TAG Farnborough Airport's Carbon Footprint Reduction
/TAG Farnborough Airport is underscoring its ongoing commitment to sustainable development and carbon footprint reduction by supporting an exciting program focused on solar energy. In conjunction with Carbon Footprint Ltd, the airport is off-setting 2018 residual carbon emissions (over which it has direct control) through the support of renewable energy projects, both locally with the donation of a 10kW Solar Array system to Newlands Primary School in Yateley, Hampshire and also overseas through the support of a large-scale solar farm project in India, bringing green energy, education and employment opportunities between the two projects.
In 2018, TAG Farnborough Airport became the first business aviation airport in the world to achieve carbon neutrality and since then has continued to make further substantial reductions in its carbon footprint with a confirmed offset totalling 1,605 tonnes of carbon emissions for the last year. Over the past five years, TAG Farnborough Airport has invested over £1 million into energy efficiency projects and during the past decade has reduced carbon emissions, over which it has direct control, by 3,819 tonnes or 73 per cent (2008 carbon emissions: 5,242 tonnes).
In cooperation with Carbon Footprint Ltd, TAG Farnborough Airport has offset residual emissions through credible and certified offsetting projects, which in recent years have included school tree planting in the local area paired with a conservation project in the Amazon rainforest (Florestal Santa Maria Project), protecting trees in one of the most biodiverse places in the world. This work is continuing in 2019 with TAG Farnborough Airport donating a 10kW Solar Power system to Newlands Primary School, located close to the airport in Yateley, Hampshire. The new solar system will allow the school to reduce its electricity costs by about £1,300 each year and at the same time provide the children with a unique learning opportunity in the field of Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM).
At the same time, TAG Farnborough Airport is also supporting an overseas solar power project in rural India. The project has provided employment in a developing region, helping to both decarbonise the national grid and reduce power outage.