Mumbai: The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai has been awarded the globally recognised Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) for 2012-13 by the Airport Council International (ACI) for its pioneering carbon footprint management system.
In the Asia Pacific region only eight airports have been awarded with ACA, only five have made it to the reduction level and CSIA is one of them. Mumbai’s airport has now been upgraded from level 1 (mapping) to level 2 (reduction). This certification primarily recognises its efforts as an airport operator in managing the carbon dioxide emissions, as a part of airport industry’s response to the challenge of climate change.
Commenting on CSIA receiving this honour, G V Sanjay Reddy, managing director, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd, said: “We are proud to have received this certification as it demonstrates that we are taking action to reduce the carbon emissions we are directly responsible for. The certification is also a reaffirmation of our long term commitment to help lower our environmental impact on CSIA.”
The MIAL is a joint venture between the GVK-led consortium, and the Airports Authority of India, which has been given the mandate of managing and modernising Mumbai airport. The CSIA catered to 30.75 million passengers in 2012.
“Having successfully accredited for ‘mapping’ and ‘reduction’ under ACA, we are now aiming for the third level of ‘optimisation’, with the support of all concerned stakeholders.”
In 2011, GVK-CSIA had developed a comprehensive carbon accounting and management system in order to achieve Level-1 accreditation, which was verified. Additionally, CSIA initiated the process of implementing strategies that included energy saving measures to reduce carbon emissions. Whilst the airport has met the required criteria such as carbon road map and carbon management plan for Level 2 accreditation, the Level 3 accreditation will be achieved when the airport monitors and reports on the emission levels of its stakeholders operating from CSIA.
The achievements comes at a crucial time, says an MIAL release, when both corporates and governments are taking measures to tackle climate change globally. In India, the Director General of Civil Aviation has begun accounting greenhouse gas inventory of the Indian aviation sector.
