YVR’s role in advancing innovation and the energy transition
YVR has a long history of driving innovation and change, within aviation and beyond.
As we look to the future, we are thinking about our role in advancing new energy solutions, reducing carbon emissions, and exploring new innovations that benefit travellers and employees, as well as our community and economy.
Teams across YVR, from Innovation to Climate and Environment, to Operations and Guest Experience, to Engineering and Commercial Development, are learning from technology and passengers alike to understand the opportunities and challenges and to put in place new approaches at the airport.
We are also working with many industry partners, through our Innovation Hub and in our capacity as a testbed with the Integrated Marketplace, to develop and implement made-in-B.C. solutions that work at our airport and can be applied to other airports and industries.
Many of these solutions are already underway at YVR.
We are working to become net-zero by 2030, which includes decarbonizing the largest building in the province: the Main Terminal at YVR. Following our four decarbonization pathways, we have started design of a geoexchange facility, which will save nearly 4,800 tonnes of carbon annually. We have also replaced and upgraded our heating, cooling and ventilation systems and lighting and hot water systems throughout the terminal.
Our decarbonization pathways extend beyond our terminal, and we are also taking steps to transition our vehicle fleet to electric and hydrogen solutions, advance renewable energy generation, and use renewable natural gas and diesel across our operations.
Many of our climate and environment solutions are powered by new innovations and cleantech.
We are using machine vision to trial camera technology to monitor occupancy in the terminal and send messages to our HVAC system to control settings in real-time to precise needs in order to save energy. We also have a pilot project in place with Moment Energy that leverages end-of-life batteries for additional charging capacity.
Our Digital Twin is another powerful tool for monitoring operations and allowing our teams to identify efficiencies. This includes looking beyond our operations, such as calculating GHGs from aircraft and evaluating airfield routing options to reduce emissions. It also includes visualizing data that is collected from cargo operations to inform future process and infrastructure needs to create green aviation shipping corridors for goods to and from the airport.
While we’re proud of our progress and are confident in our work to achieve our current climate goals, we recognize the future energy needs and are focused on helping create a sustainable path forward, not only for our airport but also for our industry and region.
We recently convened an Energy Advisory Council to provide us with guidance on how to meet our future energy needs and are continuing to work across the aviation industry and other sectors to advance partnerships that are necessary to support future requirements. This includes our work with the Province of BC to complete a Sustainable Aviation Fuel opportunities study and stimulate made-in-B.C. low carbon jet fuel and to look at how we can support all airports in achieving net-zero carbon. It also includes partnering with Airbus and ZeroAvia to study the feasibility of hydrogen infrastructure at YVR, and collaborating with Seattle and Portland airports under the Cascadia Innovation Corridor program.
Learn more about our climate and innovation work at YVR: www.YVR.ca/environment and www.YVR.ca/innovation.