Ardian Air Carbon, a technological platform to help airports lead the path to a net-zero aviation

There is an urgent need to accelerate the decarbonization of aviation

Although today the aviation sector’s emissions represent only about 3% of global carbon emissions, these are expected to increase significantly if no actions from aviation stakeholders are taken. In a scenario where aviation would be the only one not to act to meet the 2°C target of the Paris Agreement, the sector could contribute to 22% of global carbon emissions by 2050.

The urge to reduce air transport’s carbon emissions first requires that every aviation stakeholder measures its carbon footprints accurately to build rational decarbonization scenarios towards net-zero afterwards. Only such an approach will allow to drive an impact, both in the short and long terms.

Thanks to their central position in the aviation value chain, airports can be key catalysts if they manage to address these indirect emissions, which represent the largest part of the total. They account for 95% of airports’ emissions. Besides, acting on their scope 3 emissions could trigger a better and more efficient data sharing among all aviation players.

Thanks to its strong expertise and broad network built up over the years, as well as its internally developed capabilities in data science, Ardian is positioning itself as one of the pioneering asset managers in helping airports’ portfolio overcome this technological challenge.

Ardian Air Carbon was initially co-developed by Ardian and its portfolio airports with the ambition to extend its reach to airports outside of the portfolio

Initiated in 2019 as an in-house student project, Ardian Air Carbon is now an industrialized tool. The tool is built around two main features: Estimate and Project. On the one hand, Estimate enables airports to automatically monitor their carbon emissions from real-time operational data, which is a differentiating point compared to the solutions available today on the market. The methodology is based on the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) public standards. On the other hand, Project provides airport managers with a realistic view of emission trajectory for the next six months and up to ten years ahead.

The first benefit for airport managers using Ardian Air Carbon is to monitor the scope 3 emissions of the airport and assess the impact of the different actions they could take. Then, they can also speed up the access to higher levels of accreditation in the ACA program through the automatic reporting, and hence save a large amount of time to their teams.

In the longer term, the ambition of Ardian Air Carbon is to become the central platform to accelerate the convergence of the industry on these standards and hence the transition towards a net-zero aviation. Therefore, Ardian Air Carbon is built in such a way that it is easy-to-deploy for airports within in only a few days.

Ardian has co-developed and tested Ardian Air Carbon in close relationships with its Italian portfolio airports, which are all already using it today (Turin Airport, Malpensa Airport - Milan, Linate Airport - Milan and Naples Airport) and is currently launching a pilot with the first external airport on the tool: Keflavik International Airport. The next step is to multiply such partnerships with external airports to continue developing the tool.

Ardian Air Carbon is a case in point of Ardian’s sustainable investments

For fifteen years, Ardian has adopted a formal approach to responsible and long-term investment that favors a co-construction strategy with its portfolio companies on sustainability. The involvement of the portfolio airports sustainability and energy teams from the very beginning of the project illustrates well Ardian’s philosophy behind the conception of Ardian Air Carbon: a pioneering platform built for the airports, by the airports.

More generally, all assets within Ardian’s portfolio can benefit from a solid network of partners to reach their climate and sustainability targets sooner. Regarding the aviation sector, Ardian has established a Transport Working Group (TWG) to exchange the best decarbonization practices among its members, accelerate their carbon footprint reduction and develop the resiliency of the sector.