Airport Experience® News - Retail & Amenities Issue 2023

SUSTAINABILITY SNAPSHOT

EVOLVING WITH THE CLIMATE A Q&A With Todd Ernst of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority

BY SALLY KRAL

Left: The Greater Toronto Airports Authority’s Cogeneration Plant (pictured) supplies steam and natural gas power to Toronto Pearson International Airport, supporting the airport in reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

ditor’s Note: AXN Contributing Writer Sally Kral recently spoke with Todd Ernst, director of aviation, infrastructure, energy and environment for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority , to learn more about recent efforts put in place at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to combat climate change, as well as his thoughts on the future of the industry’s sustainability efforts and goals. E

Above: Todd Ernst, director of aviation, infrastructure, energy and environment for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, is responsible for Toronto Pearson International Airport’s environmental programs, including management of the airport’s energy and utilities, and maintenance of the airfield electrical systems and the vehicle fleet.

KRAL: Can you tell me about your role at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and how it relates to YYZ’s sustainability initiatives and goals? ERNST: My title is director of aviation, infrastructure, energy and environment and my responsibilities include, in addition to the environmental programs, the management of the energy and utilities here at Toronto Pearson, and maintenance of the airfield electrical systems and the vehicle f leet. The sustainability link is primarily through the environmental responsibilities, but there’s a lot of bleed over into my other areas, with energy being an obvious one from a greenhouse gas (GHG) perspective, and then also having some influence over the vehicle fleet as we’re looking to decarbonize.

KRAL : What are some of the key sustainability initiatives and programs that YYZ has instituted in recent years and that you’d like to call special attention to? ERNST: With my energy background, I tend to be quite climate change-focused, and we’ve got a pretty mature climate program here. We’ve been ISO 14001 certified going way back to 1999. But more recently, I definitely want to call out our GHG program. We greatly overachieved on our 2020 target to reduce our GHGs by 20 percent by 2020—we actually landed in 2020 with a more than 60-percent reduction in our GHGs versus the 2006 base year.

34

A X N E W S R E T A I L & A M E N I T I E S I S S U E 2 0 2 3