VINCI Airports wins ACI’s Eco-Innovation Award for environmental excellence at Toulon Hyères airport in France

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ACI's Eco-Innovation Award went to VINCI Airports, for Toulon Hyères' exemplary environmental performance, this Wednesday 3 July in Istanbul, during ACI Europe's Annual Congress, at a ceremony attended by Nicolas Notebaert, Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Concessions and Chairman of VINCI Airports.

ACI holds its Eco-Innovation Award campaign in association with the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) programme to shine a light on an airport that demonstrates exceptional environmental achievements in one of four categories: Climate Change, Noise Management, Biodiversity and Wildlife Management, and Circular Economy. It singled out Toulon Hyères on account of the ambitious action plan that enabled it to reach net zero CO2 emissions in its operation scope, which involved reducing its direct emissions by 92.5% from 2018 to 2022 (by improving energy efficiency, replacing standard lightbulbs with LEDs, installing heat pumps, switching to electric runway vehicles and sourcing certified renewable energy).

Toulon Hyères is one of the 14 airports worldwide that have made the most progress on their decarbonisation journey, and in 2023 achieved ACA Level 5 accreditation along with three other bases in VINCI Airports' network (Beja, Ponta Delgada and Madeira, Portugal). This accreditation reflects the airport's efforts to reduce its own direct emissions as well as its work alongside its stakeholders to decarbonise their operations, for example by supplying sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), adjusting landing fees based on aircraft emissions to encourage airlines to use newer fleets, installing decarbonised power supplies for aircraft and building EV charging stands for passengers.

Toulon Hyères recently took one step further, setting up a carport-top solar power plant that produces up to 690 MWh of green electricity a year. The plant supplies 30% of the electricity that the airport consumes and the rest will be fed into the city's grid.

Nicolas Notebaert, Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Concessions and Chairman of VINCI Airports, stated, "This award brings international recognition to the exemplary job our teams have done at Toulon Hyères to reach net zero emissions in the airport's own operations and to rally all its stakeholders around its decarbonisation goal. Reconciling the essential need for mobility and the absolute need to cut carbon emissions is our priority at VINCI Airports, and I am proud that our airports are doing that, as we can see at Toulon Hyères today."