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Greening the New Bugesera Airport Validation Meeting

29 March 2022, Kigali, Rwanda: The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in collaboration with Aviation, Travel and Logistics (ATL) Holding Ltd, an entity affiliated to the Rwanda Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) hosted a virtual validation meeting on the Greening of the new international airport in Bugesera.

Participants that joined the virtual meeting were representatives from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), Qatari Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda Green Fund (FONERWA) Rwanda Air, Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA), Rwanda Airports Company (RAC), Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA), REG-EDCL, WASAC and Rwanda Green Building Organization (RwGBO).

The purpose of the validation meeting is to present and finalize the interim results of the proposed green airport interventions in the areas of climate responsive design, building energy performance, resource stewardship, smart and healthy building, and advanced green efforts to ensure the recommendations are integrated into the airport design, procurement, construction and operational practices which will ultimately enable the project to become a sustainable airport and also achieve the intended green certification results.

Speaking during the validation meeting the GGGI Rwanda Country Representative Mr. Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya “stressed on the importance of the sustainability of the new International Airport in Bugesera as a flagship project for the government of Rwanda through the greening process. He explained that sustainable infrastructure does not only look at how it enables sound economic principles, but it also looks at how it creates green jobs, how it affects the purchase of local goods and services and increase the positive benefit of infrastructure to climate change adaptation and mitigation. It also helps to protect our natural resources and most importantly promote efficient and effective use of financial resources”

He added that the greening of the airport will showcase the government commitment to the implementation of Green Building Minimum Compliance System (GBMCS) which is part of Rwanda’s National Building Code of 2019 in flagship projects. It will showcase the government effort to demonstrate their laws into action. He concluded by saying that GGGI anticipates collaboration with key stakeholders and the state of Qatar in greening the new International Airport in Bugesera and by thanking everyone for being part of the workshop.

Mr. Jules Ndenga, CEO of ATL also stressed on the importance of environment and green aspect in our various activities to make sure that we protect the environment, and we work in a sustainable manner. He added that, if you look at it in long term costs, it has been proven that it is much more viable to consider sustainability and greening aspects for all projects. He concluded by saying that the purpose of validation was to hear more from the GGGI Green Airport consultant on what are the required actions and the way forward in greening the new International Airport in Bugesera. He thanked GGGI for their continued effort and support in the greening process of the new airport and he assured participants that their comments will be taken into consideration.

The GGGI Green Airport consultant, Ms. Farizan d’Avezac de Moran, explained to participants the sustainability targets in terms of certification that is aimed for and its requirements. She also highlighted the draft result overview in energy saving, water conservation, waste management and material efficiency. She further presented the intended results on indoor environmental quality and green transportation within the airport.
Under the new ongoing works, NBIA will be targeting LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Silver Certification. This has been captured in the design and tender specifications. This, however, does not affect the current ongoing Green Mark (GM) Certification, registered and assessed by Building Construction Authority (BCA) Singapore back in 2018. Bugesera Airport Company (BAC) registered the project for BCA Green Mark certification, and GGGI technically and financially supports the Green Airport consultancy and Green Mark assessment certification fees.

 

To read more about Greening elements of an airport you can view the GGGI Green Airport Certification Fact Sheet

To read more on how GGGI is supporting government of Rwanda to reduce air pollution you can view news article