6.2Requirements For Annual Renewal At Level 3 In order to remain at Level 3, an airport should fulfil the following requirements on an annual basis. -
Annual submission of a carbon footprint comprising scope 1 and 2 emissions over which the airport has direct control (as per Level 1) and specific Scope 3 emissions. This carbon footprint must be independently verified every second year.
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Description of how the carbon footprint demonstrates progress towards meeting agreed targets and improved performance against the defined baseline.
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Demonstration of on-going improvement in the chosen improvement metric. Note: there are exceptional circumstances where an increase in emissions may be acceptable. Please see detailed guidance on this in section 10.7.
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Submission of revised carbon management plans every 3 years demonstrating progress towards meeting declared targets, details of specific activities undertaken and showing how the airport has responded to:
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Changing organisational and operational circumstances
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Changes to legal requirements and statutory codes
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Revised scientific evidence of climate change and expectations of corporate behaviour
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Development and accessibility of new technologies and management processes
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Evidence of on-going stakeholder engagement activities (annually).
6.3Requirements For three-yearly Renewal At Level 3
When a participating airport has been Accredited for three years at Level 3 or 3+ (i.e. after two successful renewals at that level), it will be permitted to move from annual renewal to a three-yearly renewal cycle, should it wish to do so. The option is available to airports from the start of Year 4 of the programme on 15th May 2012.
In order to extend its renewal cycle to three years, an airport must first fulfil the following criteria in addition to the existing renewal criteria at Level 3/3+:
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Submit quantitative, verified information reductions achieved for at least one Scope 3 emissions source for which there is an active stakeholder engagement initiative in place.
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Provide additional detail on the airport’s planned stakeholder engagement activities for the three year period.
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Continue to submit carbon footprint data to the Administrator on an annual basis.
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At the end of the three year period, an airport must be able to demonstrate an improvement in the chosen emissions improvement metric against the average of the past three years for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and for at least one Scope 3 emissions source for which there is an active engagement programme.
For detailed information on the three yearly renewal requirements, refer to section 8.7 and 9.3.
What airports have to do attain Level 3+
Level 3+ Requirements
Level 3+ logo
The requirements of Level 3+ participation are the same as those for Level 3 with the following additional requirement:
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Purchase of offsets to cover residual emissions in scope 1 and 2 only. Evidence of purchase should be provided.
6.5Requirements for Annual Renewal at Level 3+
In order to remain at Level 3+ an airport should fulfil the annual requirements of Level 3 with the addition of the following requirement:
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Submission of evidence that offsets have been purchased to cover residual emissions in scope 1 and 2 only.
6.6Requirements For three-yearly Renewal At Level 3+ An airport participating at Level 3+ may also move to a three-yearly renewal cycle provided that it can demonstrate that it has fulfilled the criteria specified in section 6.3, with the addition of the following requirement: -
Upon submission of the annual footprint data for the interim years, an airport at Level 3+ must also submit evidence of the necessary offsets being purchased to cover residual emissions in scope 1 and 2 only.
7Commitment to Carbon Reduction and the Carbon Footprint
As with financial accounting and reporting, generally accepted GHG accounting principles are intended to underpin and guide GHG accounting and reporting to ensure that the reported information is a fair representation of a company’s GHG emissions.
In order to calculate a carbon footprint and enable year on year comparison of emissions, it is important that the organisational and operational boundaries for the footprint are defined from the outset. These are discussed in the following sections.
7.1POLICY Commitment to Carbon Reduction
Airport Carbon Accreditation requires that all airports show public written evidence of a policy commitment to energy, greenhouse gas or carbon reductions at the highest level (i.e. signed off by the CEO, COO or Board of Directors). This commitment may be conveyed as an independent statement or be part of existing documentation, for example:
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Environmental, Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainability Policy;
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EMAS or ISO 14001 policy statements;
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Company Annual Report, Corporate Social Responsibility Report or Environmental Report.
All energy, greenhouse gas or carbon reduction policy statements should be made available to the public, whether this is done on the company’s website, publications or through other media. Where an airport’s policy commitment is made available through the company’s or other website, the link to this site should be clearly and publicly referenced and provided to the Administrator as part of their application.
The energy, greenhouse gas or carbon reduction policy statements should be worded in a way that best meets the overall needs and strategy of the airport and may be drafted in the national language(s) of the country in which the airport(s) applying for accreditation are situated.
In all cases, the verifier must attest to the fact that the airport meets the programme requirements as regards its policy commitment to energy, greenhouse gas or carbon reductions.
A policy can help the airport to achieve the following, which should be taken into consideration in the development of the policy document:
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Raise the profile of energy efficiency and emission reduction across all departments and functions.
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Demonstrate executive-level commitment to interested stakeholders, such as staff, investors, suppliers, and customers.
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Provide the framework for developing the airport’s energy management plan together with setting objectives and targets.
Footprint may be up to 12 months old if it meets all the participation requirements
Validity Of Carbon Footprint
Airport Carbon Accreditation recognises that airports may be preparing carbon footprints and arranging for them to be independently verified for other purposes. In order to minimise duplication of effort and the cost implications of repeat work the programme will accept a footprint which was prepared up to 12 months before the date it was submitted so long as it completely meets the minimum participation requirements as defined in this document.
Operations controlled by airports are part of their footprint
Setting Organisational Boundaries
Business operations vary in their legal and organisational structures; they include wholly owned operations, incorporated and non-incorporated joint ventures, subsidiaries, and others. For the purposes of financial accounting they are treated according to established rules that depend on the structure of the organisation and the relationships among the parties involved. In setting organisational boundaries, a company selects an approach for consolidating GHG emissions and then consistently applies the selected approach to define those businesses and operations that constitute the company for the purpose of accounting and reporting GHG emissions.
For corporate reporting, two distinct approaches can be used to consolidate GHG emissions: the equity share and the control approach.
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Under the equity share approach, a company accounts for GHG emissions from operations according to its share of equity in operations.
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Under the control approach, a company accounts for 100 per cent of the GHG emissions from operations over which it has control.
Organisational boundaries are based on the control approach
Airport Carbon Accreditation uses an adaptation of the control approach for setting organisational boundaries.
Where an airport has operational control over a source of emissions that source should be included in the airport’s carbon footprint at Level 1 or 2 and those emissions should be considered to be Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions.
Control approach to setting organisation boundaries
PURCHASED ENERGY FOR OWN USE
FUEL COMBUSTION
COMPANY OWNED VEHICLES
OUTSOURCED ACTIVITIES
PRODUCTION OF PURCHASED MATERIALS
PRODUCT USE
CONTRACTOR OWNED VEHICLES
WASTE DISPOSAL
EMPLOYEE BUSINESS TRAVEL
SCOPE 1
DIRECT
SCOPE 2
INDIRECT
SCOPE 3
INDIRECT
CO2 SF6 CH4 N20 HFCs PFCs
Source: New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development
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