On 17 March 2000, the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes département and the President of the Côte d’Azur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) signed the Environmental Charter for Nice Airport. This document committed the Nice facility to an undertaking that is unprecedented in France. Its programme: six years of action, investment, consultation in order to monitor and improve air quality, noise reduction, water management, natural risks and those associated with waste, the protection of fauna and flora, consultation with residents…

Our CCI has set itself on an all encompassing approach to sustainable development aiming at combining growth and economic cost-effectiveness with a respect for and protection of the environment. Our ambition is to make the airports and ports that we manage into examples of sustainable development at the service of Alpes-Maritimes.

The environment is at the heart of the strategy for the Airports of the Côte d’Azur. The Nice facility owes an enormous amount to its environment: millions of passengers come to seek the sun, sea and countryside of the Riviera, others profit from the know-how of businesses operating in the Telecommunications, IT, Health and Business Tourism sectors. Everybody praises the assets of Nice Airport: its connections with large European cities, its ideal situation in relation to the ports of Nice and its quick access to motorways which place it only a few minutes away from the principal towns of the region.

The Environmental Charter 2000-2005 was a first step. As all those who participated in its creation know, the institution of environmental policy is a definitive act. Once the machine has been set in motion it is impossible to stop, because it is always possible to do better. No-one foresaw the enthusiasm that this measure would arouse. It brought all those concerned by the airport together at the Consultative Commission for the Environment: administrators, aeronautical professionals, local groups, residents. Under the direction of teams from Nice Airport, all of them played a part in ironing out the charter’s objectives: 90% of the initial programme was accomplished!

Bolstered by this success and by this general mobilisation, the CCI for the Côte d’Azur quickly launched the second Environmental Charter. The working groups from the CCI have defined more than fifty new objectives. Some of these are in line with the action initiated in 2000. Others highlight new priorities such as energy management. Together they will dictate the environmental policy of the airport up until 2011. After this, the provisions of a third Charter are sure to follow.

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