CO₂ Emissions

For many years we have been committed to a series of actions for the control and reduction of direct and indirect emissions of CO₂ at the airport and deriving from airport management activities.

Carbon dioxide emissions are subdivided as follows:

Scope 1 - Direct emissions associated with sources owned or controlled by the group’s companies, such as fuels used for heating and operational means necessary for airport activities.

Scope 2 - Indirect emissions associated with the generation of electricity or thermal energy acquired and consumed by the group’s companies.

Scope 3 - Other indirect emissions deriving from the activities of the group’s companies but produced by sources not belonging or not controlled by the companies themselves, such as personnel work trips and home-work travel.

In 2009 ACI Europe (Airport Council International), in order to promote the contribution of the airports towards the fight against climate change, launched an initiative called Airport Carbon Accreditation: the project required the introduction of a series of actions for the control and reduction of direct and indirect CO₂ emissions by airport managers, operators, aircraft and by all those working within the airport system.

The Airport Carbon Accreditation established four possible levels for accreditation:

• Mapping – checking of emissions under the direct control of the airport manager (scope 1 and 2);
• Reduction - creation of an emission reduction plan (scope 1 and 2);
• Optimization – calculation of the emissions produced by the airport stakeholders and their involvement in the reduction plans (scope 3);
• Neutrality - the achievement of Carbon Neutrality in terms of emissions under the direct control of the airport operator (Scopes 1 and 2), with the purchase of offsets.

In 2018, SEA confirmed its European leadership positioning for both Linate and Malpensa airports within the "3+ neutrality" grouping, together with 40 other airports, of which 4 are Italian (Naples, Rome, Treviso and Venice), representing 24.2% of European traffic.

The trend in Scope 1 emissions in 2018 is substantially in line with previous years. However, a significant increase in Scope 2 emissions compared with those of 2017 are to be noted regarding Linate Airport, attributable to the downtime of the SEA Energia co-generation plant during February 2018. The production of energy was suspended for safety reasons due to a malfunction in the engine room automatic fire extinguishing system, requiring therefore the purchase of a significant quantity of electricity from the grid.

The reporting standard used (GRI sustainability reporting standards 2016) establishes two different calculation methods for Scope 2 emissions: "Location-based" and "Market-based".

The “Location-based” method requires the use of average national emission factors related to the specific energy mix used to produce electricity (the coefficient of the emission used for Italy is 321.3 gCO₂/kWh, Source: Atmospheric emission factors of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases in the electricity sector, ISPRA 280/2018). The market-based approach uses emission factors based on the contractual agreement for the provision of electricity. Given the absence of specific electricity agreements between the companies of the Group and the suppliers (e.g. a Guarantee of origin purchase), for this calculation an emission factor related to the national “residual mix” was used, which for Italy is 476.53 gCO₂/kWh – Source: European Residual Mixes 2017, AIB).

CO₂ EMISSIONS of the SEA Group (tons)

CO₂ EMISSIONS of SEA Group per traffic unit (Kg/traffic unit)