Airport operators across the country and around the world have embraced sustainability and are implementing programs or initiatives at their facilities. Along with benefiting their communities and the environment, airports are finding that sustainability makes good business sense. Airports that have adopted sustainable practices have found substantial benefits including reduced capital asset life cycle costs, reduced operating costs, better customer service and satisfaction, and enhanced relationships with their neighbors.

An airport operator’s decision to undertake a sustainability program may be the result of numerous factors. One leading factor is new federal, state and local directives that require public agencies to become more sustainable. These laws and ordinances direct these public agencies, including airports, to develop sustainability programs or incorporate sustainable practices into their development projects and operations.

A number of airport operators have also undertaken sustainability programs because the airport’s management simply believes it is the right thing to do. Certainly, airports play a vital role in the movement of passengers and goods, but future growth in airport operations and air travel will have the potential to adversely affect the environment and the surrounding community. While airports are already subject to an array of environmental regulations, operators are going beyond regulatory compliance to proactively improve their environmental performance. Airports are also using sustainability practices to meet economic and/or social goals that will mitigate and perhaps benefit the surrounding community and other stakeholders.

Overall, specific factors that are driving airport operators to become sustainable include:

• Worldwide awareness and a global economy
• Airline industry financial pressures
• Rising energy costs
• Green and environmental mandates
• Resource conservation
• Aging infrastructure
• Facility lifecycle costs
• Enabling technologies

Although many airports have not undertaken formal sustainability programs, many have existing activities or programs that fall within the sustainability realm. Examples include “Buy Local”, “Recycling”, or “Stockpile and Reuse Construction Materials”. These are common sense activities that fall under a definition of sustainability once they are appropriately documented and tracked. Identifying these existing activities may assist in building the support and buy-in an airport will need to launch a sustainability program.