Malta International Airport reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 700 tonnes in 2015, while also reducing CO2 emissions specifically from 2.29kgs per passenger to 1.98kgs, an improvement of 13.5 per cent.

This emerges from the airport’s first Sustainability Report that was published following the world-renowned Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) standards, and the highlights of which are summarised in this video.

A number of international organisations across various industries adopt these guidelines to report on their most critical impacts. MIA decided to pioneer these standards in Malta given its key role in the tourism industry and the significant impacts it has on the surrounding environment and communities.

“As we strive to become carbon neutral, it is critical for us to measure our impact. Our first sustainability report gives us the confidence to continue working to remove, reduce or mitigate our negative impacts and improve or build on our positive ones,” said CEO Alan Borg.

He said the airport will also be entering the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme at level 1, whereby the airport’s carbon footprint would be independently verified in accordance with ISO14064 (Greenhouse Gas Accounting).

“Sustainability is now etched in our revamped company strategy as one of our core values and we hope to gather more momentum on this each year,” he added.

At a glance, the Sustainability Report is divided into three main sections, which give an in-depth look at the airport’s economic, environmental, and social impacts. Each section starts by delineating the airport’s main goals for 2015 for each of these three aspects and proceeds to detail how they were reached. For the sake of transparency, the report also notes where Malta International Airport can fare better.

The report found that the main reason for MIA’s reduced emissions footprint was due to energy saving efforts such as the installation of LED lighting and signage, a more efficient vehicle fleet and more clean energy generation from the airport’s PV system. In welcoming more passengers in 2015 with the same resources, the airport has also improved its efficiency.

 The report, which can be downloaded online here, also found that MIA distributed over €58 million into the local economy in 2015 in the form of operating costs, wages, benefits, payment to government, and reinvestments in the local community.