Ahead of San Francisco International Airport’s involvement in IAR’s upcoming webinar, Erin Cooke, Sustainability + Resilience Director and Amy Nagengast, Energy Programme Manager discuss how the airport is optimising its energy transformation.
San Francisco International Airport has been a leader in sustainability. What does “accelerating the energy revolution” mean for SFO in practical terms?
For San Francisco International Airport (SFO), accelerating the energy revolution means advancing our net zero energy goal by reducing fossil fuel use and scaling clean energy adoption/ integration across all airport systems. This includes electrifying vehicle fleets and providing charging for electric ground support equipment, expanding on-site renewable energy generation such as solar arrays, and modernising our 5,000-acre campus’ 250 miles of medium distribution electrical grid to ensure reliability and resilience. It also involves upgrading building systems for energy efficiency, installing advanced energy management platforms to monitor and optimise consumption, and collaborating with airlines and tenants to collectively transition to energy alternatives, including sustainable aviation fuels.
Airports often face challenges balancing operational reliability with ambitious decarbonisation goals. How is SFO overcoming these hurdles while maintaining service excellence?
SFO is scaling our advanced Energy Management Control System (EMCS) that unifies thousands of disparate data points from key operational assets such as passenger boarding bridges, building HVAC controls and electric metres into a single, centralised monitoring and management platform. This integration enables real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and automated controls, to allow staff to make informed decisions that optimise energy use without compromising service continuity through reactive breaks/repairs. Through this single plane of glass, SFO continuously tracks and prioritises preventative maintenance across critical airport assets to elevate the robustness of our 21M square foot real estate portfolio through which our tenants, passengers and region rely.
On-site renewable energy and storage are key themes of the webinar. Can you share how SFO is integrating these technologies and what lessons other airports can learn?
In 2021, SFO completed a distributed energy resource study that envisions max-build solar PV campus-wide to meet as much onsite energy demand possible, to achieve our net zero energy goal. This 55MW solar future may mean shifting from SFO’s current design-build-own-operate-maintain model to an alternative procurement pathway that is under current study. While awaiting that analysis, SFO’s Sustainability Planning and Design Standards ensure that every new building is constructed with solar covering at least 15% of available roof space and, in tandem, a zero net energy-ready cost analysis is developed to maximise solar across the roof area. The aim of this standard is to ensure solar build-outs cover the entire available roof space, wherever cost effective. Currently SFO has constructed, commissioned and is operating 4.5MW of roof top solar and is deploying another 3.3MW in active design and/or construction projects.
Electrification of ground support equipment is a major step towards net zero. What strategies have proven most effective at SFO for scaling electrification across airside and landside operations?
Electrification of ground support equipment (GSE) is a decarbonisation pathway that requires partnership with airports and airlines though strategic, sustained engagement. SFO hosts quarterly Electric Ground Support Working Groups (eGSE) with relevant parties to co-ordinate on existing operations and infrastructure, while aligning future projections to ensure airside readiness. Currently, SFO offers 498 eGSE charging ports to power our airline’s 1011 motorised eGSE vehicles (51% of their fleet) but have active capital projects to further deploy additional chargers. We recognise that it is essential to maintain high uptime for these eGSE chargers to support the growing airlines’ electrified fleet that provide key services to ensure on-time arrivals/departures.
Hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) are emerging as critical components of future energy systems. How is SFO preparing its infrastructure for these technologies?
Decarbonisation is a top-up, bottom-down, inside out endeavour. Airports need to leverage leaders to drive results – starting with setting a bold ambition, so that all can align and pathway to execute this, so we can celebrate key implementing staff. By polling these experts, you can quickly learn both the gaps and co-create opportunities to resolve current issues and advance new and emerging technologies. We’ve started with hydrogen and SAF by thoughtfully launching partnerships with key thought partners and implementors, setting a shared goal, then starting small – with pilots (i.e. adopting H2 vehicles and small batch SAF flights) – and scaling up, enabled through infrastructure and asset expansion. We also map these pathways through published plans (see SFO SAF Study) to both record-keep our efforts, but also share lessons learned with others to enable their fast-tracking using our models of success.
Digital technologies and smart systems are often cited as enablers of efficiency. What role do they play in SFO’s energy transition roadmap?
SFO has over 100 buildings used for terminals, offices, emergency services, large-scale kitchens, hotels, cargo, and maintenance across our 5,200 acre campus to support flight operations. Buildings are key assets and require active management to ensure SFO meets its net zero energy, carbon and waste goals. SFO’s Energy Management Control System (EMCS), discussed above, is serving as an information broker to expand beyond simply tracking energy end uses towards setting and scheduling recommissioning priorities among high performance assets, systems and buildings at the campus level. The ability to scale this information and bring together operational, resource and contextual data is helping to unearth the root cause of asset and building performance issues, while quantifying the impact of desired changes so it may be added into, and funded by, capital and facilities maintenance programmes. EMS lives in a broader, and SFO-first, Technology Improvement Program (TIP) – a five-year roadmap driven by our major network redesign and data platform, designed to transform the organisation to start seeing technology infrastructure as a utility. This will ensure that every new project has the same proactive, resilient and agile foundation, ready to adapt and support continued growth, especially as we anticipate reaching terminal capacity of 72 million passengers.
