Birmingham Airport (BHX) is more than a third of its way to becoming a net-zero-carbon operation.
In April the company published its carbon roadmap setting out its plan to become a net-zero-carbon airport by 2033. According to data revealed today, the Midlands transport hub was 37% of the way to this goal in December 2022.
Decarbonisation wins in the 2022/23 financial year include BHX reducing its on-site gas and electricity consumption by 18% compared to 2019/20. Coupled with efforts by the national power grid to move to greener operations, this cut in energy use led to a 34% drop in greenhouse emissions at BHX against its 2019/20 benchmark.
Other contributions to this year’s progress include closer monitoring of energy use, energy-saving behaviour by BHX staff, replacing traditional lights with low-energy LEDs and optimising temperature-control systems. In the list of steps for next year and beyond at BHX: moving high-mast lighting to LEDs, investment in solar power, smart metering and beginning to transition from gas to electric heating.
Tom Denton, head of sustainability for BHX, said: “We are pleased with our progress so far but by no means complacent. Back in April when we first publicly committed to our aim of hitting net zero by 2033, we said the first two thirds of this journey would be relatively straightforward.
“The final third is where the real challenge lies. We want to do this the right way. We want achieve net zero by implementing low-carbon alternatives with minimal use of offsetting.
“It’s likely we’ll need to use technology not yet invented to make it to our goal. Failure is not an option when it comes to protecting the future of our planet.”
