Flight to Sustainability: Quantifying Carbon Emissions for Los Angeles World Airports

In 2021, aviation represented 8 percent of all U.S. trans­porta­tion-emissions. Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is focused on getting that number down through the Airport Carbon Accred­i­ta­tion (ACA) program: a transparent, inter­na­tion­ally recognized airport carbon reporting program that inde­pen­dently assesses and quantifies greenhouse gas emissions and emission management plans. Partic­i­pat­ing in ACA is one way that LAWA upholds its commitment to the surrounding community to implement strong carbon management plans, policies and actions.

“Airport carbon accred­i­ta­tion is the sustainable aviation way of putting your money where your mouth is. Partic­i­pa­tion in the program is about estab­lish­ing strong climate action commitments and policies and defending those policies with hard numbers from inter­na­tion­ally recognized methods and real airport data,” says project manager Jeremy Gilbride. Since 2018, CDM Smith’s air quality experts have supported LAWA’s carbon reporting for LAX, as well as Van Nuys, one of the largest general aviation airports in the country, to quantify emissions annually. In 2023, the project team was recognized with an ACA Award for their enduring contri­bu­tions.

The team supported LAWA in developing a robust stakeholder engagement plan to guide outreach methods for interacting with stake­hold­ers and requesting data for the development of the carbon inventory. They also crafted the orga­ni­za­tional structure and data analysis processes LAWA still uses today to account for, organize, and quality-review the emissions data they receive. There are hundreds of general aviation, freight, and commercial aircraft operators at LAX alone—over 550,000 aircraft operations servicing more than 66 million passengers annually—and a robust framework for this process is crucial to eliminate the guessing game of tracking down and quantifying this demanding number of emissions sources.

These emissions include direct, indirect, and non-LAWA emissions to give context for the development of current and future sustain­abil­ity policies and programs. Data collected and quantified during the ACA reporting process provides numerical support to LAWA's sustain­abil­ity programs, and the data is also published in its annual sustain­abil­ity reports.