January/February 2024 - 30

CONSULTANT CORNER
funding opportunities both at the state
and federal level for various initiatives
around energy efficiency, sustainability,
and ultimately net-zero? Whenever we're
thinking about an investment case, we're
encouraging airports to think through a
full business case analysis around what are
the costs and what are the benefits of a
different program and also what are the
different options, whether that's different
funding options available, different
financing structures, or even different
delivery mechanisms for how to achieve
those outcomes without getting caught
up on exactly a defined path from start to
finish. Be open-minded and go through
a business planning process where you're
evaluating multiple options for how to
get there.
AB: As far as the Airport Net-Zero
program, how does it align with or
respond to other programs and regulations
out there like the FAA's Airports
Climate Challenge or even state-specific
initiatives that might be out there?
CJ: The industry at a lot of different
levels has adopted a net-zero goal
by 2050. That's kind of widely adopted
by the U.S., the FAA, and Airports
Council International has established a
goal to achieve that target. The question
that remains is how airports make that
happen. It seems the goal was adopted
before the technical analysis was done to
understand how to implement it. This
Airport Net-Zero program is intended
to provide some technical rigor to
achieving that goal in the long run with
a combination of policy and technological
solutions at airports. It's in alignment
with the goals that you're seeing across
the industry in that it provides the guidance
and technical expertise needed to
achieve those targets.
AB: And can you elaborate on the checklist
of achieving net-zero carbon and the
benefits associated with it?
CJ: A lot of times with net-zero, airports
spend too much time on the costs
of implementing without really taking
a look at all the different co-benefits
these solutions bring. Decarbonization
strategies, and electrification, are going
to reduce your emissions and hopefully,
they'll reduce your costs in the long run.
But other co-benefits come along with
them that are important to airports and
align with a lot of their core fundamental
priorities like safety, resilience, and
security. When we talk about net-zero,
we talk about the ability to mitigate longterm
energy, and price volatility, financial
security for an airport that's fundamental,
preparing for increased regulation, and
not being surprised by new carbon-related
policies that are coming down the
line. A lot of these net-zero initiatives
enhance an airport's energy and operational
resilience so that they can continue
to fulfill their core mission of providing
transportation infrastructure when things
like grid outages take place.
AB: How does this program address
challenges with price volatility?
IS: There are a couple of key concepts
that come to mind. One is energy
efficiency, and one of the best strategies
for reducing your exposure to energy
price volatility is to use less energy.
That's something every airport should
be thinking about. How can we create
a more efficient operation and organization
from an energy use perspective?
Long-term is this notion of greater
control over energy supply. If that's onsite
duration, if that's potentially longer term,
more secure procurement opportunities
through power purchase agreements or
other kind of commercial structures to
secure your energy future, that's something
that I think airports need to think
more about as well as recognizing there
is the potential for changes in the regulatory
landscape going forward that may
have real costs for airports.
AB: Tell me about the electrification strategic
plan at Philadelphia International
Airport and how that has been something
that'd be successful in achieving
these goals.
CJ: We saw an opportunity in a
particular strategy, in this case elec30
\ AIRPORT BUSINESS / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
trification, and took a comprehensive
approach to understanding how to
implement it successfully. We worked
with Philadelphia International Airport
and other airports,
including most
recently at Albuquerque. We looked at
the overall vehicle and equipment fleet
at both of those airports to understand
what vehicles and equipment are going
to be due for replacement soon, and
how those align with the availability of
electric options that still serve those critical
functions. We don't want to put an
operations person in a tiny little electric
sedan or something like that. We want
to make sure that they have vehicles
and equipment that yes, they're electric,
but they're aligned operationally
with the objectives they need to fulfill.
We also look at the charging infrastructure
that's necessary to facilitate
a transition of this nature. It was about
understanding how many chargers the
airport might need, both for fleet and
passengers and employees in the parking
lots, and does the airport have adequate
electrical capacity and electrical infrastructure
to expand to support all these
expanded charging loads.
AB: There are a lot of airports at different
levels of their decarbonization journey,
but overall, what are some steps they
should be thinking about to enhance
their program or build a program?
IS: What Steer and C&S have tried
to do in developing our partnership and
launching this website, airportnetzero.
com, is to try not to offer specific solutions
for specific airports, but rather to
provide some tools and ideas for how
airports can think about this challenge
and evaluate where they're at. This
gives airports a good idea of where they
should be focused and prioritizing their
next steps.
We hope that at Steer and C&S,
we can help airports think about that,
identify those priorities, and help fill
in those gaps as they move forward to
ultimately where they're trying to get
to with Airport Net-Zero. 
January/February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January/February 2024
