Connections Transport & ICT 96246 The Broad Reach of Green Design Incorporating Environmental Sustainability in Aviation Facilities Christopher De Serio, Craig Ridgley, and Darin Cusack 8–10% A World Bank series of projects to improve aviation operations in four Pacific island countries is demonstrating that the concept of “green design” goes beyond energy The estimated share efficiency to the wider goal of environmental of air transport’s sustainability. The aviation program is reducing CO2 emissions impacts on a broad spectrum of concerns, coming from including solid waste management and water inefficiencies in quality, by designing with the full lifecycle of all airport infrastructure project assets in mind. The Pacific Aviation Investment Terminal Design Program The project is refurbishing the terminals at Tarawa in Begun in 2012, the Pacific Aviation Investment Pro- Kiribati and at Fua’amotu and Vava’u in Tonga; and gram is financing improvements to the air transport building new terminals at Kiritimati in Kiribati and infrastructure of four Pacific island countries—Kiri- at Funafuti in Tuvalu. The following elements were bati, Samoa (except terminals), Tonga, and Tuvalu. incorporated in the designs for all the terminals: The goal is to enhance aviation safety, security, and • Polypropylene, a nontoxic and completely recyclable operations in an environmentally sensitive man- plastic, for all internal plumbing and drainage pipes ner through runway rehabilitation and the redesign • Energy efficient lighting of terminals, navigation aids, runway lighting, and • Standard environmentally acceptable hydraulic other elements of airport operations. fittings and piping to minimize maintenance The islands import diesel fuel to generate electric- • Fitting the roofs for future additions of solar ity, so energy savings were especially important for power panels (current grid capacity cannot sup- their effect in reducing harmful emissions. But the port the use of solar power) broader aspects of environmental sustainability were also important. The principal opportunities Existing terminals for the project to advance these goals emerged in Design for the existing terminals focused on adaptive four areas: re-use to extend their serviceable life and maximize the benefit of their embodied energy, as follows: • Design of the terminals • Airfield lighting • Enhanced natural ventilation rather than mechan- • Paving ical air conditioning • Solid waste management during construction • Translucent skylights to reduce energy demands for lighting FEBRUARY 2015 NOTE 05 • New roofs and concrete slabs and blocks de- • Significantly improves the asphalt’s water resis- signed to reduce internal air temperatures tance and reduces oxidation, which in turn increase its service life and negate the need for sealers. New terminals Designing new terminals affords some additional Coral aggregates opportunities: Aggregate, used in asphalt and concrete to provide • Rainfall collection for use at the terminal as well strength and bulk, typically consists of gravel from as for the rest of the island rock. To obtain aggregate of sufficient quality, Tonga • Water-saving bathroom fittings must import it over great distances by barge. The • Use of recycled or sustainably sourced hard- paving designs for the Tonga airports were therefore woods modified to instead allow use of coral aggregates from licensed quarries in the island’s interior. Airfield Lighting The coral, a carbonate material more porous than rock, produces a superior asphalt. Its porosity Replacing incandescent lighting with light emit- significantly increases the strength of its adhesion ting diode (LED) lights for airfield ground lighting with the bitumen binder. The stronger bonding provides major energy savings. The advantages of together with the greater oxidation resistance of LED lighting include carbonate material greatly improves the service life • Power savings of up to 75 percent;1 and of the asphalt. • Average life expectancies of 35,000–50,000 hours versus only 5,000 hours for incandescents.2 Solid Waste Management The savings also boost the potential for solar power. Islands lack adequate land area for waste disposal. The project took an aggressive stance toward waste management, requiring suppliers to re- Paving move all packaging and contractors to remove their equipment at the end of the project. Further, Runway paving imposes a significant carbon all airports accumulate a significant amount of burden on the atmosphere. The airports’ runways redundant, obsolete, or unserviceable equipment. and ancillary areas are being repaved with asphalt The project thus also requires the export and safe that contains a special wax additive; and in Tonga, disposal or recycling of such gear, whether or the aggregate being used in the asphalt is locally not it was present before the start of the project. sourced coral instead of imported rock aggregate. Tuvalu presents a unique opportunity for disposing These features reduce the carbon footprint of the of waste during construction: Because all paving paving in the following ways. aggregates will be imported from Fiji by barge, Wax additive the Tuvalu government is investigating how to use the returning barges for the removal of recyclable • Allows for manufacture of the asphalt at lower waste on the island, which has been uneconomic temperatures and with less energy.3 to export. For more information on this topic: 1 http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/lighting-choices- http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/11/15496050/ save-you-money east-asia-pacific-pacific-aviation-investment-project-east-asia- 2 http://emerald.ts.odu.edu/Apps/FAAUDCA.nsf/ pacific-pacific-aviation-investment-project Nettey8472FullProposal.pdf?OpenFileResource and 3 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/asphalt/wma.cfm http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/19012250/ samoa-aviation-investment-project Connections is a series of concise knowledge notes from the World Bank Group’s Transport & Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Global Practice. The series is available on the internal and external online platform of the World Bank Group. Connections discusses projects, experiences, and front-line developments in Transport and ICT. The series is produced by Nancy Vandycke, Shokraneh Minovi, and Adam Diehl, peer-reviewed by experts of the Practice on a bi-weekly basis, and edited by Gregg Forte. For more information on Connections, and to read other notes in the series, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/transport/connections FEBRUARY 2015 NOTE 05