Our carbon footprint

Assessing and taking action where needed

Lyon Airport certified ACA 5 by Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA)

ACA is a certification programme for managing and reducing CO₂ emissions, set up by Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe).

This certification assesses and recognizes thevoluntary efforts of airports to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, we conducted an assessment according to the programme developed by ACI, in line with the greenhouse gas protocol (2004) and the ISO 14064 standard.

This assessment covered emission sources under the direct operational control of Lyon Airport (direct emissions known as Scope 1 and indirect emissions known as Scope 2). Emissions that are not within our direct operational control (known as Scope 3), such as passenger access to the hub and aircraft traffic, are calculated separately and are not included in this assessment. However, these Scope 3 emissions are addressed by a host of avoidance and reduction measures coordinated by Lyon Airport, through specific provisions and projects run jointly with airport ecosystem stakeholders (adjusting aircraft fees based on emissions, 400 Hz power supply at aircraft stands, optimised routes, installation of infrastructure for electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, and more), incentives for initiating offers of Sustainable Aviation Fuels, etc.

Please refer to Appendix 1 for more details on how the assessment was calculated.

Our priority: avoid and reduce

Lyon Airport has implemented a policy for avoiding and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, based on levers such as:

Reducing its energy consumption (thermal renovation, switch to LED lighting, decentralisation of heat networks, optimised management of thermal comfort, etc.);
Increasing the number of electric vehicles it owns and rents out;
Using renewable energy (100 % green electricity since 2012, increasing use of biogas, biomass boiler in the pipeline, etc.);
Remote working, through a long-term, post-health crisis work-from-home policy.

The target is to reduce emissions down to an incompressible residual volume, of around 500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year from 2025, and to stick to that target in the following years. From 2026, thanks to local offsetting, Lyon Airport will achieve net zero emissions.

The following chart shows changes in Lyon Airport’s greenhouse gas emissions, in pursuit of that target.

* emissions calculated for the scope defined by the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme for the target certification level, at “market-based” value.

Please refer to Appendix 2 for more details about how emissions are being reduced over time.

Offsetting residual emissions

As part of its obligations under the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, Lyon Airport has been offsetting all its residual emissions since 2016 (Scope 1 and 2 - refer to Appendices 1 and 2, as well as Scope 3 emissions linked to business journeys made by its employees). These carbon credits come from specialist organisations, and the projects that generate them are chosen by Lyon Airport from a selection of recognised programmes including Clean Development Mechanism, Verra/VCS, Gold Standard, and the Low Carbon Label.

In 2021 and 2022, in partnership with the Rhône Department and the Office National des Forêts, we launched two reforestation projects in the Beaujolais region. They were awarded the Low Carbon Label and trees were planted in December 2021 and December 2022. In 2023, we also launched an agricultural transition project with the Low Carbon Label in partnership with the Rhône Chamber of Agriculture, several regional entities, VINCI, and farmers that are members of GEDA (Groupement d’Etude et de Développement Agricole) in the Ozon valley. The aim is to reproduce this type of partnership every year for various forestry or farming projects that are eligible for the Low Carbon Label and based in the region, so that, from 2026 onwards, in order to sequester a volume equivalent to our residual emissions as close as possible to the place where they are generated.
Please refer to Appendix 3 for more details on offsetting.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Program Airport Carbon Accreditation
Commitment of Lyon Airport Management

Lyon Airport is committed to reducing absolute CO₂ emissions₂ within its operational control (Scopes 1 & 2) by 90% by 2035 across its Lyon-Saint Exupéry and Lyon-Bron airports. Lyon-Saint Exupéry has already achieved this level of reduction in 2024, compared to the 2013 baseline year. Lyon Airport is implementing an ambitious action plan to continue decarbonising the activities of both airports and to reach net zero carbon emissions for stakeholder-related emissions (Scope 3) by 2050.

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