An element-by-element approach for a holistic estimation of the airport carbon footprint

The identification of carbon emission sources and their related impacts is of a great relevance to set suitable airport policies. Particularly, addressing the most significant emission sources allows finding more efficient solutions and identifying more effective policies, as some studies already suggested (e.g., Morrinson 2009; Liebert and Niemeier 2010; Postorino and Mantecchini 2014; Postorino et al. 2016). In line with the previous considerations, this chapter proposes a methodological framework to identify effective policy actions based on the segmentation of carbon emission sources at the airport. In other words, the relevant airport activity (such as airside, terminal and landside operations) contributing to the airport carbon impact is split into elementary segments. The environmental effects produced by each elementary source of pollution are computed, and then actions that could be implemented to reduce or possibly remove the produced environmental impacts are identified.