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Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB) has been given an Environmental Achievement Award by the Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA). The award celebrates the accomplishments and dedicated work of North American airports in environmental awareness and innovation. YQB’s environmental management plan won in the mitigation category.
“We’re extremely proud to receive this award and the recognition that comes with it,” said Gaëtan Gagné, president and CEO of YQB. “We were told that the judges were particularly impressed by YQB’s energy savings over the past few years. They believed that the airport’s achievements go above and beyond compared to past airport projects and said that YQB has set an example. We couldn’t be happier or prouder of our employees, who have worked incredibly hard day after day to innovate and reach the industry’s highest standards.”
Among others, this award recognizes the sustainable development strategy for the terminal expansion and reorganization project. This project completely transformed the face of the airport and made concrete improvements to both technology and sustainable development. Incorporating sustainable development very early in the project led to significant energy savings while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. YQB’s energy-saving measures allowed it to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 54 percent from 2016 to 2018, even though the airport’s area has doubled. Similarly, despite major construction work, its excellent residual materials management meant that in 2017, 63.8 percent of recyclable materials were recovered, placing YQB second among Canadian airports.
YQB’s sustainable development strategy hinges on its sustainable development manual, which in turn is based on the Sustainable Airport Manual (SAM). The SAM framework is used by many international airports that are leaders in sustainable development (San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Atlanta, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.). It aims to integrate sustainable development very early in the planning process for actions and projects.
