Four years ago, Denver International Airport (DEN) announced a series of ambitious projects intended to improve DEN’s sustainability as it planned for 100 million annual passengers. On Earth Day 2025, DEN is proud to announce significant progress on all the sustainability initiatives it outlined in 2021, the same year airport officials announced DEN’s Vision 100 strategic plan.
“We’re on track to not only complete the sustainability initiatives we set out to achieve but also surpass expectations in many areas,” DEN CEO Phil Washington said. “The significant progress we’ve made and the determination with which we continue to expand our sustainability efforts demonstrate our long-term commitment to be one of the greenest airports in the world.”
Since setting out its five-year plan, DEN has seen significant sustainability impacts and achieved several milestones:
2021 Commitment : To implement extensive energy and water retrofits across the existing airport facility, including LED lighting upgrades, heating and cooling improvements, and water reduction across DEN restrooms.
2025 Results: DEN is more than two years into construction of the largest Energy Performance Contract (EPC) project in Colorado’s history, which is implementing deep energy and water efficiency retrofits throughout the airport. Measures completed to date will result in savings of 20 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, 300,000 therms of natural gas and 125 million gallons of water each year. Upon completion at the end of 2025, the project will reduce overall energy use by 20%, water use by 28% and utilities costs by more than $4,000,000 each year.
2021 Commitment: To open four sustainably designed, high-performance concourse expansion projects that are certified to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold level.
2025 Results: Three of the four recently completed Concourse Expansion projects have been certified. B-West achieved LEED Gold, and A-West and B-East achieved LEED Platinum, the highest level within the LEED rating system.
2021 Commitment: To construct and energize additional solar arrays and investigate battery storage opportunities to power the airport’s growth with electricity that is low-carbon, cost-effective, reliable and resilient.
2025 Results: Since 2021, DEN has energized three new on-site solar arrays that are among the largest solar projects in Denver, totaling more than 30 megawatts of new solar capacity over more than 100 acres of land. DEN also worked with Xcel Energy to install a solar-powered 2.4-megawatt, 4.4-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system that provides emergency backup power to the Automated Guideway Transit System (AGTS), also commonly called the trains to the gates.
2021 Commitment: To plan for the transition to electric vehicles and install additional charging stations for passengers, employees, transportation providers and the DEN fleet.
2025 Results: DEN has increased its electric vehicle fleet by 33 units — a 413% increase since 2021. It has also installed the airport’s first Level 3 fast-charging stations at the Commercial Vehicle Holding Lot for use by transportation network company vehicles. Installation of four Level 3 direct current fast chargers at the Maintenance Center fuel site is underway, with an expected opening in late summer 2025. DEN is also awaiting delivery of the nation’s first fully electric paint-striping truck, which will be used for airfield striping operations.
2021 Commitment: To improve recycling and composting infrastructure to make reducing trash easier for customers and business partners, which may include resources like new recycling bins, better signage and additional partnerships with our concessionaires.
2025 Results: With the support from a State of Colorado grant, DEN introduced the Zero Waste Valet pilot program in partnership with Scraps to test recycling and composting improvements for concession partners on Concourse B. The program has diverted 200 tons of material from the landfill into compost and recycling since it started in June, 2024. DEN’s airport-wide diversion rate has surpassed 25% as of February 2025, a milestone made possible largely through the dedicated efforts of the Zero Waste Valet pilot program.
2021 Commitment: To build a new closed-loop aircraft de-icing fluid recycling plant to localize and strengthen the supply chain and reduce costs and environmental impacts.
2025 Results: DEN completed construction of the glycol recycling system in 2023 and fully commissioned the system in 2024. The system is recycling used glycol to a level that allows deicing fluid to be remanufactured and reapplied to aircraft in a closed loop.
To learn more about DEN’s sustainability efforts, visit www.flydenver.com/business-and-community/sustainability/.
