Wellington Airport achieves Level 2 Airport Carbon Accreditation

Wellington Airport has achieved global recognition for its efforts to manage and reduce carbon emissions.

The airport has achieved Level 2 Certification from the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, which runs independent assessments of airports around the world.

Level 2 (Reduction) is for airports with comprehensive emissions profile mapping and reductions in place.

Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke says this is another important step on the journey to transform aviation.

“It’s great to have an independent and credible assessment of where we stand. This has taken years of work to have our carbon footprint independently verified and our reduction efforts carefully scrutinised.

“There is still a long journey ahead, especially with the transition of flights to more sustainable energy sources, but this is an important milestone.”

“We congratulate Wellington Airport for achieving Level 2 certification in the Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme,” says Stefano Baronci, Director General, ACI Asia-Pacific.

“This achievement demonstrates Wellington Airport's firm commitment to invest in a more sustainable future for aviation and for the region it serves."

Some of the recent steps Wellington Airport has taken include improving the energy efficiency of buildings and infrastructure, and replacing a third of the vehicle fleet with electric vehicles.

Next steps will be to further reduce operational emissions, replace gas boilers and support airlines to adopt new technologies like electric aircraft.

This follows a high score by GRESB who rated Wellington Airport as third best in the world for performance and management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts amongst participating airports.

Further background:

Airport Carbon Accreditation is the only institutionally-endorsed, global carbon management certification programme for airports. It independently assesses and recognises the efforts of airports to manage and reduce their carbon emissions through six levels of certification: ‘Mapping’, ‘Reduction’, ‘Optimisation’, ‘Neutrality’, ‘Transformation’ and ‘Transition’.

The programme provides a unique common framework and tool for active carbon management at airports with measurable results. It covers the operational activities that contribute most to carbon emissions.