sustainability

Airport for a sustainable future

At Kalmar Öland Airport, we have a tradition of being at the forefront of sustainability work. We want to be one of the airports that is first in the line of the green transition. In addition to working with the environment in our own operations, which today are fossil-free, we think bigger and longer. For example, we are already planning for how we can enable an infrastructure for commercial electric aviation in Kalmar.

In the aviation industry, intensive conversion work is underway to become fossil-free. There is no specific fossil-free alternative that is predicted to be able to solve the conversion issue without a combination of several, such as electricity, hydrogen and biofuel.  

The adjustment issue for aviation is not just an industry issue but also a societal issue. That is why we collaborate with other players, who are good at sustainable solutions. For example, we have leased a large area of land at the airport to Kalmar Energi to build Sweden's largest member-owned solar park, Törneby Solpark.  

And now we are working to establish electric aircraft as soon as possible with a solar cell-based charging infrastructure - locally produced aircraft simply. 

We annually buy bio-aviation fuel corresponding to our own business travel, and we finance together with our owners Kalmar Municipality and Region Kalmar County and the municipal companies, bio-aviation fuel in our local tank facility.  

Through our and others' commitment to buy biofuel, 130 m3 of biofuel was refueled at Kalmar Öland Airport in 2021. This means that all aircraft that have been refueled have had at least 30% of biofuel in the tank – a number that is completely unique in Sweden and in the aviation industry.  

In our sustainability work, we also work with our local environment. We have, for example, invested in the development of Kalmar Dam, a wetland area that functions as nature's own treatment plant and takes care of the nitrogen that remains when our runways must be kept ice-free. In addition to treatment plants, the wetland also serves as a play area for fish and a nesting place for birds and swarms of biodiversity. 

Today, we are also proud to say that we are basically fossil-free in our own business. By replacing heavy vehicles with environmentally friendly ones, phasing out electric boilers to district heating and solar cells and installing geothermal heat, we have been able to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by nine tonnes per year, and also reduce other emissions by as much as 95%. 

Last but not least, we are of course environmentally certified according to ISO 14001. 

If you are interested in immersing yourself in our environmental work, you are welcome to read more this spring Environmental report