Tree planting, double glazing, and waterless urinals are all featured in Birmingham International Airport’s eighth Community and Environment Report published today (Tuesday). The 2006/07 report - “Responsible Actions” - highlights the Airport’s key achievements during the last financial year, and sets out future targets in the areas of Noise, Aircraft Track-keeping, Air Quality, Energy & Waste Management, Surface Access, and Community Involvement, Communication & Investment.
John Morris, the Airport’s Head of Corporate and Community Affairs, said, “The results of this year’s report demonstrates the Airport’s commitment to improving the local environment for its neighbours, employees, and wildlife as well as the wider global impacts on the environment.
“Our responsible actions have achieved targets set in areas of noise reduction, air quality, energy efficiency and surface access, and we have awarded more than £600,000 to community and environment projects to improve the lives of hundreds of local people.”
Some of the highlights of the report and achievements in 2006/07 included:
Community Involvement, Communication & Investment:
• More than £600,000 was invested into the community in 2006/07 through the Community Trust Fund, the Sound Insulation Scheme, the Vortex Protection Scheme and the Schools Environment Improvement Scheme.
• Funding and planting of 40 established specimens and many young trees as part of the ‘Birmingham Trees for Life’ campaign.
• Launch of ‘Community Impacts Alert’ to provide advanced notice to 60 plus key local contacts, by email, text, telephone or letter, of unusual activity which may cause disturbance.
Aircraft Noise and Track-keeping:
• Local Noise Climate Study successfully completed in Castle Bromwich.
• Operation Pathfinder Scheme launched to engage with airlines on issues relating to noise and track-keeping and reward those airlines with best performance.
• The target of 95% of all departing aircraft to fly ‘on-track’ was exceeded, with 97.2% achieving the target.
• The target of 99% of all aircraft movements less than 87 dB (A) was exceeded, with 99.74% of flights recording below this noise level.
Air Quality:
• The Airport Company achieved its air quality target for pollutants except ozone where similar exceedances were observed at other UK monitoring locations due to the hot and sunny summer.
• Reports of oily deposits in two gardens during 2006 were independently tested and confirmed not to be substances related to aviation.
Energy and Water:
• Energy efficiency measures have resulted in the total energy usage (both gas and electricity) falling, with a reduction of 8.4%, ahead of the fall in passenger numbers of 3.4%.
• The overall reduction of energy consumption resulted in a corresponding fall in CO2 produced from the Airport’s buildings. Emissions fell by 4.7% when compared with the previous year and by 1.4% when measured in terms of CO2 per passenger.
• Water consumption per passenger fell by 5.7% last year, achieved through investment in conservation measures.
Surface Access:
• The target of 20% of people travelling to BIA by public transport by the time it handles 10 million passengers a year was exceeded, with an actual total of 20.2% of the 9.2 million people using public transport last year.
• The rail modal share is the highest since 1996 as a result of improved reliability, new timetables, new trains and the opening of Airport’s interchange and Air-Rail Link in 2003.
• Working with Sustrans and the local authority a new National Cycle Route was developed near to the Airport.
Employment:
• Supporting the Skills for Life programme, 180 learners enrolled on courses and there were more than 90 achievements in areas such as literacy and numeracy.
• Last year, 15% of the Airport Company workforce gained a nationally recognised qualification compared to 8.1% the previous year.
• Through the Jobjunction scheme, which provides employability skills to lone parents and people who have been long-term unemployed, 24 people secured jobs at the Airport in 2006/07.
John Morris, continued, “We understand there are local concerns but we are committed to investing people, time, money and other resources into developing solutions to local and global issues and our ‘2007/08 Action Plan’ can be found within the new Community and Environment Report - “Responsible Actions” outlining how we will manage the challenges in the year ahead.”
A downloadable pdf version of the Responsible Actions report is available at www.bhx.co.uk with the Community & Environment pages. Alternatively, people can call 0121 767 7111 to request a hard copy of the report.
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