carbon-neu-tral growth by 2020, we embarked on an in-depth, Group-wide carbon reduction program in 2009, complete with awareness- raising initiatives for employees. Between 2009 and 2010 alone, we expect to avoid more than 11,400 tons of carbon emissions.
Systematic carbon monitoring
The aim of our Group-wide carbon reduction program launched in 2009 is to help us accomplish our goal of carbon-neutral growth by 2020.
The four main action areas in our carbon manage-ment strategy are sustainable energy provisioning, efficient use of energy, sustainable building and the fostering of a greater sense of environmental responsibility among employees. These four areas offer potential carbon savings estimated at around 11,400 metric tons at Munich Airport between 2009 and 2010.
Steps to enhance the energy efficiency of our plants, installations and buildings alone will contribute a saving of around 4,900 tons. Other efforts now at the implementation stage are expected to save a further 6,500 tons.
One central element in our carbon management strategy is a carbon database which we developed and implemented during the past two years. Its pur-pose is to provide us with a central reporting, control and monitoring tool to track all our efforts aimed at cutting carbon and driving energy efficiency improve-ments. The database enables us to map emissions to sources on an accurate and equitable basis and thus identify the best possible emission-reduction measures in terms of cost and effectiveness.
Mapping emissions to sources is a complex process, given that Munich Airport’s energy supply infrastruc-ture consists of combined heat, power and cooling systems, plus additional outside power and district heat purchases. This means we had to conduct an in-depth analysis of our individual power, heating and cooling energy footprints. However, doing so has enabled us to match emissions exactly and fairly to their individual sources. Details of the methods ap-plied and the results obtained are all contained in our carbon database, where authorized users can access them over a web-based intranet application whenever they wish.
We have also developed an additional module, currently undergoing trials, that will allow us to con-tinually track whether our initiatives toward carbon-neutral growth are being implemented consistently.
In addition, it enables us to forecast future emissions based on expansion plans at Munich Airport and to compare these projected emissions against estab-lished carbon-saving initiatives. This means we are able to verify at any time whether our carbon reduc-tion plans are still on course.
In the review period, approximately 40 carbon-reduc-tion initiatives were either in progress or completed.
Our carbon manage-ment plan and action areas
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Energy and carbon management
Measures that are especially efficient are discussed in greater detail here:
> Energy efficiency
One key step toward carbon-neutral growth is to boost the efficiency of energy consumption on the airport campus – in our buildings, plants and installa-tions, in vehicle fleets (through the use of bio fuels, for example) and in our computer systems (through green IT). We are currently developing a range of energy initiatives targeting not just our administrative buildings but workplaces all over the airport:
>> Example: Terminal ventilation The ventilation sys-tems for our two terminal buildings (which together have a room volume of around three million cubic me-ters) are a big item on Munich Airport’s energy bill and a major source of energy-based emissions. A detailed analysis of how these systems operate and the air quality in the terminal buildings revealed potential car-bon savings of 3,400 tons. Slowing the air exchange rate at times of the day when there are few people in the buildings (in other words, at night when flight fre-quency is low) allows us to reduce the operating hours and power requirements of the ventilation systems’
drive motors.
>> Example: Apron lighting We have also found a way to reduce the power consumed by our apron lighting at Munich Airport: As of June 2009, we now only switch on around a quarter of the almost 3,000 floodlights that illuminate our aprons and parking stands during the hours of darkness when they are needed. The lights are controlled automatically by a computer- and timetable-driven system. The benefit: We save almost a million kilowatts of power and around 570 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
>> Example: Parking garage lighting For users’ security and convenience, we keep Munich Airport’s parking garages lit 24 hours a day. To cut the amount of power consumed, we decided to switch over to energy-efficient lighting technology.
During the last two years, we have gradually re-placed the lighting in garages P1 through P10 with more efficient fluorescent sources. This initiative is reducing our carbon output by almost 2,000 tons a year.
There are many ways to boost energy efficiency
Carbon reduction project
Carbon
management Energy provisioning
Sense of responsibility
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Two initiatives among many: Fuels made from renewable sources, and lower power consump-tion through green IT
In addition, we have fitted around 2,100 lights in ga-rage P20 with new LED lamps, which only became available in large volumes in mid-2009. These con-sume over 50 percent less power than the lamps previously installed and in 2009 enabled us to avoid more than 200 tons of carbon emissions. If LED lighting proves to be sustainable in the near term and the pricing and service life continue to improve, this technology will be the right way forward.
>> Example: The FMG vehicle fleet We are continuing efforts to switch our fleet vehicles over to alternative drive systems and fuels. Our goal is to eventually replace fuels produced from finite fossil resources with fuels from renewable sources or renewable forms of energy so as to reduce carbon emissions.
Many of our ground handling vehicles now run on fuel produced locally from vegetable oil rather than on conventional diesel. Sweepers and cargo tractors, for example, are powered with cold-pressed rape seed oil. In standard, production automobiles, we are substituting gasoline with bioethanol. By using
biogenic fuels like these, we were able to avoid more than 400 tons of vehicle carbon emissions in 2009.
