footprint by 12% between 2018 and 2019 and reduced its overall carbon emissions by 25% between 2013 and 2019, despite a 63% increase in passenger numbers over the same period.
In recent years, Dublin Airport has introduced a wide range of energy management measures that enable it to control and improve its overall energy consumption across the campus. The use of building management systems, the installation of efficient LED lighting, a solar farm pilot project and a range of other measures have enabled the airport to significantly reduce its overall energy consumption.
Vincent Harrison, Managing Director of Dublin Airport said :
Dublin Airport is committed to minimising its impact on the environment and achieving carbon neutrality is an extremely important step on this journey. We have been working tirelessly to reduce the amount of energy we have been using at the airport for many years and we are very pleased with the official recognition of our carbon neutral status. But carbon neutrality is not enough. We need to go much further, and we are determined to do so. We plan to reduce our overall energy consumption by a further 30 percent by 2030 and are committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest.
Dublin Airport committed last year, along with nearly 200 other European airports, to achieving zero carbon by 2050, a major milestone for the airport sector. The 2050 deadline has been aligned with the decarbonisation strategy defined by the European Commission and adopted by the Council of the European Union.
Dublin Airport's future plans include moving its entire fleet of light vehicles to low emission vehicles (LEVs) by 2024 and the construction of a second solar farm on campus, with the potential to generate up to 7.5 megawatts of power.
Dublin Airport has been officially designated carbon neutral by the Global Airport Carbon Accreditation Program, a global airport carbon management certification program. This program independently evaluates and recognizes airports' efforts to manage and reduce their carbon emissions.
