Tamara, what made you take up your current role at the Vancouver International Airport?
Through the work my team was doing at Vancity we were proving that values-based financing is a viable business model. I wanted to take these lessons to the aviation sector, which I saw as ripe for transformation.
In Canada, we are blessed with a country that has a large geography and a small population. This means that a healthy aviation system is necessary for us to have a functional society and economy. At the same time, aviation is at odds with our climate goals —as I say this, my country is suffering from wildfires. So, as a fossil-fuel-drive industry, we have a huge moral obligation to decarbonize. The way I always put it: “Flying isn’t the enemy, carbon is.” In other words, we must find a way to remove carbon emission from our operations and technology. That ambition brought me where I am today.
Could you tell us more about the unique, community-based business model of your airport?
Legally speaking, we are a private non-share capital corporation that is for-profit, except we must reinvest all that profit in the airport (for public benefit) without distributing it to our shareholders. We had the honor of being recognized by Skytrax, our leading industry association and publication, as the best airport in North America for twelve years in a row, from 2010-2021. We are known for pioneering a sense of place in our airport, which boasts a living forest, Indigenous art, and great amounts of natural light and air. And serving a customer base of approximately 25 million passengers in 2023, we are also the second-largest airport in the country with major cargo facilities and 26,000 employees.
Overall, I would say we are unique in that not only do we recognize on whose land we operate, but also strive to innovate our services. For instance, before digitalization, we invented the conventional check-in kiosks one sees at airports. In terms of our operations, we are centered around a sense of responsibility to the community we serve and the economy that supports it, while working with new technologies that contribute to the energy transition.
When we think of the aviation industry’s sustainability process, we think of aircrafts in flight. What are the environmental impacts of airports themselves?
I think that people underestimate the environmental impact of airports. For example, our airport is the largest building in all British Columbia, which means that making our operations net zero from end-to-end is no small feat. In all our gates we have installed plug-in capabilities that allow our airplanes to charge using hydroelectric power, saving hours of “idle” fossil fuel emissions. We are also working to electrify or use biodiesels for all the airport’s baggage systems and the handling of ground equipment. In terms of ground transportation, our plan to switch to using EVs for our ride-share and rental carpool systems will also offer a greener alternative to single-occupancy vehicles.
Now that you are carbon neutral, what are your goals for further reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
We have the ambitious goal of achieving net zero operations by 2030. That includes everything from our heating and cooling systems to the electrification of our AI-generated digital platform for detecting air quality and regulating energy to the introduction of our district energy geo-exchange system to the electrification of our light duty fleets via new mobile charging stations that a local company manufactures out of recycled batteries. Ultimately, we aim to share these innovations with other airports and industrial users.
Do innovations in sustainable aviation imply higher costs for passengers?
I think that, in the frame of our growing sector, innovations with proved efficiency that are adopted by one airport tend to subsequently be adopted by other airports. And because flying is an essential service, I do not consider that the passenger should be taxed for any additional associated costs. I would like to see more passengers demanding that the carbon footprint of flying decrease.
I think that airports that are starting to show both the price and carbon emissions of each flight are taking a first step in the right direction in terms of enabling our customers to make more conscientious decisions about their choice of airline.
What is your vision for the Vancouver International Airport in the next couple of years? Do you see yourself as a role model in the sector in terms of making the green transition?
As a large economic player and energy platform in our region, located very near to a major metropolitan area, I see us not only growing, but also playing a major role through the energy we choose to use and make available to those around us. I do not see why we would not be able to achieve a “circular airport” in the future where all the energy and waste we consume and produce are regenerative.
The aviation industry is an ecosystem, and we are happy to act as role models and share our innovations with other actors in the sector. And precisely because the industry is vital to the way economies and societies work, I think it is important to participate in a collaborative effort that helps transform what is today a primarily fossil-fuel-driven service into a sustainable one.
