Sustainability Management Plan Development

San Diego County Airports System Background:

The County of San Diego operates, maintains, and improves eight airports located throughout the County.  These airports are very diverse, from a quiet dirt strip located near the Salton Sea to the 44th busiest airport in the US.  Collectively these airports are known as the San Diego County Airport System.  The Airport System is financially self-sufficient and, with nearly a half-million aircraft operations per year, several thousand based aircraft, and home to many emergency service agencies and hundreds of businesses that support tens of thousands of jobs and over a billion dollars in economic activity, these airports serve their respective communities as air transportation hubs, emergency response facilities, and economic engines.   

Airport System Sustainability Management Plan (SMP):

The County of San Diego seeks to develop and implement a detailed, comprehensive, coordinated, and ambitious Airport System Sustainability Management Plan (SMP) that describes how the County’s eight airports will individually and collectively reduce resource consumption, environmental impacts, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and become industry leader in sustainability while promoting social responsibility.  The SMP will be a stand-alone program that is closely coordinated, aligned, and not in conflict with the County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) and Regional Decarbonization Framework (RDF), as well as local, regional, and national transportation plans.  While the SMP will act as comprehensive document for the County’s Airport System, there will be an individual sustainability plan for each of the eight airports that recognizes their unique, facilities, operations, environments, and stakeholders.  The SMP will separately but cohesively address airport facilities and operations both under the County’s control and jurisdiction and those that are not - such as aircraft operations and private vehicles, equipment, and facilities located on airport property in which the County has no authority.  The SMP will help streamline resources, coordinate interdepartmental initiatives, engage stakeholders, and establish guiding principles that will serve as the foundation for all sustainability-related activities. The SMP will identify specific steps, provide a decision-making structure, and develop processes and tools that promote sustainability as a shared value with all airport stakeholders.  The SMP will be fully compliant with all local, state, and federal requirements.  However, any specific projects or discretionary actions that are identified or proposed by the SMP will be reviewed for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act separate from this SMP.

SMP Development Scope of Work (SoW):

The Scope of Work (SoW) for this project is to develop an approach for planning, implementing, improving, and maintaining an SMP including engaging stakeholders; identifying interconnections with other sustainability initiatives at the local, regional, and national level; developing short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals; prioritizing and selecting actions to achieve those goals; and establishing processes for measuring, evaluating, and communicating progress.  This project is expected to take approximately 12-18 months and will include the following tasks:

Task 1: Build a Sustainability Team:  Identify key county staff that will guide development of the SMP.

Task 2: Build and Implement a Community Outreach Plan:  Using multiple distribution channels, methods, and languages, a Community Outreach Plan will be developed and implemented to ensure broad stakeholder awareness of the SMP, provide opportunities to gain in-depth understanding of the development process, and solicit and facilitate input at key milestones of the project. Community stakeholders may include all or some of governmental, environmental, labor, economic, tenant, and user groups.

Task 3: Develop Airport System Sustainability Definition, Vision, Guiding Principles, and Policy Statement: Establish a common understanding of what sustainability means to the airport system.  Engage stakeholders to develop a sustainability vision and set of guiding principles for the airport system and each airport that will serve as the foundation for future sustainability initiatives. A sustainability policy statement will be created that includes the vision and guiding principles, that is in alignment with the County CAP and RDF. 

Task 4: Identify Strategic Goals:  Establish strategic goals for the airport system and each airport individually that are based on the guiding principles and will fulfill the vision, principles, and policy statement. The strategic goals will reflect the issues and opportunities that are most impactful and viable. 

Task 5: Conduct Initial Baseline Assessment and Inventory:  Assess current airport facilities, vehicles, operations, sustainability conditions, programs, and important contextual factors to establish a baseline upon which further actions can be selected.  The baseline will include both County-owned and operated facilities and facilities operated by tenants or other users on County airports property.  In addition to baselines, local, regional, and national sustainability efforts and transportation plans will be cataloged and reviewed to ensure coordination, and airport/aviation industry sustainability Best Practices will be evaluated for inclusion in the SMP.

Task 6: Identify and Rank Sustainability Objectives:  The Vision, Guiding Principles, Policy Statement, Strategic Goals and Baseline Assessment will be analyzed to derive specific sustainability objectives. Objectives will also be captured through facilitated discussions with stakeholders. The objectives will be compiled and their alignment with the Vision, Guiding Principles, and Policy Statement, and Strategic Goals will be evaluated. Potential effects on underserved communities will also be evaluated. A list of objectives specific to each airport will be developed and ranked according to their alignment with the Vision, Guiding Principles, and Policy Statement, Strategic Goals, and potential effects on underserved communities.  Additionally, funding sources will be identified to achieve the objectives including but not limited to Airport Enterprise Fund, County General Fund, FAA and Caltrans grants, other grants, and private investment.

Task 7: Refine Strategic Goals, and Objectives:  The strategic goals and objectives will be reevaluated and refined to account for any gaps that may exist.

Task 8: Select Sustainability Actions, Schedule, Key Performance Indicators, and Funding:  Based on the refined Strategic Goals and Objectives, specific actions will be identified, and a schedule and funding plan created for short-term, medium-term, and long-term implementation that is in alignment with the CAP and RDF. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be established to measure progress towards achieving Goals and Objectives. 

Task 9: Develop Sustainability Action and Monitoring Plans:  Action and Monitoring Plans will be developed to achieve the Strategic Goals and Objectives, streamline resources, coordinate interdepartmental initiatives, collect data, and measure, evaluate, and communicate progress.

Task 10: Prepare, edit, circulate, and finalize an Airport System Sustainability Management Plan (SMP):  The SMP will identify the definition of Airport System Sustainability; document the approach to develop the SMP; list and define Key Performance Indicators; identify interconnections with other sustainability efforts; identify the Vision Statement, Guiding Principles, Policy Statement, Strategic Goals and Objectives, and establish Action and Monitoring Plans will be developed to achieve the Strategic Goals and Objectives, streamline resources, coordinate interdepartmental initiatives, collect data, and measure, evaluate, and communicate progress.  At a minimum, the SMP will have an introductory and overview chapter, a chapter for each airport (8 airport-specific chapters), and a chapter that summarizes all actions by year. The SMP will be a living document that is flexible enough to adapt to changes on local, regional, and national policy, and advancements in the industry or technology.