Birmingham Airport shares its sustainability credentials

Birmingham Airport actively participated in this year’s celebration of World Environment Day, giving the airport the opportunity to again raise awareness and promote actions that everyone can carry out to protect the environment.

The airport organised an action-packed itinerary for World Environment Day, which was well received and attended by the Birmingham Airport community.

Employees were invited and welcomed to visit the Sustainability Team who were on hand to inform and educate Birmingham Airport staff about their roles in reducing the impact on the environment and outlined the ways in which Birmingham Airport will achieve this. 

As part of this engagement the team launched its new video showcasing the activities and mitigation that the Airport is involved in to offset its environmental impacts https://youtu.be/k1N6kp5kdkg

The video portrays all elements of the sustainability team roles which include:

Energy and climate change: carbon management is fundamental to environmental operations, and Birmingham Airport takes a proactive approach to reducing emissions and improving environmental performance. Birmingham Airport undertakes comprehensive monitoring of the energy usage across site and works with onsite partners to reduce carbon emissions through a variety of initiatives.

Aircraft noise management: Managing the noise impact of aircraft operations on our neighbouring communities is of the greatest importance to Birmingham Airport. In order to do this, the airport operates a comprehensive noise and tracking-keeping (NTK) system. The NTK system records the track flown by all aircraft at the airport and integrates this with noise data captured from monitoring terminals in the community. This allows us to engage with our airline partners to ensure that aircraft are operated in the quietest and most fuel-efficient manner.

Air Quality Monitoring: Birmingham Airport measures, monitors and reports on ambient air quality levels through a dedicated air quality monitoring station located on the airfield. This station provides continuous on-site monitoring of particulate matter (PM10), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3). All of the data recorded is freely available to the public on the Air Quality England website.

Surface Water Quality: Birmingham Airport has a commitment to the maintenance and improvement of the surface water drainage systems to ensure that we protect and where possible enhance the local watercourses that run through the site. Birmingham Airport ensures that the water is protected from any pollution associated with its activities and has a 24 hour flood and pollution control system to further protect the watercourses.

Minimising waste and recycling: Active steps are taken to ensure that the amount of waste produced at the airport is reduced to a minimum and that waste is recycled where possible. To help achieve this, waste is dealt with through Birmingham Airports own Integrated Waste Management Centre, with in-house initiatives implemented to encourage staff to segregate correctly and actively participate in recycling schemes. A plastic reduction policy and strategy is also in place aimed to reduce the amount of plastic used onsite.

Kirstin Kane, head of sustainability of Birmingham Airport said: “We have a very focused sustainability team and are clear on our responsibility to protect the environment.  Our sustainability team’s mission is to ensure that our services and operations, where they have an impact on the local, regional and global environment, are minimised.

“It was great to see many people from the airport community meet and engage with our team and learn about our ongoing environmental plans to mitigate the airport’s impact on the environment. This includes how we reduce the carbon footprint, minimise single use plastics, keep our watercourses clean, manage noise pollution and improve our recycling efforts.

“On a site that supports jobs for 8000 people, we want to inform them of the work we’re doing to reduce our impact and to show them ways to live more sustainably - both at work and at home - to make a cleaner and safer environment.”