Linking corporate sustainability planning and sustainable development at Brisbane Airport, Australia

This paper reviews the nexus between corporate sustainability planning and sustainable development in an airport setting with reference to pathways taken by Brisbane Airport in Queensland, Australia. Brisbane Airport Corporation has a revised corporate vision and an action research and strategy agenda that will progressively embed and integrate sustainability across the corporate plan, airport master plan, organisational culture, management systems and decision processes. Among ‘status quo’, ‘transformation’ and ‘reform’ models of sustainability (Hopwood et al., 2005), the airport has adopted a model of working within the current system while optimising sector-wide partnerships to achieve change. However, the adoption of ACI-North America’s (2009) four pillar approach of economic, operational, social and environmental sustainability takes the airport’s approach beyond triple bottom line criteria. The model provides a platform for developing airport-specific sustainability indicators and the future option of comparing the model’s implementation at airports on different continents.