An appraisal of setting environmental strategy for airports and a case study of their contribution to global warming from Turkey

Aviation is a rapidly growing sector as the world economy has grown. Transportation of passenger and freight is increasing continuously, making air travel the fastest growing sector amongst all transportation types. The global air transportation system has economic and social benefits, while simultaneously environmental impacts are created. Mitigation of environmental affect to the environment is becoming a major challenge in this century. In addition, progress on noise reduction is also an important environmental issue. Carbon footprint of airports has been managed by Airport Council International (ACI) with the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) program. The program assesses and recognizes the efforts of airports to manage and reduce their carbon emissions with four levels of certification: 'Mapping', 'Reduction', 'Optimization' & 'Neutrality'. Carbon footprint has to be calculated, reported and independently verified in accordance with ISO14064 Green House Gas Accounting Standard. The definitions of emissions footprints used by Airport Carbon Accreditation follow the principles of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) ?Greenhouse Gas Protocol? Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. The carbon footprint calculations were made by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) worksheets. In this thesis international aviation organizations and international aviation standards were evaluated as a review. International aviation standards were evaluated related to environmental issues of airports. The basic principles of the carbon footprint calculation of Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport International Terminal were studied. Direct and indirect emission sources related data were collected and were entered to the GHG Protocol worksheets. The verification was made according to the ISO 14064 standard for level 1- mapping level. The carbon footprint calculations were made for aircrafts B738, A319 and A320 with several assumptions. These types of aircrafts were the first 3 types that are obtained from the statistical air traffic data for 2007 to 2010. Keywords: Aviation standards, sustainability, airport, carbon footprint