Sofia Airport committed to carbon neutrality by 2035
Sofia Airport has been awarded “Level 3 – Optimise” accreditation for carbon management after a nearly 6-month procedure, making it the first airport in the country to achieve this level. The Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) program is the only institutionally approved global certification program for airport carbon management. It independently assesses their efforts to manage and reduce their carbon emissions through 6 levels of certification: ‘Mapping’, ‘Reduce’, ‘Optimize’, ‘Neutrality’, ‘Transform’ and ‘Transition’.
Level 3 in this program, which Sofia Airport receives, covers the management of emissions not only of the airport, but also of partners and stakeholders that have operations at the airport, such as ground handling operators, public transport to and from Sofia Airport, cargo companies, tenants. With the same level 3 in Europe are major international airports such as Munich (a key partner in the Sofia Airport concession), Heathrow, Istanbul, Barcelona, and others.
Certification is part of the airport’s environmental impact management measures. An emissions management plan has been drawn up and the first measures envisaged are the installation of energy-saving lighting in Terminal 2, new LED apron lighting and the phased replacement of vehicles with all-electric vehicles.
48.2%[1] of global air traffic passes through airports accredited under the program, which total 396, of which 153 are accredited with Level 1, another 92 have Level 2, 67 have Level 3, 58 have Level 3+ and respectively 14 airports have achieved Level 4 and 12 Level 4+.
“The environment is one of our key values not only for SOF Connect but also for Meridiam who are behind us in this high potential project. A significant transformation is in the pipeline, which includes expanding air connectivity, significantly improving infrastructure and developing the team, all with environmental and social aspects in mind. The accreditation is an important step of our commitment to the environment, we will continue to build on in the coming years,” said Airport CEO Jesus Caballero.
[1] Data from ACA, 15.05.2022 Π³.