Collaboration is essential for transformative change. How is SFO working with airlines, regulators and technology partners to accelerate progress?
SFO’s culture anchors on partnership and stakeholder engagement across capital project development and implementation, future planning and forecasting, and day-to-day operational coordination. We are proud to consistently win major ‘partnering awards’ for our collaborative approach to construction and infrastructure, recognised by organisations like the International Partnering Institute (IPI). Key recent honours include the 2023 John L. Martin Partnered Project of the Year for runway improvements and, in 2025, for electrical engineering, highlighting success in accelerating projects with minimal operational impact. It truly is a team sport to deliver on our new mission of “delivering an airport experience where people and planet come first” across our 39,000 employees and 58 million passengers. Beyond capital projects, SFO recently launched an Airport Integrated Operation Center (AIOC) to enhance the co-ordination and management of all facets of airport operations 24/7, modelled after other airport and airline collaborative leaders.
Financing large-scale energy projects can be a barrier for many airports. What innovative funding models or partnerships have helped SFO move forward?
Often energy projects are evaluated on simple financial metrics such as return on investment (ROI) or net present value (NPV) metrics, to name a few. Two other complementary approaches that have been helpful to SFO in quantifying the full lifecycle of any (energy) investment decisions are 1) Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and 2) Triple bottom line Cost Benefit Analysis (TBL-CBA). TCO moves beyond a project’s first cost to focus on long term, complete, financials. These long-term costs and expenses include first cost and layer in utility expenses, staff time, maintenance parts and disposal costs across the project’s useful, and even end-of, life. The lower total cost of ownership can be the better value in the long run when comparing alternatives. TBL-CBA calculates the full embodied social and environmental impacts of decisions and adds them to the financial model within a Cost Benefit Analysis framework to support consistent and more wholistic decision making. Both are used at SFO to inform investments on campus.
Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest opportunity for airports to lead in the global energy transition?
Looking ahead, SFO is deeply committed to advancing our transformation from a traditional, high-consumption utility user into an on-site, integrated, resilient energy hub. We see our role as central demand aggregator, one that must achieve our ‘Bold Climate Action’ strategic goal, by driving the adoption of sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen and electrification. To do this, we must be an enabler to accelerate our sector’s net zero transition within our sphere of influence – starting with our onsite infrastructure. SFO’s electrical grid is critical for sustaining airport operations, yet severely strained from aging infrastructure, climate change and expanding power demands. To support today’s grid while planning for the future, energy resilience is needed to help adapt to unexpected situations and reduce power outages to maintain operational continuity and lower energy and new infrastructure costs. For complex, 24/7 environments like SFO, resilience is achieved through a combination of scalable infrastructure, smart technology and operational flexibility.
If you could give one piece of advice to airports just starting their decarbonisation journey, what would it be?
One piece of advice – leverage your data. Utility bills and equipment inventories are often the most accessible resources and provide a clear picture of your current energy use and emissions. Analyse your utility bills to identify peak demand periods, energy costs and patterns of inefficiency. Then, create a comprehensive inventory of major energy-consuming assets like HVAC systems, or electric vehicle chargers. This baseline will help your airport prioritise quick wins, such as retrofitting outdated equipment or optimising operational schedules, before investing in larger projects. By leveraging existing data, airports can make informed decisions, set realistic targets, and build a phased roadmap for decarbonisation without trying to “boil the ocean” or disrupting operations.
Erin Cooke has dedicated her career to mitigating climate change by building more sustainable communities and campuses. She currently works as San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) first Sustainability + Resilience Director where she is responsible for creating, implementing and reporting on the Airport’s Strategic, Zero Waste, Zero Net Energy, and Climate Action Plans. By brokering and implementing high-impact emissions reduction investments within SFO’s $12 billion capital programme, the airport has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 43%, operationalised its first zero net energy building, banned plastic food ware and water bottles, and has become the global leader in sustainable aviation fuel deliveries.
Erin also serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) and LightHawk, as well as on the ACI World Environment Standing Committee (WeNSC). Prior to SFO, Erin was the City of Cupertino’s first Sustainability Manager and Deputy City Manager where she launched a community choice energy programme (Silicon Valley Clean Energy). Erin also worked on the climate teams at the Conservation Law Foundation, NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and the National Park Service. She is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP), and an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP), and the proud mama of Izzy and Graham.
Amy Nagengast is San Francisco International Airport’s first Energy Programme Manager, where she is responsible for capital and operations projects to advance the Airport’s Zero Net Energy and Carbon strategic goals. Amy currently leads energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, as well as building and transportation electrification efforts. She brings strong engineering and analytics to help tackle complex issues surrounding climate, energy, buildings and infrastructure systems. For the last 15 years, she has enjoyed working with public and private organisations at a building, campus and portfolio-wide scale. Amy is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP), a registered Professional Engineer (PE), and holds a bachelors, masters and PhD degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Carnegie Mellon University respectively.