Tallinn Airport joins Green Tiger
Tallinn Airport joined the Green Tiger to contribute to the green transition of the economy and the transport sector, and to move more consciously towards a carbon neutral airport by 2030.
According to Anneli Turkin, Member of the Management Board of Tallinn Airport, the airport has been focusing on responsible and environmentally sustainable operations for years. “We’ve been working towards the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 for the last couple of years. However, we can see that big changes can only be made in partnership. We decided to join the Green Tiger cooperation platform to be part of a network of sustainable businesses, to contribute to making Estonia’s economy more sustainable, to learn from others and to share our experiences.”
Turkin also pointed out that the airport has developed its own carbon neutrality action plan, in which everyone connected with or passing through the airport has a key role to play in achieving the established targets.
“Having mapped out the airport’s environmental impact, it turns out that the largest share, around 11,000 tonnes of CO₂, comes from electricity consumption,” said Turkin. “In order to increase the share of renewable energy in our consumption, we have started building solar parks. Today, we generate approximately 10% of our electricity from solar parks. In the next two years, we’ll significantly increase the capacity of the solar parks to reach a 30-40% share of renewable energy and we will continue to increase this share in the future as well. All the lighting at the airfield has also been converted to LED technology.”
Other areas such as eco-friendlier heating solutions and developments in machinery and infrastructure are also important in addition to electricity. Electrical technology can already be seen in the ground handling of aircraft, both in the shape of the aircraft towing machine and ground power units, or GPUs.
According to Andres Veske, the head of the representative organisation of the Green Tiger, Tallinn Airport joining the Green Tiger is very important, as the transport sector needs strong green transition advocates and leaders, whose positive success stories would be an example to others. “We also see great potential for cooperation between other members of the Green Tiger who manage large transport junctions and infrastructures,” said Veske.
The story that the airport tells our foreign visitors is no less important. “Every person arriving in Estonia for the first time feel that Estonia cares for and values nature from the time they arrive at the airport,” Veske added.
Tallinn Airport has joined the pan-European ACI Net Zero 2030 agreement and has set itself the goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. In addition to this, the company has joined the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) programme and is moving towards the highest level of accreditation.
The goal of Tallinn Airport is to ensure the sustainable and responsible operation of the airports belonging to the group and the provision of high-quality services, while preserving the natural environment and reducing air emissions. Tallinn Airport aims to be a carbon neutral airport by 2030.
