The airport needs large quantities of electricity for the operation of its infrastructures and in particular for building air cooling, ventilation and lighting, runway marker lights and a wide range of equipment (fire detectors, telescopic airbridges, etc.). Electricity and water are purchased by Genève Aéroport for its own needs and for distribution to the other bodies and companies on the airport site. Genève Aéroport uses 100% hydraulic electricity SIG Vitale Bleu.

Since 2009, Genève Aéroport has been purchasing SIG Vitale Vert electricity, which also satisfies naturemade star label criteria, to cover part of its energy needs. This electricity is produced in compliance with the most demanding environmental and energy criteria, and the choice allows Genève Aéroport to contribute to Services industriels de Genève (SIG) development of new renewable energy sources and the modernization of hydraulic structures.

Hot water for domestic and heating use which serves more than half of the airport infrastructures is produced by an extra light oil-fired thermal station operated by Genève Aéroport. The other buildings are linked up to the remote heating network of the Geneva Industrial Services (SIG), are heated by a gas system or have their own individual boilers.

Since 1986, Genève Aéroport has been pursuing a policy of stringent monitoring and rational management of energy consumption by using GESBAT monitoring system.

The latest energy saving technologies are incorporated upstream of the new buildings or adapted where necessary to the existing infrastructures (such as presence detectors for building lighting or operation of the escalators).

A solar heating installation enables hot water to be produced for the airport fire brigade building. Since January 2006, a solar power plant has been set up on the main hangar roof and operated by Edisun Power AG. The Switzerland’s second largest roof-mounted solar power plant produces 280 MWh/year of which 250 MWh/year are re-injected into the SIG network.

Since 2010, two new solar roofs were installed on the buildings of the airport, bringing to 470 MWh the total annual production of photovoltaic electricity.

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has estimated that aviation’s total CO2 emissions account for around 2% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Of that figure, airports’ own operations only account for up to 5%.

The federal law on CO2, which was introduced on 1 May 2000, gave Switzerland the means of meeting its commitments to global climate protection under the Kyoto protocol (which has been ratified by it).

With this aim, Genève Aéroport and seven Geneva-based partners signed an agreement with the Swiss Confederation, under the aegis of the Energy Agency for the Economy (AEnEC). This allows to pool the definition of appropriate measures to reduce the consumption of fossil energies.

Moreover, since November 2011, Geneva Airport has achieved Level 3 of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program. This program, created by ACI Europe, includes four levels of certification: (1) mapping, (2) reduction, (3) optimization and (4) neutrality.