Auckland Airport Operations Soar

Auckland Airport Operations Soar

Auckland Airport Operations Soar

Auckland Airport has been awarded with a ‘Commended’ Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Operation Pilot rating by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA). The award was presented to Auckland Airport at the 2015 Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards in Sydney Australia on Wednesday 21 October 2015.

ISCA CEO Antony Sprigg said, “In addition to achieving New Zealand's first IS Operation Pilot rating, Auckland Airport has inherently assisted with defining what the New Zealand IS rating tool should comprise.”

"Achieving a 'Commended' IS Operation Pilot rating is Auckland Airport's latest accolade in their continuing leadership of infrastructure sustainability in New Zealand," he continued. Auckland Airport are a member of the New Zealand Advisory Group on Infrastructure Sustainability, have recent joined as an ISCA New Zealand Founding Member and Martin Fryer (Sustainability Manager) was keynote speaker at ISCA's recent Infrastructure Sustainability Conference "excellence IS spreading" in Sydney on 22 October 2015.

Since 2007 Auckland Airport has committed a full-time resource to embedding sustainable business practice and produced its first sustainability policy and five year action plan in 2008. Auckland Airport General Manager Airport Development and Delivery, Graham Matthews said "Auckland Airport is the key gateway into New Zealand and as such recognises the important role it plays providing the first and last impressions of New Zealand for the majority of international visitors." He continued "Auckland Airport is now embedding its third policy and plan, taking a long term view to infrastructure development and operation." Following the release of its masterplan in 2014, Auckland Airport reviewed its sustainability programme using the IS rating tool as a benchmark becoming the first IS rating operational pilot.

Auckland Airport were rewarded for their innovative waste reduction initiatives in compliance with Ministry of Primary Industry (MPI) biosecurity requirements. Normal waste disposal practice is to classify all cabin waste as quarantine waste and compulsorily send it to landfill. However Auckland Airport worked closely with waste contractors and developed a unique transitional waste recovery facility to segregate and sort cabin waste, resulting in the diversion of some cabin waste from landfill. The development process facilitated further engagement with airlines, to investigate waste avoidance through potentially changing in flight product specifications.

Auckland Airport's management systems were rewarded for integrating responsibility for sustainability into their senior management team, engaging an independent professional to monitor and review sustainability performance, implementing performance improvements through a sustainability strategy, as well as sharing sustainability knowledge internally, within the industry and with sustainability professionals.