Sustainability

Sustainability as we see it

Scandinavian Mountains Airport has a natural incentive to nurture nature and the environment in which we operate and live. We want to combine accessibility with fossil free and focus on the fact that emissions from the aviation are to be reduced – not air travel itself.

Sälen's old airport is being expanded

Scandinavian Mountains Airport is being built on the same bit of land where Sälen Airport has been situated since the early 1970s. Its strategic location in the middle of the Nordic region’s largest alpine region and fantastic mountainous nature paves the way for more visitors all year round. Tourism thrives in this unique region, which means that sustainability demands are high.

A private airport that creates growth

Scandinavian Mountains Airport is a regional venture in a sparsely populated region, in order to create long-term growth, attracting more job opportunities and permanent residents. The company is wholly owned by many local Norwegian and Swedish companies. The growing tourism industry is often highlighted as Sweden’s new base industry. The industry is personnel-intensive and contributes to an accelerated establishment of both newcomers and young people.

Is it possible to fly environmentally friendly?

Scandinavian Mountains Airport aims to combine accessibility with fossil free flying and focuses on the fact that emissions from the aviation should decrease, not air travel itself. It is also a matter of increasing energy efficiency throughout the operation of the airport. Examples of this are a gradual increase in electrification and other technology developments. Fuel change – in combination with the technology development that is taking place at the same time – plays a central role.

Environmental impact as low as possible

During the construction, Scandinavian Mountains Airport recovered piles of waste and biomass and stubbles in the area with the result that nothing was deposited as landfill, it installed LEDs on the runway as well as in the terminal and in the hangar construction, installed geothermal heating, is preventing fuel spills with oil separators and uses embanked cisterns, and performs continuous work environment checks. The rock masses needed for the construction of the runway were taken from nearby quarries. The airport charges custom tariffs to airlines that fly with the most modern aircrafts, with reduced emissions and noise. It also aims to minimize emissions in soil, water and air, the use of chemicals and waste.

Fossil-free domestic flights 2030

The Swedish aviation industry has, by means of the Swedish trade association “Svenskt Flyg” developed a roadmap for the transformation of Swedish air traffic towards fossil-free operations. The roadmap shows how domestic flights can become fossil-free in 2030 and how flights starting from Swedish airports can become fossil-free in 2045. The industry has, along with a dozen other industries in Sweden submitted its roadmap to the government – which contributes to the Swedish parliament’s goal of a climate-neutral society in 2045. This endeavour is administered nationally under the name Fossil-free Sweden. Scandinavian Mountains Airport is a member of the Swedish Association of regional airports (SRF), that has as Fossil-free air travel in 2030 as one of its objectives.

Fly Green Fund

Fly Green Fund is a non-profit organization through which private individuals, companies and public organizations can buy sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the climate of their air travel. The goal is to, through increased use and demand, start large-scale local production of sustainable aviation fuel in the Nordic region. In this way, the Fly Green Fund contributes to Sweden and the Nordic countries driving the development of sustainable aviation fuels forward, which is an important part of the work to reduce aviation’s climate impact globally.

Air travel in a larger perspective

Globally, carbon dioxide emissions from aviation account for about two percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. The total climate impact is estimated to be equivalent to up to four percent of global carbon dioxide emissions since emissions to some extent occur at high altitude. Sweden’s share of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions amounts to circa two percent, and carbon dioxide emissions from aviation in Sweden, both from domestic and international flights, account for about five percent of Sweden’s total carbon dioxide emissions. Scandinavian Mountains Airport’s initial share of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions from aviation is estimated at two permille. Your personal climate impact when traveling in a fully seated airplane is roughly the same as driving the same distance by yourself in a petrol-fuelled car.