Dallas Love Field reaches carbon neutrality

Dallas Love Field is carbon neutral, after over a decade of reducing its emissions.

The big picture: The international Airport Carbon Accreditation program encourages airports to track and cut their emissions, tracking their progress over accreditation levels from 1-5.

• Love Field announced this week that it's reached Level 4, after establishing long-term plans for aligning with the Paris Agreement on climate action.

Why it matters: Only five U.S. airports and two Texas airports — Love Field and DFW Airport — have achieved level 4 or higher in the ACA program.

How it works: ACA says carbon neutrality happens after an airport has mapped its emissions sources, reduced its carbon footprint and engaged "third parties" to do the same.

• To make up for its emissions that can't be completely eliminated, an airport can provide funds to other projects that reduce carbon dioxide to achieve neutrality.
• Net zero carbon emissions is the end goal, where airports work with their "entire ecosystem" of suppliers, airlines and employees to "significantly reduce their absolute carbon emissions."

Zoom out: Only 14 airports in the world have reached a net zero balance, the highest level of accreditation — 13 are in Europe and one is in New Zealand.

State of play: Love Field said its conservation measures included designing new buildings with high sustainability standards, establishing electric vehicle infrastructure and replacing existing vehicles and equipment with more efficient versions.

• The City of Dallas also purchases renewable energy certificates to source more green, renewable electricity through wind power. The airport says it invested in "high-quality" carbon credits from 2020-2022 to offset its residual emissions, and plans to continue doing so in the future.

Reality check: Aircraft emissions still have a long way to go . The Biden administration and international leaders are trying to reach net-zero aviation emissions by 2050 .

What's next: Love Field wants to achieve net zero carbon by 2040, hoping to get there a decade before many of its peers.

• The airport is establishing a sustainability master plan for areas such as water conservation and diversion.

Meanwhile: DFW Airport, which says it was the first and largest carbon neutral airport in the Americas, wants to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The airport is constructing a new zero carbon electric central utility plant to generate sustainably sourced heating and cooling capacity.