National Academies Press: OpenBook

Airport Sustainability Practices (2016)

Chapter: Chapter One - Introduction

« Previous: Summary
Page 3
Suggested Citation:"Chapter One - Introduction ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Airport Sustainability Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23644.
×
Page 3
Page 4
Suggested Citation:"Chapter One - Introduction ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Airport Sustainability Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23644.
×
Page 4

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

3 The objective of this synthesis is to compile information about airport sustainability practices, high- lighting 10 case examples that have been previously unreported and presenting them in a readily accessible fashion; and submitting them to the Sustainable Aviation Guidance Alliance (SAGA) website (www.airportsustainability.org). The case examples are intended to be presented in a manner that will promote continued and enhanced utility of the website. Originally, the intended audience for this synthesis was perceived to be airport sustainability spe- cialists, as well as maintenance, operations, planners, designers, asset managers, procurement, legal, and other staff. However, the audience for the SAGA website is more expansive, and that this report may be useful to a broader audience as well. SCOPE OF STUDY Since the early 2000s, airport sustainability has evolved considerably, and sustainability is no longer a consideration for only the larger, more resource-rich airports. Airports of all sizes and locations are pursuing sustainability initiatives, and in response to this evolution, a coalition of aviation professionals developed the SAGA website in 2008 by to assist airport operators in developing sustainability pro- grams. Whether creating green construction guidelines or developing airport sustainability plans, air- port sustainability practitioners recognized the frequent overlap and duplication of their efforts. SAGA was founded to pool resources and create consistent, comprehensive, and consensus-based sustainability resources that would be available to all airports. SAGA offers the following definition of sustainability: Most definitions of sustainability are founded in the principles set forth in the Triple Bottom Line (environmental stewardship, economic growth, and social responsibility). The airport industry, in particular, has adopted the “EONS” approach to sustainability (economic vitality, operational efficiency, natural resources, social respon- sibility), which expands the concept of the Triple Bottom Line by emphasizing operational efficiency. Apply- ing the Triple Bottom Line and EONS means that we measure our success not only by the traditional financial bottom line, but also by our achievements in stimulating economic growth, protecting the environment and our natural resources, being good corporate citizens, and efficiently operating our facilities. SAGA’s goal is to consolidate existing information about sustainability, including introductory material on what sustainability is and how it is applied at airports; processes for planning and main- taining sustainability programs; sustainable design and construction; and sustainable operations and maintenance practices. The website contains entries on more than 900 sustainability practices that were developed by SAGA’s initial stakeholder group, but suffers from a lack of actual practice data. This synthesis is not intended to serve as a compendium of research related to airport sustainability, as a large body of work already exists to serve this purpose; rather, the data compiled through this research provides a high-level overview of the practices in alignment with other practices already documented on the SAGA website. The scope of this study included the following tasks: • Reviewing scope of work with research panel and identifying potential airport practices to include in synthesis; chapter one INTRODUCTION

4 • Conducting literature and SAGA review, and if necessary, conducting survey to identify new airport sustainability practice; • Conducting initial outreach to select most appropriate case examples; • Collecting information through interviews and investigating sustainability practice data for at least 10 diverse airport sustainability practices not previously included in the SAGA database; • Entering practices data into the SAGA database through collaboration with airport practitioners; • Interviewing practitioners about their experience in collecting and reporting information on the SAGA database using a survey supplied by the ACRP 02-30: Enhancing the Airport- Industry SAGA Website research team, which is also available on the SAGA website in the “Give Feedback” section. METHODOLOGY Sustainability Practice and Case Example Selection The project objective included capturing data relative to airport sustainability practices that had yet to be included on the SAGA website. The project panel suggested that the types of sustainability practices and case examples demonstrate “big impact” projects that respond to broad sustainability themes, such as climate change and sustainability management; and emerging topics of increasing relevance, such as social responsibility, about which little guidance currently exists and which represent a range of sustainability topic areas. It also recommended that the case examples be diverse regarding airport size, geography, and operational structure, and include at least one cold-weather example practice; and generate participation from airports that are not regularly highlighted in ACRP-sponsored or other airport sustainability research initiatives. Finally, the panel indicated that it is important that practices and case examples reach beyond the airport sector. Given the panel’s criteria regarding the selection of desired sustainability practices and case exam- ples, options were somewhat limited. The highlighted practices were ultimately chosen based on the case example subjects’ availability and willingness to participate in this project, and on the document- able progress of their initiatives. Data Collection, Input, and User Feedback Upon selection of the practices and case to be included in this synthesis, a survey was undertaken of the case example participants (see Table 1) to assemble data and narrative information for entry into the SAGA website. The participants were given guidance on entering their data directly into the website, following instructions outlined in Appendix A. Participants provided data on their sustainability practices from the perspective of their own expe- rience; therefore, the data, which were reported using pre-populated responses displayed in drop- down menus, are specific to those individual examples. These responses are subject to interpretation, and therefore may not accurately represent the potential outcomes of sustainability practices at other airports. Upon completion of the data input process, participants provided verbal feedback, as summarized in chapter four and detailed in Appendix B.

Next: Chapter Two - Sustainability Practice Descriptions, Data, and Case Examples »
Airport Sustainability Practices Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 77: Airport Sustainability Practices compiles information about airport sustainability practices and adds them to the Sustainable Aviation Guidance Alliance (SAGA) website. The SAGA website was developed to assist airport operators in developing sustainability programs and provide guidance to those who have new data to input. The website contains entries on more than 900 sustainability practices that were developed by SAGA’s initial stakeholder group. However, a large percentage of these entries do not contain actual practice data.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!