TULIPS
There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, aviation generates 14% of the EU's greenhouse gasses from transportation. Thus airports can play a major role in making aviation climate neutral. This includes addressing CO2 emissions by enabling shifts in travel modes (e.g. replacing short-haul flights by rail), using lower-emission aircrafts, and reducing the amount of material waste exiting airports.
For the Circular Airport workpackage, circular design and nudging strategies will take center stage. These include ways to effectively reduce waste by introducing reusable products, reusing and recycling materials and methods to encourage people towards more sustainable behaviors such as choosing greener ways to get to the airport.
How will the project tackle research questions?
TULIPS will implement real-life demonstrations of green airport innovations. IDE will participate in two of the 12 work packages concerning Circular Airports and Sustainable Inter-Modal Connections. For the Circular airports work package (Bakker, van Dam, and Tschavgova), the material waste streams generated from passengers and employees from offices, restaurants, and shops will be mapped to identify where the most impactful improvements can be made in reducing waste. Co-creation sessions will then be held with partners along the complete value chain to identify how these solutions can be implemented. Passenger behavior will also be assessed and nudging methods designed to encourage purchase of reusable products and responsible waste disposal.
In the Inter-Modal workpackage (Hiemstra), an integrated digital platform will be developed, tested and demonstrated that provides travellers with solutions for more sustainable journeys. We will study how we can increase the use of more sustainable travel modes and help airport employees shift to green modes for commuting.
Expected results
For the circular airports work package we hope to prevent the waste from getting incinerated or landfilled. The goal is that 20% of the waste will be either reduced, reused, or recycled compared to a 2019 baseline. For the Inter-Modal workpackage, the goal is to reduce the airport carbon footprint by shifting travellers and commuters to alternative transport modes.
