London Stansted Airport releases its latest Sustainability Report

London Stansted Airport (STN) has released its latest Sustainability Report, outlining key achievements from the past five years under its strategy Working together for a brighter future. The strategy reflects the airport’s long-term commitment to reducing carbon emissions, creating jobs and training opportunities, and supporting local communities.

The five-year plan focused on three main priorities: achieving zero carbon airport operations, creating opportunities for all, and engaging local voices. These priorities were developed under Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which also owns Manchester and East Midlands airports.

Among the airport’s most notable achievements are establishing a target to reach net zero carbon operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 2038, launching the Jet Zero curriculum at its Aerozone education centre to teach young people about Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), and securing planning permission for a 14.3MW on-site solar farm, the first of its kind at a London airport. Construction on the solar farm is already underway.

Over the five-year period, Stansted also generated more than £7.6 million of new business for local small and medium-sized enterprises through its Meet the Buyers events and donated over £665,000 to community organisations via the Stansted Community Fund.

In the final year of the strategy, the airport began installing high-speed electric vehicle chargers and welcomed the 25,000th visitor to the Aerozone since its opening in 2015. It also marked the 10th anniversary of its school mentoring programme with Forest Hall School in Stansted Mountfitchet, which helps Year 11 students gain skills and confidence as they prepare for life beyond school.

Stansted’s Airport Academy has also played a major role in local employment, supporting more than 5,000 jobseekers with free training and advice to begin or advance their careers in aviation.

Earlier this year, London Stansted launched its new five-year sustainability strategy, Creating a sustainable future for all, which aims to build on existing progress and further accelerate the transition to net zero carbon operations by 2038.

Gareth Powell, Managing Director of London Stansted, said:

“The past five years have seen the airport make excellent progress delivering a host of projects and initiatives against our three strategic priorities: Zero Carbon Airport, Opportunity for All and Local Voices. I’m very proud of our achievements, particularly in light of the unprecedented challenges we faced because of the pandemic.

“These positive developments include securing planning permission for our 14.3MW on-site solar farm, which in now well underway and when complete in spring next year will be the first of its kind at a London airport. Alongside this, our education and employment programmes supported more than 40,800 people, and we donated more than £665,000 to local causes through our Community Fund.

“During the final year of our Strategy, our hard work continued to deliver successful sustainability initiatives, including the installation of 10 new high-speed Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers for EV owners using the airport.

“We were also pleased to welcome the 25,000th visitor to our on-site Aerozone education facility since it opened in 2015, demonstrating the scale of our positive impact on young people in our region.”

Looking ahead, Stansted aims to grow sustainably by applying to increase its passenger limit to 51 million per year on its existing runway, without operating additional flights beyond those already approved.

Powell added:

“We want to grow the airport in the most sustainable and responsible way possible and have applied to increase our passenger limit to 51m per year on our existing runway without operating any additional flights beyond those already approved. We recognise to achieve this goal our ambitious approach to sustainability must continue, so earlier this year we launched our new Sustainability Strategy: Creating a sustainable future for all.

“The new Strategy builds on a more than two decades long commitment to sustainability as our industry moves towards its net zero targets. It reaffirms our commitment to providing opportunities for education and employment, as well as ensuring the voices of those who live closest to our airports are heard, understood and valued.

“I would like to thank everyone at Stansted Airport for their continued hard work and commitment to deliver our sustainability programme and look forward to celebrating future achievements together.”

The full report is available here.

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