Manchester Airport gets Carbon Trust award
21.02.09
Manchester Airport has become the first UK airport to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard, in recognition of its work to reduce carbon emissions. An independent third-party made the assessment based on evidence provided by the airport. It is one of just 66 organisations to have met the assessment criteria.
The Carbon Trust was set-up in 2001 by the Government as an independent company to accelerate the move to a low-carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce their emissions. The Carbon Trust Standard certifies that an organisation has genuinely reduced its carbon footprint and is committed to making further reductions year on year.
In order to achieve the standard, Manchester Airport had to demonstrate how it measured carbon emissions, what management it had in place to oversee it and how much it had reduced emissions by. Its environmental plan has set a target of being carbon neutral by 2015.
The airport had an absolute reduction of 6 percent in 2007/08 compared with the average of the previous two years. However, the carbon measurements do not include planes once they have taken off. Carbon-reduction measures taken include turning off lights and escalators when they are not being used and using low-emission vehicles around the airport.
About 60 percent of its carbon emissions currently come from passengers and employees travelling to the airport. Staff travel surveys shows that the number of staff driving to work on their own reduced by just 2 percent to 68 percent in the year to June 2008. In total, 79 per cent of airport employees use the car to get to work - either alone, as a passenger or with a passenger - compared with 80 percent in the previous year.
Environmental campaigners point out that airport expansion will add more emissions in the long run, and until the measures include emissions from planes, the achievements are insignificant.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
To book manchester airport hotels or manchester airport parking at the lowest price, click on these links to two great Manchester airport car parking and Manchester airport hotel price comparison pages.