We are also stepping up the use of electric-pow-ered vehicles in FMG’s fleet. By the end of 2009, a total of 176 electric vehicles – including self-pro-pelled passenger stairs, conveyor belt vehicles and tugs – were in operation at the airport, as well as 122 hybrid tow tractors. We also deployed 25 elec-tric tractors in 2009. The advantage of the purely electric-powered vehicles is that they generate zero local emissions and consume no idling fuel.
>> Example: Green IT Munich Airport has several data centers, more than 3,000 computer worksta-tions with monitors, a few hundred notebooks and printers, and a range of other equipment like dis-plays and information systems, all of which con-sume a substantial quantity of power.
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We have rolled out a range of initiatives to reduce our power consumption in this area. For example, we have successfully made the transition from using large numbers of small, local workstation printers to sharing fewer larger and more efficient multifunction devices. This has led to significant reductions in the quantities of power and paper consumed.
We are also steadily replacing older personal com-puters with newer models that require much less power, and any new computer hardware we procure has to be qualified first to ensure that it meets our energy-saving requirements. These efforts have suc-cessively brought down our power consumption from year to year, with the result that in 2009 our IT-sector carbon savings totaled 187 tons.
Other measures introduced to help save energy with office computers include making the most of new power-saving modes. We found, for example,
that a screen-saver we had been using on company computers was too energy-intensive and have since replaced it with the operating system’s own stan-dard screen saver, which is more economical.
Central IT systems commonly produce a large amount of excess heat and therefore need active cooling. To improve efficiency here, we are gradually taking steps to reduce the amount of heat gener-ated in our main data center. In 2009 we also divided the center into two areas – warm and cool – to allow it to be cooled more efficiently. This helped us to avoid roughly 209 tons of carbon.
> Energy provisioning
Our highly efficient co-generating facility at Munich Airport plays a front-line role in our efforts to reduce our overall emissions. This is a combined heat, power and cooling plant with an overall energy ef-ficiency of around 80 percent. Compared to sourcing power from the public grid, the plant enables us to
The airport’s combined heat, power and cooling plant
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avoid around 30,000 tons of carbon a year and cre-ates significant cost savings. In December 2009 we converted an absorption chiller to operate with heat pumps, a move that will save an additional 800 tons of carbon emissions annually.
In a joint initiative with local utility company Stadt-werke München and automotive fuel retailer AGIP, Flughafen München GmbH opened a biogas filling station in the airport’s public area in March 2009.
Here, besides conventional automotive fuel types, motorists can purchase natural gas that includes 20 percent biogas.
> Sustainable building
In the construction sector, FMG’s planners focus on more than just completing buildings on budget, they also look at the entire building life cycle.
Over the long term, higher creation costs at the out-set can lead to lower follow-up costs (in other words, operating expense) that make the higher initial
in-vestment worthwhile. This means that we look closely at the possibilities afforded by the architec-ture, technical systems and operating processes when planning and designing our buildings.
To underscore our commitment to sustainable growth, Flughafen München GmbH is now a full member of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB).
Going forward, FMG construction projects are to be planned and conducted in accordance with DGNB cri-teria and certified by the DGNB. To accomplish this, we have trained a number of company employees as DGNB auditors and energy consultants.
The team of in-house DGNB auditors tracks and moni-tors all key areas of sustainable construction – from environmental and economic performance to socio-cultural and functional aspects, technology, processes and siting. The conditions tied to an architectural
com-Employees work as trainers
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petition for a new children’s daycare center at the air-port Visitors’ Park, for example, are based on sustain-able building requirements. With its sustainsustain-able building strategy, Flughafen München GmbH aims to reduce carbon emissions at all its new builds by 40 percent compared to current buildings on the airport campus.
> Awareness and behavioral change
Alongside our initiatives at the technical level to conserve energy and enhance energy efficiency, we are also working to bring about behavioral change among our workforce, because their buy-in is criti-cal to reducing our carbon footprint.
We hope to reduce energy consumption and expenditure through efforts to raise awareness company-wide of the importance of protecting the environment and conserving resources. At the cen-ter of these efforts is a specially developed multi-stage training program that we intend to deliver on as large a scale as possible across all our business units. In a two-day train-the-trainers seminar during the summer of 2009, 16 company employees from various units qualified to hold our awareness-raising courses.
The course content consists of general facts and information on climate change plus a range of com-pany- and unit-specific material on resources like energy and water. One important focus is on explor-ing ways in which individuals can make a difference by helping to reduce resource consumption in their day-to-day work.
In 2010, our trainers will hold courses for cowork-ers in their own units. We are confident that our multiplier strategy in combination with extensive communications work will enable us to get our sustainability message through to all Flughafen München GmbH employees.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen e.V.
German Sustainable Building Council
Our sustainability logo used in employee communications Energy and carbon management
Environmental and climate protection