Royal Schiphol Group signs Clean and Emission-Free Construction Covenant
Yesterday, Royal Schiphol Group signed the Clean and Emission-Free Construction Covenant (Schoon en Emissieloos Bouwen, SEB). The airport joins many other municipalities and organisations that are working to make their construction activities cleaner, healthier and quieter in the coming years. This collaboration, involving knowledge sharing and innovation, contributes to Schiphol’s ambition to become emission-free and waste-free by 2030.
Schiphol is always on the move. There is always something being built, rebuilt or renovated somewhere at the airport. Sustainability plays an important role in all these projects, and we are looking for innovative solutions to achieve this. We are working towards a cleaner, quieter and better airport, including our construction projects, for which we also want to be completely emission-free by 2030. We can only get there through innovation and by learning from each other. We believe this collaboration with partners will contribute to that.
The SEB covenant and the accompanying roadmap contain steps that the partners will take in the coming years to replace work vehicles and vessels in construction with clean or emission-free ones. Lighter equipment will therefore become emission-free sooner than heavier or specialist equipment. The agreements provide the sector with clarity about what they can expect in the coming years and how they can prepare.
Emission-free by 2030
Schiphol wants to be an emission-free airport in 2030 when it comes to the airport’s own activities and construction projects. Several of the works going on at the airport are already emission free. The construction partners (main contractors) at Schiphol are using more and more electric equipment to carry out work. In addition, Schiphol aims to be a waste-free airport in 2030 and circular by 2050. Waste streams and materials will be reused as much as possible. Recycling materials at the construction site itself reduces transport kilometres and the associated CO2 emissions, thus improving air quality. A good example is the airport’s own electric concrete recycling facility that saves around 80,000 km of transport kilometres annually.