The Royal Schiphol Group has announced that all of its business units are set to run on sustainable power from the beginning of 2018.
From 2020, all of the power will come from new Dutch wind farms run by energy company Eneco. While the new wind farms are built, the power will come from other sustainable sources in the Netherlands.
The clean energy will supply Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Eindhoven Airport and Lelystad Airport and amount to 220 gigawatt hours annually for the next 15 years. According to the business, 70 million passengers passed through its Dutch airports in 2016, an increase of 8.9 percent.
"For our new energy contract, we wanted nothing but sustainable power generated in the Netherlands," Jos Nijhuis, president and CEO of the Royal Schiphol Group, said in a statement on Tuesday. Nijhuis went on to state that aviation "can and must be made more sustainable."
Dutch authorities have ambitious plans when it comes to the environment and renewable energy. Central government wants to slash greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 and, in the shorter term, wants to switch to 16 percent sustainable energy by 2023.
"For the energy transition, it is crucial for the business sector – which is by far the largest energy consumer – to embrace sustainability," Jeroen de Haas, the Eneco Group's CEO, said.
"Pioneers such as Royal Schiphol Group are consciously choosing new, sustainable forms of production and are therefore setting the tone for others," de Haas added.
