SFO’s longstanding leadership in environmental sustainability is embodied by its commitment to Zero by 2030 – net zero carbon, net zero energy, and zero waste. While SFO’s 2030 target is already accelerated beyond the airline industry’s net zero carbon by 2050, the urgency of the climate crisis compels SFO to push even further. The goal “Take Bold Climate Action,” raises our aspirations with objectives and initiatives that challenge SFO and demonstrate to the industry that restorative actions are possible today.
To be bold we must address embodied carbon in our materials, develop a carbon sequestration framework for residual airport emissions, and address overproduction by minimizing construction waste. Additionally, we will implement standardized financial models that incorporate the total cost of ownership, co-benefits, and resource constraints in the decision-making process.
SFO must connect with our guests, suppliers, and neighbors to inspire their own climate advocacy regarding their consumer choices for healthy, lowest-carbon-impact food, retail, and aviation options. Moreover, SFO must prepare and adapt to an uncertain climate future by ensuring the resilience of our assets and services, enabling us to respond and recover from various hazards and stresses, whether natural, climatic, or human-induced.
Over the next five years, our objectives are to solidify our path to Zero and initiate strategies and investments that contribute to the restoration of environmental balance. The time for action is now, and by taking bold steps, SFO will lead the way towards a sustainable and resilient future.
Objectives / Initiatives
Objective 4.1
Adopt a resilience capital plan and program to respond and rebound from geologic, climatic, and human-caused hazards, shocks, and stressors.
4.1.1
Identify vulnerabilities of new and existing infrastructure to be resilient. (R&S)
4.1.2
Allocate staffing and financial resources to enable infrastructure and operations to be resilient. (R&S)
4.1.3
Create design criteria for new programs and projects to be resilient. (R&S)
Objective 4.2
Inspire the public and industry partners to take bold climate actions.
4.2.1
Elevate storytelling and inspire advocacy by increasing public awareness and encourage behavior changes through social media and the overall SFO brand. (EXT)
4.2.2
Leverage communications channels to drive consumer action toward the healthiest and lowest-carbon impact food, retail, and aviation choices. (EXT/FINCOM)
4.2.3
Establish a living laboratory with expert partners to develop and test innovative strategies that improve SFO’s built environment and human health. (R&S)
Objective 4.3
Achieve net zero carbon for airport-controlled emissions by 2030 and establish a stakeholder emission reduction target and implementation plan by 2024.
4.3.1
Transition 100% of airport-owned light-duty vehicles to electric or clean, alternative energy sources by 2030 and enable the decarbonization of landside and airside transit vehicles by providing sufficient infrastructure and incentives. (OPS/D&C)
4.3.2
Eliminate the use of fossil fuels for building energy by 2030 and set targets for both embodied carbon for select building materials by 2026 and for new whole building construction by 2028. (R&S)
4.3.3
Evaluate SFO sequestration potential and develop a carbon sequestration framework for residual SFO emissions by 2027 to achieve true net zero by 2030. (R&S)
Objective 4.4
Reach net zero energy by 2030 by accelerating distributed energy resources and electrical grid modernization and optimizing the performance of assets across their life cycle.
4.4.1
By 2028, install renewable energy and monitoring equipment to increase SFO’s electricity generation by 10MW from 2022 levels and pilot storage assets that have the capability to isolate, shed, and/or locally energize specific loads. (FINCOM)
4.4.2
Improve the efficiency of energy use and system responsiveness via technology and predictive / optimization analytics. (D&C)
4.4.3
Develop and institutionalize a new total cost of ownership (TCO) financial decision-making model. (R&S/FINCOM)
4.4.4
Build, operate, optimize, and maintain the best-in-class facilities through workforce development and implementation of all the Zero Net Energy Plan’s recommendations. (D&C/OPS/FINCOM)
Objective 4.5
Become a zero-waste campus for airport-controlled municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction waste.
4.5.1
From 2022 levels, reduce landfill-bound MSW generated per passenger by 70% by 2028. (R&S)
4.5.2
Achieve a 90% waste diversion rate by 2028. (R&S)
4.5.3
Achieve a consistent contamination rate less than 5% across all waste streams by 2028. (R&S)
Objective 4.6
Be a net zero water campus by achieving balance between water consumption and measures that conserve, replenish, and recycle water by 2030.
4.6.1
Reduce potable water demands, maximize onsite reuse and conservation through onsite infrastructure, and possibly serve adjacent communities, if sufficient capacity exists. (D&C)
4.6.2
Optimize the water distribution system through real-time measurement of water quality to sustain water health, improve system-wide operations, and detect issues and leaks. (OPS)
4.6.3
Recognize the life cycle impacts of water used to construct new facilities by calculating embodied water in select building products and establishing an embodied water use reduction target by 2030. (R&S)
