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Reducing Our Environmental Footprint
Photo: Boeing Photo
Chemical management specialist Ryan McNatt assists shop-floor employees on recycling, helping the Salt Lake City facility become the first Boeing plant to ship zero waste to landfills.
Boeing recognizes the serious global challenges of climate change and pollution. That is why we are working aggressively to improve the environmental performance of our products and operations around the world.
This was exemplified at our commercial airplane parts fabrication plant in Salt Lake City, which, in 2009, became the first Boeing site to send zero manufacturing waste to landfills. The site now recycles more than 24 tons of cardboard, more than 4 tons of plastic and virtually every piece of metal.
Hazardous materials are recycled, where safe and environmentally appropriate approaches exist. Solvent recovery processes produce recycled solvents for use in other industries. Electronic components are recycled for future use.
Materials that cannot be recycled are sent to a qualified hazardous waste disposal facility and incinerated to produce energy. A small percentage (1.2 percent) of waste must be incinerated without energy recovery.
Salt Lake City is just one example of how Boeing is making steady progress to meet challenging environmental targets. We outperformed our 2009 goals for reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous waste generation while increasing recycling rates.
Our commitment to continual environmental improvement was showcased in a number of milestones last year, from expanding ISO 14001 certification to additional sites and subsidiaries, to finalizing cleanup at 12 remediation sites, to continuing to implement Lean+ innovations to reduce waste and improve business performance.