Environment

Worms at LaGuardia Airport

Environment, , ,

There will be worms. And sunflowers.

Changi -Sunflower garden

Earth Day is coming up – and to spread the word about their green initiatives, the Food & Shops at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B, JetBlue Airways and The Port Authority of NY & NJ are hosting a “Choose Green” event on Thursday afternoon with a hands-on composting worm exhibit, courtesy of the Queens Botanical Garden.

Not into worms? There will be coloring and face painting for kids and, for adults who say they’ll “Choose Green,” a chance to enter into a drawing to win two JetBlue tickets and get a free sunflower growing kit.

Not traveling through New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Thursday between noon and 4 pm? You can enter the contest on Twitter. More details here:

Drilling for oil & natural gas at airports

Airports, Environment, FAA, ,
DEN AIRPORT Drilling rig

Courtesy Denver International Airport

Like other airports, Pittsburgh International supplements its revenue from airlines with fees from parking, concessions, advertising and other sources.

But now that the FAA has given its approval,  PIT can add funds from oil and gas drilling to its income ledger .

The airport has a deal with Consol Energy that came with a $50 million signing bonus and the promise of payments and royalties of an estimated $25 million annually for at least the next 20 years.

“Other airports have other advantages. They may have better flight patterns or be close to major markets,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. “But we have this natural gas that others may not have.”

Federal Aviation Administration rules restrict how airports can spend drilling dollars and other non-aeronautical revenue.

“So we can’t take this new money and put it into the jail or the court system or the park system,” said Fitzgerald. The county is using the cash to reduce landing, terminal and ramp fees paid by airlines. “That makes us more desirable and will help us attract more airlines and more flights to our airport,” he said.

Pittsburgh International isn’t the first airport to dig deep in the ground for extra revenue. Drilling contracts generate cash for Dallas/Fort Worth, said DFW spokesman David Magaña.

DFW received a $186 million bonus from Chesapeake Energy for a natural gas exploration lease signed in 2006.

“We had plans for as many as 300 wells on airport grounds,” Magaña said, “but we stopped at 112 in 2010 because of the drop of natural gas prices in the market.”

In 2008, when drilling began, DFW earned $33.9 million in royalty revenue. In 2013 royalties were $5.3 million.

“We certainly earn more money from other things,” said Magaña. “For example, we probably earn about $120 million a year on parking. But the gas revenues are a bonus that allows us to do things we wouldn’t have done.”

Early on, DFW used drilling income to make terminal improvements that customers would “notice and appreciate,” said Magaña. That included replacing all seating and flight monitors and updating all the fixtures in the restrooms.

Denver International Airport has 76 wells on its property and in 2012 oil and gas production generated over $6.2 million.

“That revenue is not a large chunk of our budget,” spokesman Heath Montgomery said. “For comparison, last year we saw record concession revenue of about $295 million. But oil and gas production is a way of generating non-airline revenue to help offset the airlines’ cost of operating so the airport can remain globally competitive.”

In Denver, Suncor buys the oil and Anadarko buys the natural gas while the airport owns the wells and manages the overall system.

With three Reserve Oil & Gas gas wells that began producing in November 2013, 790-acre Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.Va., isn’t in the same league, drilling-wise, as Dallas and Denver.

“We expect a steady $40,000 a year in royalties over a 40-year period, said Yeager Airport director Rick Atkinson, “but for a budget of our size that’s nothing to sneeze at.”

Atkinson said the funds can’t be used “to remodel the director’s suite to look like I’m an oil baron,” but the additional revenue stream will enable the airport to do small additional projects each year.

To get permission, the FAA must determine that under the National Environmental Protection Act, the wells would have no significant impact on the environment, Atkinson said. The other divisions of the FAA approve the wells from an air-space and air-traffic-control aspect and for impacts on future aviation developments at the airport, he said.

Oklahoma City Airport oil drilling

courtesy World Rogers World Airport

In Oklahoma City, three airports—Will Rogers World Airport and two general aviation/corporate airports—together have 87 active wells, generating more than $2.5 million in revenue in 2013, about 2.5 percent of the revenue for the city’s Department of Airports.

Several oil rigs—some of them pumping—can be seen by passengers from the airfield.

“They’re not just there for decoration,” said airport spokeswoman Karen Carney.

Tulsa International Airport doesn’t have any wells but it does have a 13-foot-tall, 56-foot-wide mural by Delbert Jackson titled “Panorama of Petroleum.”

The city of Tulsa doesn’t allow drilling within city limits, so instead, “we celebrate the region’s position as a leader in the energy sector by displaying the mural—which was once displayed in the Smithsonian Institution—in our terminal,” airport spokeswoman Alexis Higgins said.

