Between 14-15 September 2023, OLGA organised a hybrid workshop to replicate the decarbonisation innovations developed in the framework of the project. The workshop, titled Capturing innovations’ pathways in OLGA, included topics of current interest, such as waste management strategies and technologies, waste valorisation, waste2energy (e.g. from waste to biomethane and its use in green mobility), circular economy as well as transport landside and integrated mobility.
The workshop was hosted by our fellow airport and partner, Cluj Avram Iancu International Airport, and was organised in collaboration with the Romanian Research & Development Institute for Gas Turbines COMOTI, also an OLGA partner.
OLGA partners came together to meet local stakeholders
One of the core principles of OLGA is to foster replication of the innovative and sustainable solutions that it develops. Stakeholder engagement is essential for replication, hence the purpose of this local workshop. At the event, several OLGA partners shared results with the audience, namely the project coordinator Groupe ADP, SEA Milan Airports, Zagreb Airport, University of Zagreb, Airport Regions Council, ENGIE, Envisa, Centrocot and Infra Plan. Local partners in the project, the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca and the Technical University of Cluj, also contributed to the event.
Waste management strategies at the OLGA airports
This workshop created the perfect framework for the development of measures to be taken by airports for the implementation of the Fit for 55 Package and the ambitions of reducing carbon emissions in the EU by 55% by 2030 and reducing carbon emissions to Zero by 2050 in the aviation sector.
Director General David Ciceo said, "Cluj Airport is the largest regional airport in Romania and is working to reduce its carbon footprint, being accredited for Level I and II and now in the process of obtaining Level III. The OLGA project supports the implementation of the airport's environmental actions. In this respect, different activities have been carried out within the OLGA project, such as air quality monitoring and as far as the lighting system is concerned, the ADP solution will also be implemented, as Cluj Airport is a fellow replicator airport. In this regard, the spaces where we will integrate the ADP solution have already been identified.”
Also, still in the framework of OLGA project, Cluj Airport in collaboration with the Technical University and the Cluj Municipality are working on a project to produce fuel from renewable sources, therefore a mini biogas plant is being developed from the household waste generated by the airport, and the resulting biogas will be used to fuel a bus that will connect the airport with the city.
Virginie Pasquier, the coordinator of the OLGA project from Groupe ADP, highlighted that “we are about to reach two years since OLGA has started and events like the one in Cluj show that we have put replication at the top of our agenda, also while reaffirming our commitment to use renewable energy sources and to reduce carbon emissions from aviation.”
Information about OLGA was also distributed to the media locally, in Romania. The press release shared by Cluj Airport can be accessed here: https://www.airportcluj.ro/evaluarea-inovatiilor-in-proiectul-olga-la-aeroportul-international-avram-iancu-cluj/