Belgian air navigation service provider (ANSP) skeyes has become only the second ANSP worldwide to be accredited under CANSO’s new GreenATM sustainability quality mark, and Egis is proud to have played a part in their success.
Belgian ANSP skeyes recently announced that they have been awarded level 3 in trade body CANSO’s GreenATM programme. This indicates that the ANSP’s environmental management activities have reached a level of maturity at which plans are actively being implemented across the organisation. The accreditation involves responding to in depth questionnaires and providing supporting evidence across 24 topic areas spanning governance, infrastructure, utilities, air traffic management improvements, procurement and more. To help them manage the application process efficiently and enable specialists to continue covering their operational responsibilities, skeyes turned to Egis for support.
Egis Associate Director and aviation Head of Sustainability Vicki Hughes explains more: “Our role was to project manage the whole process, using a bespoke Tracker Tool to identify what was needed. We coordinated activities and inputs with skeyes’ manager, performance and sustainable aviation, Bertrand Gallez. There were 20 nominated specialist points of contact at skeyes, all with busy day jobs and so we were asked to coordinate their responses, provide a critical review, and overall support the application process.”
Independent validation
Applying for accreditation is a resource-intensive process and it was important to get it right first time. Egis independently validated all the submissions, provided guidance, and kept everyone informed on progress and gaps with traffic light status reports. It was all achieved working remotely and efficiently using digital tools and video calls where traditionally face to face meetings would have taken place. For skeyes, the process has provided clarity on what their next steps need to be both for reaccreditation and continuing to reduce their environmental impacts.
Concludes Vicki: “The team at skeyes were a pleasure to work with. They were knowledgeable, available, and committed to getting this done. There was important buy in from senior management and that really helped us to work effectively on coordinating their efforts.”
Adds Bertrand Gallez from skeyes: “Working with Egis helped us achieve the accreditation within 6 months from start to finish. As well as project managing the application, they encouraged us to go further, and gave us confidence that our efforts were in the right direction. We are delighted with the outcome and are clear on the priority next steps for us as well.”
Reducing CO2 emissions
Improvements in air traffic management are critical to achieving the aviation industry’s goal of net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. CANSO’s GreenATM programme, launched at the end of 2022, is designed to provide an independent assessment of air navigation service providers’ efforts to reduce their own environmental footprint and minimise emissions in the airspace for which they are responsible.
The CANSO GreenATM programme has several levels, ranging from level 1, where the operator recognises that the company's policies can make an effective contribution to reducing environmental impacts, to level 5, where all strategies are fully implemented with a positive impact on the environmental footprint and the organisation is actively involved in researching and testing innovations.
