The Hamad International Airport (HIA) and Qatar Airways have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation's (Kahramaa) National Programme for conservation and energy efficiency, Tarsheed.
The objective is to achieve long-term sustainability and energy conservation in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker and Hamad International Airport chief operating officer engineer Badr Mohamed al-Meer signed MoU with Kahramaa president and senior engineer Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari at Kahramaa Awareness Park (KAP).
The agreement provides a framework for the HIA and Qatar Airways to work with Kahramaa together on technical collaborations as well as community awareness and development in relation to conservation technology, energy efficiency systems, awareness, and, in the near future, renewable energy.
As part of its efforts towards spreading community awareness, HIA and Qatar Airways will have staff trained by Tarsheed committee on best practices for conservation of electricity and water as well as energy efficiency.
Tarsheed will also conduct planned energy audits at HIA’s award-winning passenger terminal and Qatar Airways head offices, allowing both to apply the audit findings and recommendations to further improve energy efficiency.
Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al Kuwari, recalled that Tarsheed’s mission is to empower all Qatari citizens and residents through provision of information, awareness, encouragement and practical lifestyle suggestions and technology to reduce consumption of water and electricity.
"The HIA and Qatar Airways are partnering with Tarsheed to meet shared objectives for energy and water conservation and we are very pleased with these partnerships. Both HIA and Qatar Airways are well positioned to enhance awareness and emphasise Tarsheed’s principles and goals to its employees and to customers travelling through the airport or on board the award-winning airline. A number of joint communication initiatives will be implemented."
Through these MoUs, Tarsheed has planned energy audits expected to contribute practical recommendations for efficiency improvements that can be adopted for implementation by facilities management teams.
Such collaborations will work to achieve Qatar National Vision goals especially with emphasis on environmental development. Also, both parties work together to achieve comprehensive sustainability in keeping with the Qatar National Strategy 2017-2022 with a Tarsheed target of bringing down per capita consumption of electricity by 25 % and water by 35% in 2022. This is additional to generating more than 500MW of solar energy by 2020 to be contributed by a number of entities in Qatar.
Al-Baker said "We are very proud to collaborate with Kahramaa on this important project that will generate further awareness about the importance of sustainability in Qatar. Our vision for the HIA as a state-of-the-art, technologically-advanced airport is to ensure that it has minimal impact on the environment and protects the future of Qatar for generations to come.With the most modern facilities at our fingertips we will do everything in our power to make sure this partnership has tangible results confirming Qatar’s commitment to long-term sustainability.”
At the ceremony, al-Baker said there was no financial contribution from any parties involved in the MoU, which has been signed for three years.
Al-Meer said “We are pleased to partner with Kahramaa to increase awareness on energy and water conservation to more than 30 million passengers travelling annually through the award-winning facilities of the HIA. Environmental responsibility is at the core of the HIA's operations. We are advancing our aim to improve energy efficiency by 30% by 2030 and we are fully committed to developing a sustainable future for our airport by effectively managing the environmental impacts of our operations.”
Kahramaa launched ‘Tarsheed’ on April 22, 2012 under the patronage of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Tarsheed focuses on conservation technology standardisation and rules, in addition to community development and awareness by targeting all communities and sectors in Qatar regarding the efficient use of energy including renewable energy.
It succeeded in bringing down the per capita consumption of electricity by 18% and water by 20% by the end of last year.
HIA achieved Level 3 ‘Optimisation’ status in the Airports Council International Airport Carbon Accreditation programme earlier this year, only 18 months after first initiating its carbon management programme in 2015.
The airport has also recorded a 14.2 per cent improvement in carbon efficiency (CO2 kg per passenger) in 2016 compared to 2015.A Carbon Management Strategy that provides the framework for energy reduction initiatives throughout the airport has been developed. An Energy Working Group has been created to identify and promote energy-saving initiatives across the whole airport.
