Brussels Airport has been working on its green mobility credentials, both for its passengers and for its staff, and is now accelerating its initiatives.
The initiatives range from electric buses to CNG vehicles and electric charging stations. To ramp up its efforts and stay a step ahead of the new regulations on the electrification of company vehicles, Brussels Airport Company is accelerating the electrification of its fleet, while at the same time encouraging alternative means of transport. This mobility policy is in line with its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Under the motto “In the driving seat to a sustainable future”, Brussels Airport Company is launching its new mobility policy aiming to offer sustainable alternatives to its staff driving a company car.
Every project developed is analysed to keep its environmental impact to an absolute minimum. Mobility is no exception, says the Airport. For many years now, Brussels Airport has been encouraging sustainable solutions such as electric vehicles.
Since 2018, the Brussels Airport fleet has included some thirty electric buses, as well as cars running on CNG. What’s more, Brussels Airport is also testing, together with its partners, handling equipment that runs on electricity and hydrogen.
“Our new mobility policy fits in with our sustainability policy and our ambition to become a net zero carbon organisation, i.e. of bringing our use of fossil fuels down to zero and, consequently, of cutting our carbon emissions to zero as well,” explains Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company. “One way of doing so is to adapt our company car fleet, the aim being to reduce the number of company cars by promoting a combination of working from home, cycling and public transport for all our employees, including those who do not drive a company car, but also to change our car fleet.That means that, if we use a car, we want to do so without emitting carbon. That is why, from January 2022, we will only be purchasing electric company cars with the possibility of bike/car and public transport/car combinations.”
Electrification with a four-year head-start
This new and ambitious mobility policy allows the employees of Brussels Airport Company to opt for several alternatives to the car, which can be combined or not, such as public transport, bicycles, shared solutions (shared cars, shared bicycles, etc.) or even a cash alternative.
The decision has also been taken to switch to electric cars to replace the company car fleet. While a number of these cars are already electric or hybrid, from 2022 onwards all new company cars will be fully electric, with a target of achieving an all-electric fleet by the end of 2025.
This is an ambitious and gradual decision, as, according to the new Belgian regulations, companies will only be obliged to switch to electric vehicles for their new fleet from 2026 onward. Brussels Airport will hit the target four years earlier.
In concrete terms, the first car orders will be placed in January 2022 and will be accompanied by home charging solutions. Brussels Airport Company will also install additional fast charging stations in its car park.
The complete electrification of the fleet, which will be effective by the end of 2025, will save almost 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. At the same time, the employees of Brussels Airport Company will have the opportunity to try the different alternative methods of transport and consider which best meet their needs, while contributing to achieving carbon neutrality in the hopefully not so distant future.
