Athens International Airport and the Environment
The need to effectively protect the environment has never been greater. This year, as every year, Athens Airport is participating in the celebration of World Environment Day (June 5) with a series of actions and programs:
The airport is organizing its traditional Recycling Competition for the employees of the wider airport community, contributing to the fight against plastic waste.
AIA has developed a comprehensive waste management system for managing all waste produced on the Airport premises based on “The Polluter Pays” principle, promoting waste separation at the source and providing financial incentives to Airport’s Third Parties for recycling.
Increase of airport recycling rate from just 3% in 2001 to 83% in 2018
Further initiatives undertaken by AIA for environmental protection and sustainable development concern Climate Change, Environmental Awareness Training, Protection of Biodiversity and more environmental aspects.
An indicative selection of initiatives undertaken are:
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Implementation of a Corporate Climate Change Action Plan resulting in the decrease of AIA’s carbon footprint by almost 50% since 2005. Since 2015, AIA has been accredited at the final level Neutrality of Airport Carbon Accreditation, an initiative by Airports Council International.
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Initiation of the first ever study on Climate Change Adaptation, which aims to explore how the local climate is expected to change and how this will affect Airport operations. The study will be completed in the autumn of 2019.
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Rewarding of the schools of the Spata-Artemis Municipality for the active participation of their students in AIA’s Recycling Programme with educational materials and environmentally themed excursions. In 2018, the students recycled 11.5 tonnes of paper, bringing the total amount of material recycled since the program started in 2005 to more than 92 tonnes.
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For the 3rd consecutive year we invited high school students from local municipalities to the Airport in the context of our environmental awareness program. This program includes a presentation and a site tour to areas of environmental and cultural interest such as the photovoltaic park, the Archaeological Museum, the Sewage Treatment Plant, etc. Since the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, we have organized 15 visits with the participation of 557 students along with their teachers. The program will continue in the coming school year.
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Implementation of the Program for the Protection and Promotion of the Wetlands of Vravrona and (Alyki) Artemis in cooperation with the Hellenic Ornithological Society under the auspices of the Markopoulo Municipality. Along with the environmental objectives of the program, 50 groups visited the area of the Vravrona - Artemis wetlands during 2018. In total, 2,363 students, as well as more than 500 people from other institutions, have participated in organized tours of these wetlands.
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Scholarships for 2 postgraduate students at the University of the Aegean (Department of Environmental Studies) for the 16th straight year, in order to encourage and strengthen academic research in the field of environmental protection.
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Recertification of our Environmental Management System in accordance with the latest version (2015) of the ISO 14001 standard.
Environmental publication “Care for the Environment”
AIA’s annual publication “Care for the Environment”, which describes in detail the environmental activities in 2018, is available at the following address: