Lyon-Saint Exupéry has been ISO 14001 certified since February 2020. It prioritises teamwork and a collective approach in its efforts to reduce its environmental footprint. How is eco-efficiency put into practice on such a large site? Answers and a guided tour with Delphine Bares, head of the Environment Team.

In 2019, the Airport Council International voted Lyon-Saint Exupéry airport best airport in the 10 to 25 million passenger category. The award highlights the many innovations put in place at the airport. While some of them are clearly visible, such as adapting passenger routes to match different traveller profiles, others are not immediately detectible. A guide is needed to explain just how important these changes are. Which is why Delphine Bares, head of the site’s Environment Team, is talking about one of these decisive developments as she guides us along the corridors today. “We gained ISO 14001 certification in February 2020. This sets out a series of environmental requirements for organisations and represents a major challenge for a site like ours."

Our tour begins with an explanation of the chronology. Achieving ISO 14001 requires considerable long-term planning and commitment, using a clearly signposted methodology. Everything begins will an analysis of the associated needs and expectations of all the various stakeholders involved. “This included the local authorities, of course,” she continues, “but not only. We also reached out to passengers, employees, partners and suppliers. We held discussions with all these groups to make sure our environmental strategy also reflected their expectations. ISO 14001 certification is the fruit of a comprehensive process, not simply a succession of minor day-to-day adjustments.” The results of this highly detailed work will enable the airport to meet its very specific targets: zero C0₂ emissions by 2030, 70% of waste recovered and a 48% cut in the amount of water used.

Permanent challenge

The first key stage in the process is to decide which themes and actions to prioritize. But again, this is something that needs solid experience to make it happen. Lyon-Saint Exupéry was already ISO 9001 and 50001 certified, meaning it already had a sound grasp of methodological tools. “We’d already embarked on a series of measure to cut our carbon footprint, such as buying renewable electricity, fitting an energy management system with integrated water and energy management that triggers alarms if usage thresholds are exceeded, renovation of our boilers, rainwater recovery, use of biogas, and so on,” explains Delphine Bares.  But with such a well-run operation, what is the extra that ISO 14001 certification provides? “It helped us to reprioritize our actions to meet the targets set by the VINCI Airports environmental policy. It also encourages you to constantly challenge yourself and set new goals, something that’s vital at a site of this size.” The airport took the decision to focus on making its boilers carbon-free, energy performance for its infrastructures, water management and waste processing. This has already seen a €10 million investment, with a further €10 million to be spent over the coming decade.

Working on the certification process also helped the airport to look to the future with a number of more long-term projects, such as the rise of hydrogen and mass adoption of photovoltaic, already well underway.

Human commitment

To be effective, it is vital to have the right financial and human resources, ensuring that the commitment becomes a long-term feature. Today, the site’s environment team comprises a permanent team, supported by technical operational teams for matters connected to energy use, water recovery and waste management.  To make certain that best practices are pooled and shared, the ISO 50001 and 14001 processes are both overseen by Delphine Bares.

But environmental challenges cannot be left to a small team of specialists. The aim is to create a collective approach that can only succeed when shared by everybody. “All airport teams have been briefed and everybody’s very committed. We’ve also worked with all the on-site retail outlets to improve waste sorting and processing. We’ve involved the airlines too, of course.” Here again, the focus is on concrete initiatives. Lyon-Saint Exupéry is helping roll out auxiliary power unit (APU) systems. These are small on-board gas turbines used to provide energy for starting main aircraft engines and for the air conditioning system.

A range of solutions that each help cut the site’s carbon footprint. Yet more proof that the environmental challenge can only be met with the full collaboration of everybody involved (see the infographic).