Within the last 10 years, sustainability has become a key goal in airport infrastructure development. But do we understand well enough what truly defines a sustainable terminal? On the level of technical solutions, the answer seems easy: the more solutions for sustainability you implement, the better. But once you start to look from a more holistic viewpoint, it gets more challenging.
This article gives, in its first part, an overview of today’s state-of-the-art methods in sustainable airport terminal planning by using examples of some of my recent projects. In the second part, it reflects on what could be the “strategic blind spots” on the topic and looks at some ideas on how to improve this.
Current methods for sustainable terminal planning
Current methods can be divided into three major stages: Planning, Construction and Operation. The overall goals are:
- Planning phase: Implementing as many sustainability measures as possible, understanding their impact through analysis and simulation, keeping a balance between sustainability and other goals in the project.
- Construction phase: Low CO₂ emissions from the building materials used, their sourcing and logistics (e.g. transport distances).
- Operation phase: Low energy consumption of the building and clean sources of used energy (e.g. solar, wind, or geothermal energy).
Sustainability starts already in Master Planning
The foundation of a sustainable airport starts already in Master Planning. When we planned Noida International Airport as a greenfield project, for example, the land plot was agricultural land combined with a surprisingly large tree population. The environmental planning needed to come up with a holistic solution and balance the interests of the people living there, the larger society and the airport. This included:
- The land plot for the airport’s first stage was chosen relatively compact (which also keeps initial CAPEX low).
- As much as possible of the airport area was kept green, and 1,800 trees of 68 different species were transplanted within the airport perimeter and thus preserved.
- Sustainability was already an important part of the initial airport strategy. For example, solar energy was contracted at a very early stage and the airport also decided from the very beginning to invest in a large e-charging infrastructure for ground handling vehicles.
- A significant amount of concrete was saved by not building a classic elevated curb.
- On a larger scale, a metro rail link to the centre of New Delhi and a future high-speed railway station were planned.
Especially the topic of sustainable airport access cannot be stressed enough: imagine how much CO₂ is saved at Zurich airport due to the fact that 58% of all local passengers arrive at the airport by public transport instead of using a car or a taxi! In 2024, ZRH was used by roughly 22 million local passengers. Assuming that on average two people share a car, about 6.4 million car rides are saved per year, equivalent to 17,000 rides per day!
Sustainable building planning – “Dock A” terminal project at Zurich Airport
This is the project I am currently working on as a client representative. We are at the scheme design planning stage. It is an amazing showcase for what is possible nowadays in sustainability and includes:
- Most of the overground structure will be built in timber, which saves a large amount of CO₂ compared to a steel or concrete structure. Besides that, due to its low weight, the timber structure also allows us to cantilever the concourse on both sides of the building about 14 meters over the service roads.
- The building envelope is planned to be highly energy efficient.
- Extensive building physics simulation is used to optimise the whole system.
- Almost the whole roof is covered by solar panels.
- All contact aircraft stands are provided with PCA systems (preconditioned air for the aircraft air-conditioning system). The heating and cooling system for the PCA is connected to an airport-wide energy hub and energy is stored and harnessed by borehole heat exchangers under the building.
- A major part of ground handling will be changed to electric vehicles, therefore the building is equipped with more than 70 charging points.
- The building will be LEED certified.
Sustainability during terminal operation
Once a terminal is built and goes into operation, the focus should be on three topics:
- Clean sources of used energy. In many existing terminal buildings, the externally purchased energy (for example gas or even coal) is the main source of CO₂. Most airports have the advantage of being able to install large areas of solar panels on their property. Frankfurt Airport, for example, recently inaugurated a new photovoltaic system along Runway 18 West. The installation comprises 37,000 vertically-aligned solar modules, generating up to 17.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. This not only means that energy costs will drop, it also ideally matches the fact that even in colder areas in Europe most modern airport terminals do not need heating energy anymore. Cooling energy, on the other hand, is needed in hot periods when solar is also able to deliver.
- Keeping energy consumption as low as possible, which mainly means establishing a smart and fast-reacting control system. The solution should allow the building to be cooled or heated only in periods and areas currently needed.
- Proper maintenance of MEP systems
The strategic blind spots
Let’s assume you have applied all the described state-of-the-art methods in your airport terminal project. How do you know how “sustainable” you are now? Some people may say a certain certification level (LEED Gold, for example) will give you the proof. For others, including myself, the question remains: how sustainable are we really?
Action follows awareness
Although all airports around the world would benefit from it, there is a surprisingly small amount of comparative information on the energy consumption of terminal buildings.
Even worse, many airports do not even have precise information about the energy consumption of their own buildings over the past ten years. Or the data exists within specialist departments, but it is not sufficiently processed and communicated.
Awareness is the basis of human reaction. Therefore, energy consumption per passenger should be transparently displayed in terminals. This would encourage both individuals and organisations to support more sustainable behaviours and energy-saving initiatives.
On top, airports should be rewarded by governments for energy efficiency (for example, through tax reductions), as they are in some countries for noise reduction.
Choosing the right metric
In one of my previous terminal planning projects, the energy consumption per square metre was reduced by 50% compared to the existing terminal buildings of this airport. At first glance, this looks like a major sustainability success.
However, the new building is more than twice the size of its predecessor. Not only due to a larger passenger capacity, but also because it offers greater comfort. On top of that, it has significantly more glass façades which increases cooling demand. As a result, the total energy consumption per year remained almost the same, raising the question: is the new building now really more sustainable?
The example highlights that sustainability assessments depend heavily on the chosen metric. While energy use per square metre is commonly used, I believe energy consumption per passenger would be a more meaningful measure, because the societal purpose of an airport is to transport passengers.
From this perspective, suddenly an older and overcrowded terminal could be more energy-efficient per passenger than a newer, more spacious one.
New terminal projects aim to achieve both greater passenger comfort (which usually requires more space) and improved sustainability. However, these goals may conflict, which needs a clear strategic decision, choosing between:
- Improving comfort and accepting higher energy use per passenger
- Deliberately building a smaller terminal and compromising passenger comfort
- Increasing efficiency (serving more passengers within the same space and comfort level)
The third solution sounds the most promising, though also the most difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, I believe this is where we should focus our efforts in airport development.
Sustainability beyond technology
At the end of the day, sustainability isn’t just using new technology, it’s about:
- Becoming aware of strategic goals. What does “sustainable” really mean for our airport and the specific building project?
- Increasing overall efficiency of the airport system, even if this means that we need a shift in behaviours and culture.
- Becoming aware of the actual energy consumption and CO₂ pollution.
I’d love to hear your views.
