A holistic approach to assess impacts of sustainability initiatives in airports: Case studies of small hub airports

Abstract

This paper explores the assessment of the impact of sustainability initiatives in six US small hub airports. A holistic approach with three phases — sustainability planning, implementation and monitoring — was employed to better understand how small hub airports gauge the success and impact of a sustainability initiative before implementation. The study objectives were twofold: (1) to gain an in-depth understanding of sustainability assessment methods and tools, and sustainability metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess the impacts of sustainability initiatives in the three phases; and (2) to develop a preliminary sustainability impact assessment framework that incorporates impact assessment from the start of planning of sustainability initiatives. Researchers used multiple case study research methodology. Sustainability planning documents from six small hub airports were gathered and examined, followed by interviews with airport executives and airport planning consultants. The documents were analysed for each individual airport and the interviews were analysed thematically in aggregate. Findings show that the small hub airports studied have adopted sustainability practices in airport planning; however, there is no uniform approach for setting performance metrics and KPIs. Where used, monitoring of performance metrics and assessment of the impacts of sustainability initiatives is not clearly defined. In addition, small hub airport operators face various challenges in assessing the impacts of sustainability initiatives, including lack of a standardised assessment framework and lack of in-house sustainability experts. In addition, these airports operate with limited budgets, leading to human resources and financial constraints, leaving no budget for active monitoring of sustainability initiatives. Based on the findings of the study, researchers developed a framework for assessing the impacts of sustainability initiatives that may be used by airport operators to inform decision making on assessment of the impacts of sustainability initiatives. The proposed framework may be most applicable to small airports such as the ones in this paper. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.