Both aspects are correlated since burning fossil fuels leads to greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has thus increased by 35% since the dawn of industrialization.
It is now more important than ever to use our energy efficiently, due to the rising fuel prices.
The air traffic industry's contribution to climate change is one of many on the global level. Approximately 14 percent of the worldwide anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions come from road traffic, 2.7 percent from shipping traffic, and merely 2.2 percent from air traffic (DLR – German Aerospace Center, 2006, 2008). Projections expect the air traffic industry to continue to grow dynamically. Fraport acknowledges its responsibility and aims to contribute to the climate friendly development of the air traffic industry. In doing so, we strive to decrease our specific carbon dioxide emissions, despite the growth in traffic.
Fraport has compiled and published principles on climate protection; they are a part of the corporation's environmental policy. An internal eco-audit and an external environmental assessor evaluate the adherence to this policy.
Climate Protection Principles
We participate in climate protection to ensure the sustainable development of our company. Fraport is committed to the Kyoto Protocol and aspires to limit the output of relevant greenhouse gasses to only the inevitable emissions. We are also involved in local and regional initiatives relating to climate-relevant topics within Agenda 21. On the long run, our climate protection measures are also a contribution to limiting the risks from altered weather conditions caused by climate change. We thus assure a long lasting effect on the development of our locations.
Fraport's Climate Protection Goals in Frankfurt
Fraport has set itself ambitious climate protection goals for the future, namely to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by the year 2020 (in comparison to 2005 figures). The airport expansion is to be carried out carbon-neutrally. This means that Fraport aspires to create no more emissions than were emitted in 2005.
The additional carbon dioxide emissions that are expected from the traffic growth will be compensated for in other areas, for example electrical remediation of offices and service buildings, implementation of state of the art information and communication technology for fuel reduction in ground traffic, reorganization of ground power supply by replacing diesel-powered mobile ground power units, as well as energy-saving heating and lighting.
In the future, Fraport will turn its focus on to renewable energy sources. All of Fraport's electricity is generated from hydropower as of 2008. Geothermic energy sources are also being tested. By participating in innovative projects, such as the on-road test of fuel cell vehicles, Fraport is actively contributing to the further development of alternative drive concepts.
Declining Energy Consumption
In 2007, the total energy consumption at the Frankfurt airport was approximately 1,034 million kilowatt hours. This can be compared to the energy consumption of a city with approximately 100,000 inhabitants.
Even though the demand for energy has increased, consumption has declined by 5 percent since 2004. Fraport's total energy consumption in 2007 was approximately 567 million kilowatt hours. A significant decline of 13 percent has been observed here in the last 4 years. Energy sources are electricity, over 50 percent, as well as district cooling and heating.
It is important that efficiency of energy-use is improved, as has been seen at the airport in previous years, as the airport is constantly growing and an even larger passenger volume is anticipated for the future. Whereas the energy consumption per traffic unit (TU) was approximately 16.8 kWh/TU in 2003, Fraport was able to reduce this to approximately 13.7 kWh/TU in 2007.
Energy Sources at Frankfurt Airport
Electricity
The main energy source at Frankfurt Airport is electricity, generated by four transformer stations at the airport. The electricity is transmitted to the various recipients and transformer stations through a medium-voltage power grid. It is then transformed to low voltage using local transformer stations and made available for the customers.
Heating
The Frankfurt Airport is heated by a connection to district heating, a central gas-fired heating station (local heating supply), and several decentralized heating systems.
The warmth is fed into the airport heating network via various transformation stations and heat supply station in the south. From here it is transmitted to the individual customers and transformation stations in the buildings.
Cooling
District cooling and local cooling units supply the cooling at FRA. The large cooling unit, formerly used, was shut down in 2002 and cooling was supplied by district cooling from then on.
Heating Oil and Gas
Heating oil as an energy source has become less and less significant due to the demolition of the buildings on the former US Air Base. The newly established buildings in the south will either be supplied with natural gas or connected to the local heating network from the boiler house in the south. The gas-fired heating station is operated by Mainova and is thus attributed as district heating.