Adelaide Airport first to reach carbon neutral
Friday December 20, 2024
Adelaide Airport has become the first major airport in Australia to reach carbon neutrality.
The airport has already reduced its carbon emissions by close to 90 per cent since 2018 through improved energy efficiency, increased onsite renewables, and other activities including purchasing 100 per cent renewable energy from a local windfarm.
Adelaide Airport has now achieved the carbon neutral milestone after entering an agreement to
purchase certified Australian Carbon Credit Units from a land regeneration project in South Australia’s Gawler Ranges, through Canopy – part of Greening Australia. The credits will offset residual Scope 1 carbon emissions in 2024/25 which relate to the use of gas in the terminal and fuel in operational vehicles, with these offsets being an interim measure while the airport delivers its plans to convert gas plant in the terminal to electric as part of upcoming asset replacement cycles and replaces its remaining fleet vehicles with hybrid or electric alternatives.
Adelaide Airport’s Scope 2 emissions which relate to the use of electricity were eliminated from 1 January 2024 through its renewable energy agreement.
Managing Director, Brenton Cox, said Adelaide Airport still had a long way to go on its overall sustainability journey but this was a proud achievement following several years of work to develop and implement its decarbonisation strategy.
“Our strategy has focussed on seeking to reduce carbon intensity through upgrading to more
efficient alternatives, increasing onsite renewable energy generation, and supporting renewable
energy projects in South Australia through the airport’s electricity contract,” Mr Cox said.“Adelaide Airport is targeting a 100 per cent reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We are pleased to have achieved our scope 1 and 2 target ahead of our 2030 timeframe but there is still a long way to go to achieve our net zero ambitions which includes emissions from flights to and from Adelaide.
“Development and use of sustainable aviation fuel is critical to achieving net zero, and in November we joined with the South Australian Government, Zero Petroleum and Qantas to assess the development of a low-carbon sustainable aviation fuel production facility ‘Plant Zero.SA’ in Whyalla.
“Other recent Adelaide Airport initiatives have included upgrading lighting including LED across our terminal and runways precincts, and optimising our plant and equipment to reduce energy usage and emissions.”
Adelaide Airport is also nearing completion of the installation of more than 3,700 solar panels on the domestic and international terminal roof – close to tripling the size of our existing solar system. All of Adelaide Airport’s electricity already comes from renewable sources generated by a combination of on-site solar and Iberdrola’s Lake Bonney wind farms in South Australia.
