Sustainability and Airport Development

Sustainability and Airport Development
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Introduction
The term sustainable development has become quite common around the corporate and even social circle. This is a term that refers to the ability to implement development today to meet the needs of the current generation, without jeopardizing the ability to meet the needs of the coming generations in the future (Ec.europa.eu, (2015). Ideally this means that the current and future generations are all assured of quality.Sustainable development is not an aspect that is limited to implementing policies to cope with the rising environmental degradation, but it should also be guided by intrinsic principles in the society(Melcc.org.uk, 2015). This also means that there is need to change the societal thinking patterns with reference to the social-economic structures, production and consumption patterns.This is mainly due to the environmental awareness that has been emphasized by various protection agencies and the government, supported by numerous high ranking research reports on the need to practice sustainable development in light of the degrading environmental status(Ec.europa.eu, 2015). In the past, most of the firms in the corporate sector have taken little or no actions towards safe guarding the environment;however, policies developed towards ensuring strict guidance on development in reference to environmental protection have forced them to reconsider. Standards set out to measure the level of compliance to the environmental issues and sustainabledevelopments are made aware to the public and affect that rate of doing business in the UK(Eccles, Ioannou and Serafeim, 2012).
Various non-governmental initiatives have also been developed in an effort to force companies to comply with these conditions. One of the industries that have been ranked highest in reference to pollution is aviation(A New Approach Heathrow’s options for connecting the UK to growth, 2013). Airlines have some of the highest rates of greenhouse gasses emission, high energy consumption and construction material. At the same time there have been a number of concerns related to waste management and water usage, relative to the amount used by airlines. Heathrow airport has for some time had the proposal to construct a third runway and thus a sixth terminal. This will see the flow and frequency of flights at the airport increase(WHAT ARE AN AIRPORT’S IMPACTS?, 2015). The justification for the airport expansion plans are pegged on the reasons that, UK will increase connectivity to the global markets, jobs will be created, theeconomy will get a boost from growing flights and increasing the competitiveness of UK in the global markets. However there is more than meets the eye on this issue, with reference to sustainability of the same, as organization like HACAN and Friends of the Earth have indicated(Mediacentre.gatwickairport.com, 2015).
Key social and economic impacts
According to the department for transport, there are five aspects that must be established whenever there is a new policies and development related to transport. The aspects include that there is minimal environmental damage, high economic efficiency, high safety precautions, integration and...