(My story about drilling for oil and natural gas at airports first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior)

 

O’Hare’s herd of weed eaters gets the winter off

Environment, ,

Llama at ORD 2

Remember the herd of goats, sheep, llamas and burros that the Chicago Department of Aviation hired to eat weeds on about 120 acres of land at O’Hare Airport?

From August through mid-November, 37 animals from a no-kill shelter specializing in the rescue of farm and exotic animals munched their way through scrub vegetation on four sites that included hilly areas along creeks or streams and roadway right-of ways that were hard to get to with traditional landscaping equipment.

Now that winter is here, the animals are off-duty. But they’ll back in the spring to dine on a new crop of pesky weeds.

SHEEP AT ORD

Goats, sheep, llama and burros at O’Hare Airport

Airports, Environment,

Ohare llama

As part of its efforts to operate the greenest airport anywhere, this week the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) showed off a herd of 25 goats, sheep, llamas and burros that have been grazing on O’Hare Airport property the past few weeks as part of the airport’s Sustainable Vegetation Management initiative.

“Project HERD” is tasked with munching unwanted vegetation on up to 120 acres of airport property that is difficult to maintain with traditional landscaping equipment.

The herd will be on duty as long as weather permits and then come back to work in the fall of 2104.

And a hard working herd it is: just a few hours before the airport had their event to show off the project to media, a baby sheep was born.  He’s been named O’Hare.

ohare baby sheep

O’Hare isn’t the only airport to have animals as part of its landscaping crew. San Francisco International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have programs like this currently underway. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport tried it a few years back, but decided not to continue with the project.

(Photos courtesy Chicago Department of Aviation)

500,000 bees land at Sea-Tac Airport

Environment, ,

Bee outfit

Chicago’s O’Hare Airport has them. And at Vancouver International Airport, the Fairmont Vancouver Airport has them. Now Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has bee-hives as well. The project is a partnership between the Port of Seattle and the non-profit Common Acre group and the long term goal is to promote hardy bee populations in the region.

The project — named Flight Path — includes 500,000 honeybees and six hives on three vacant, undeveloped sites near the airfield. Passengers won’t see the bees, but an exhibit with some bee art and educational information about bees will open in January 2014 on Concourse B.

Goats getting gardening jobs at O’Hare Airport

Airports, Environment, , , ,
GOATS http://www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/

Courtesy George Eastman House via Creative Commons

As early as a month from now, a herd of about 25 goats – along with a shepherd – will arrive at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and be put to work munching unwanted vegetation (i.e. weeds) from up to 120 acres of airport-owned land that is difficult to get to with traditional landscaping equipment.

O’Hare already has beehives, an aeroponic vegetable and herb garden inside the terminal and a host of other green initiatives underway, but last September it put out a request for bids seeking “sustainable vegetation management grazing services.”

The two-year, $100,000 contract was awarded to Central Commissary Holdings, LLC, which operates a restaurant in the city and keeps a small herd of goats nearby.

O’Hare is not the first airport to employ goats. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, San Francisco International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have also hired goats and/or sheep to munch on unwanted vegetation.

And there are plenty of benefits:

Having goats eat weeds, poison ivy, and invasive plant species not only decreases landscape maintenance costs, reduces the use of heavy equipment and saves all that fuel that would be used for operating the mowing machinery, it provides an alternative to toxic herbicides and will be a fun way to draw attention to the airport’s environmental awareness.

Jet fuel made from pot? It could happen.

Environment, ,

We know pot can get you high, but can it also help airplanes fly?

A biofuel company in Washington thinks so.

The Evergreen State recently legalized the personal use of marijuana and officials are hammering out the rules for governing how commercial growers will farm and sell the cannabis to be sold in-state.

Washington pot farmers will have plenty of unused stalks and other plant material left over after harvest and the folks at Ballard Biofuel in Seattle don’t want all that potential energy to go to waste.

They think they can make it into high-quality jet fuel.

The company already sells soy-based hydraulic oil and other biodegradable, plant-based lubricants and fuels for use in industrial machinery. Now it is working on securing cash backing to build a bio-plant that can convert the leftovers from what is expected to be a hefty, legal marijuana market into jet fuel.

“A lot of airlines would love to have renewable fuels in their jets,” says Joseph Koniak, spokesperson for Ballard Biofuel. “And the potential customers we’ve talked to don’t have a problem with marijuana waste being used as feedstock [raw material]. It’s just making sure the quality is high enough for jet fuel.”

