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Edie’s Sustainability Leaders Award for LHR

Heathrow Airport Recognized as an Industry Sustainability Leader

Heathrow, November 20, 2015: Over £20 million has been invested by the airport to increase the energy efficiency of our infrastructure. This included a huge two-year program to replace over 67,000 lights across the airport with LED lamps, saving 44GW hours of electricity, and £6.4 million in electricity and maintenance over the life of the light bulbs.

The Energy Management Award recognized the success of the Heathrow Energy Center – a 10MW biomass Combined Heat and Power Plant providing zero carbon electricity, heat and cooling for the new Terminal 2, the world’s first BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) certified airport terminal. The biomass boiler is fuelled by woodchip coming from forestry that is 75% sourced from within a 50 mile radius of the airport.

The award comes as the airport celebrates the five year anniversary of the Heathrow Sustainability Partnership (HSP). Led by a CEO board from the 13 biggest companies at the airport, HSP works collaboratively to achieve long term sustainability improvements on a scale that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Last year, it launched the Energy Code of Practice to monitor and target improvements in energy consumption. HSP is now in the process of developing a sustainability guide for restaurants at the airport in partnership with the Sustainable Restaurant Association, which will support them to reduce energy even further.

Elizabeth Hegarty, Head of Sustainability & Environment at Heathrow Airport said: “Finding ways to use energy responsibly and efficiently is how we do business as Britain’s busiest airport and we are honored that our efforts have been recognized by Edie’s Sustainability Leaders Awards. Our investments in low carbon energy supply and management have created a win-win situation – we have not only delivered results for the environment, but also cost savings for our partners who operate at the airport.

We know we have much more to do, but we are committed and will capitalize on the potential that Heathrow’s expansion could bring to ensure we have industry-leading, low carbon, energy-efficient infrastructure in our airport.”

Earlier this week, Heathrow was awarded a Bronze award in the Mayor of London’s Business Energy Challenge (BEC) in recognition of the 16.5 per cent reduction in carbon intensity Heathrow has achieved a portfolio of its properties. Going forward, Heathrow has a plan to reduce its CO2  carbon emissions from energy used in buildings by 34% from 1990 baseline by 2020.

In addition to these awards, Heathrow Airport has also recently won other awards in recognition of efforts to become more sustainable. They include: a “GreenFleet” award in recognition of efforts to build a more sustainable airport fleet, the ACI’s Eco-Innovation Award for overall efforts at finding new, sustainable ways to operate, and for the eighth time a Biodiversity Benchmark Award for habitat management.

  • Edie’s Sustainability Leaders Awards are organized by specialist sustainability publishing house Faversham House, and began life as edie.net’s Awards for Environmental Excellence in 2007. Since then the event has grown and expanded to include all key aspects of business sustainability. In line with that growth, the awards changed name in 2012 and the Sustainability Leaders Awards were born.

    The edie Sustainability Leaders Awards are included in the highly regarded RSA accreditation scheme – one of only a handful of environmental schemes to be chosen for this honor. This means that award winners have the opportunity to gain further accolades on the international stage, as they are automatically given access to the European Business Awards for the Environment. For more information, please visit: http://awards.edie.net/SLA2015/about-the-awards

  • The Mayor of London’s Business Energy Challenge (BEC) is open to any business with locations in London that that have influence over their energy use.  The main award is based on the % carbon intensity reduction per meter squared for a business’s London property portfolios (inclusive of owned, leased, whole/part of building) from a baseline (2010-2011) to a challenge year (2014-15). The Top 10% of business(es) making greatest % reduction in carbon intensity per meter squared are awarded Gold, with the following 15% awarded silver and following 20% awarded bronze.  The Business Energy Challenge Awards were held at City Hall on 16th November, hosted by the Mayor. For more information, please visit: https://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/environment/business-energy-challenge/about-the-awards
  • The GreenFleet Awards are a celebration of environmental fleet management and green motoring, awarding dedicated companies and individuals who are passionate about promoting a cleaner environment. With 20 categories ranging from “industry innovation” to “leasing company of the year”, they recognize outstanding achievement within each field. For more information please see: http://events.greenfleet.net/awards/

Source: Heathrow Airport Ltd.