The International Air Transport Association (IATA), working with Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, has created a suite of innovative digital tools for airports to estimate the embodied carbon associated with the construction of terminal buildings and aviation assets – for the first time.
The digital toolkit will enable airports to better understand and mitigate the impacts of construction-related activities that contribute to carbon.
As the global aviation industry continues its post-pandemic growth, modernising and adapting infrastructure to meet Net Zero targets and the needs of sustainable aviation, the need to reduce embodied carbon in new buildings such as terminals and runways is ever more pressing.
The digital tools will deliver embodied carbon benchmarking for the three key airport asset types of terminal buildings, runways and multi-storey car parks. This will enable airport development teams to understand the carbon footprint of development work and enter into dialogue with airport operators about how to mitigate it.
The new tools, developed by IATA and Atkins, are believed to be the first early stage embodied carbon assessment tools specifically focused on airport terminal buildings.
While most current tools measure carbon in general buildings, and at a later stage in the design, this new digital toolkit is specific to aviation and to be applied at very early stage in the design – adding the most value. Credibility, transparency and flexibility are key components of the tool’s creation, to allow for future adaptability and adjustment of any assumptions, said a release.