After all, notes Koniak, if your put a bad batch of bio-diesel in your car and it breaks down, it can be a hassle. “But if you have a bad batch of biofuel on an airplane, it’s going to be an emergency,” he says. “So any alternative jet fuel has to be excellent.”

Fuel is subject to erratic price changes and represents the largest piece of most airlines’ budgets. And despite energy-saving improvements in the design of airplanes and airplane engines, commercial aviation burns gobs of conventional jet fuel and emits vast quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2).

To address some of those issues, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says the aviation industry has voluntarily committed to achieving a 1.5 percent improvement in efficiency through 2020; carbon neutral growth starting in 2020; and a 50 percent reduction in net carbon emissions by 2050 compared with 2005.

“Biofuels are seen as crucial to achieving these targets,” says IATA spokesperson Perry Flint. “And the industry is focused on sustainable, drop-in biofuels that do not compete with food crops for water or soil.”

To that end, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) was established in 2006 and, since then, plants, woody biomass from forest products, algae, municipal waste, recycled vegetable cooking oil, animal fats and sugarcane have been considered or tested in aircraft in search of safe, alternative, sustainable biofuels.

Tests using blends of conventional jet fuel with alternative biofuels began in 2008 with a Virgin Atlantic Airways flight that used coconut and babassu palm oil. Since 2011, when the American Society for Testing Materials certified a few types of biofuels for use on commercial jets, there have been more than 1,500 flights on United, Alaska, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, KLM and several other airlines using a mix of traditional and low-carbon alternative fuels.

“There is no silver bullet,” says Flint. “Biofuels work. But for them to become a viable alternative to fossil fuels, production has to take place on an industrial scale, supplies have to be made widely available and costs have to drop.”

For now, the process remains complicated and still quite expensive.

“These alternative fuels have to be specially made and the cost now is about six to eight times higher than [that of] conventional jet fuel,” says Carol Sim, director of environmental affairs for Alaska Airlines. Even if an airline signed an order for a large amount of a specific jet fuel alternative today, Sim says, “a supplier would need time to ramp up production and would probably not be able to deliver a reliable supply for a few years.”

That may be why “airlines continue to hesitate a little bit because there’s still work being done to mature the technology and the supply chain,” says CAAFI executive director Steve Csonka.

But the dedication is there and definitely moving forward.

“Passengers are increasingly interested in things they can do to reduce their impact on the environment. And travel is one of those thing they can influence,” says Jimmy Samartzis, managing director of environmental affairs and sustainability for United Airlines.

(My story about sustainable biofuel first appeared on AOL Travel)

Greetings from soggy Sea-Tac Airport

Airports, Environment,

It’s been raining  – a lot; more than usual – in Seattle, and places that sometimes leak a little are leaking are lot.

Including the ceiling in the North Satellite Terminal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where someone got creative in marking off the spots where water was dripping onto the floor.

The first time I passed by I thought, “How nice! They’re taking advantage of the leak to water those plants. But when I went back to snap a photo I touched one of the plants and discovered they were all fake.

Drinking in airports

Airports, Environment, Food,

It’s irritating – and expensive – to have to dump a perfectly good, sealed container of bottled water before entering an airport security checkpoint only to pay an inflated price for a fresh bottle on the other side.

To avoid that scenario, many travelers take along an empty, wide-mouthed bottle and fill it up at a water fountain or in a bathroom sink on the post-security side.

I’m happy to report that an increasing number of airports are installing water bottle refill stations to make this task easier – and greener.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has at least four hydration stations throughout the terminals, and there are water-bottle refill stations in Chicago at O’Hare and Midway airports and at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

This week, Oregon’s Portland International Airport sent out a tweet alerting travelers to some new water-bottle refill stations there. Given how expensive real-estate is for retail outlets at airports, its interesting to note that these are inside shops.

Do you know of other airports that have these helpful gadgets? Send a note – and perhaps a photo – along and we’ll make a list.

Sheep, goats and bees at airports

Airports, Environment, ,

Earlier this week, I wrote about Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s week-long pilot project to employ 100 sheep (plus a few goats) to munch on invasive vegetation on airport property. ATL’s program comes on the heels of SFO’s 8-year long use of goats to keep weeds at bay and a short-lived experiment a few years back at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Now comes word that the Chicago Department of Aviation is hoping to hire some goats to do yard work as well.

That makes perfect sense for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, which has been going green by leaps and bounds. In addition to an in-airport aeroponic garden that is providing herbs and vegetables to some airport restaurants and to a brand new farmer’s market-like stand in the airport, there’s an apiary ( a bee hive yard) on airport property as well.