Denver International (DEN) has gotten a jump start on Earth Day 2012, with events continuing throughout the week.
The airport brought in its environmental professionals on Wednesday to give travelers a chance to talk to them at information tables in the Jeppesen Terminal. The airport also shared its environmental goals and sustainability initiatives with the public at Earth Day Denver 2012 downtown; the event highlighted the actions and investments that residents and businesses can make to save money and reduce their impact on the environment, including reducing consumption of energy, fuel and waste.
The airport was one of the first in the country to design and implement an Environmental Management System covering the entire airport that was certified in 2004 to meet the requirements of the international standard known as ISO 14001. Through this system, the airport continues to set environmental performance goals and targets for pollution prevention, waste minimization, recycling, energy efficiency, emissions reductions and sustainable development.
“At DIA we don’t just talk green, we act green,” says Aviation Manager Kim Day. “Our focus has been and continues to be the implementation of initiatives that are beneficial to the environment and at the same time financially sustainable. This has resulted in a robust enterprise wide sustainability culture and a physical program that grows each year.”
Some of those initiatives are Green Fleet, 318 alternatively fueled vehicles, including 205 buses, sweepers and other vehicles using compressed natural gas, and 113 electric and hybrid-electric vehicles; solar arrays, which spread across approximately 44 acres of land and are capable of producing approximately 6% of the airport’s electrical power requirements; and its recycling and composting efforts – the airport recycles more than 1,436 tons of municipal solid waste diverted from the landfill for recycling.
In addition to Wednesday’s events, DEN employees can donated used or unwanted items to the Resource Area for Teaching program April 20, which benefits local schools and children.
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