The Denver International Airport is on track to hit a number of environmental sustainability goals set in 2017, reducing the airport’s greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and water use.

To date, the airport has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 30,476 metric tons since 2017, reaching 65% of its goal to reduce emissions by 47,100 metric tons by 2027. In addition, the airport has achieved 99% of its 2025 energy usage goal and 80% of its 2035 water usage goal — already decreasing energy usage by 217,335,000 kbtu and water usage by 123,300 kgal since 2017.

Airport officials presented these results to the Denver City Council business committee on Wednesday.

“Sustainability is one of our guiding principles,” airport CEO Phil Washington said during the meeting. “It’s not an ad hoc kind of thing.”

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Scott Morrissey, the airport’s senior vice president of sustainability, said this is part of the airport’s plan to become one of the most environmentally sustainable airports in the world.

In 2004, Denver International Airport became the first commercial airport in the country with a certified environmental management system covering all of its operations. The system provides a framework for the airport’s environmental risks and makes response plans for when something goes wrong, Morrissey said.

Denver International Airport is home to one of the largest renewable energy programs of any airport in the world, generating 20% of the airport’s annual electricity use in solar power. The airport is involved in other solar programs, including hosting over 50 electric vehicle charging stations and two community solar gardens, which allow people to purchase solar power generated at the airport.

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The airport also has recycling, composting and donation programs for its waste, food, toiletries and abandoned items — increasing its waste diversion rates to above state-levels in the past 15 years, Morrissey said.

“In a typical organization, as activities increase, environmental impacts are going to increase in a linear way,” Morrissey said. “We’re going to work to start to decouple our growth from our environmental impacts so that we can continue to achieve our sustainability goals.”

The airport is working to expand its operations to be able to accommodate 100 million annual passengers between 2030 and 2035. The airport was built in 1995 to accommodate up to 50 million annual passengers, Washington said. In 2019, before pandemic-related travel decreases, the airport saw 69 million passengers.

On Wednesday, the business committee also advanced a $38 million contract with Inland Technologies International to provide aircraft de-icing services for the next 15 years.

Under the proposed contract, Inland Technologies International would build a new recycling system for the airport, in which the used de-icing fluid is collected, purified and reused. This prevents the de-icing fluid from being released into the environment. The full council will vote on the contract in the coming weeks.

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