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Creating A Better Tomorrow

Message from Jim McNerney and Mary Armstrong

Boeing is developing innovative solutions to help address the global issues of pollution and climate change.

As a company, we recognize the importance of protecting our ecosystem. That is why we are unleashing the expertise of Boeing employees to design environmentally progressive products, research cleaner fuels, enhance the global air traffic system to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel, and expand into new markets where Boeing technologies show tremendous promise.

Since December, two new Boeing jetliners – the 747-8 and the 787 – have entered flight test. Both airplanes will consume less fuel and produce a smaller carbon footprint than the jetliners they replace.

Improving the Supply Chain’s Environmental Performance

Our life cycle approach to the environment starts with our global supply chain. In 2010, Boeing employees will lead more than 400 workshops educating suppliers about ways to reduce emissions and cut back on the amount of materials sent to landfills.

Later this year, we will introduce new contracting provisions establishing suppliers’ environmental initiatives as a key factor in doing business with Boeing. The next step is to work with other major aerospace companies to establish a recognized environmental standard for our global supply base. We have begun these discussions and hope to report meaningful progress in the coming year.

Achieving Aggressive Internal Targets

Boeing employees, using Lean+ tools, are developing innovative ways to meet aggressive environmental targets inside our own facilities.

Solutions can be as simple as using pillows to insulate the floors of our computer data centers, saving nearly 705,000-kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Or they can be systematic, as employees discovered by eliminating an annual two-mile waste stream of packing materials used for wrapping air ducts installed in 737s.

This approach enabled our fabrication plant in Salt Lake City to be the first Boeing facility to send zero waste to landfills. Other sites, including our new 787 assembly facility in North Charleston, S.C., are adopting similar practices and setting zero waste to landfills as an achievable goal.

These efforts are delivering results. At our major U.S. facilities since 2002, we have reduced CO₂ emissions by 31 percent, energy consumption by 32 percent and hazardous-waste generation by 38 percent on a revenue-adjusted basis. We reduced water consumption by 43 percent on a revenue-adjusted basis, and earlier this year set a challenging target to continue this progress.

Innovative Solutions

Operation of Boeing products represents our biggest potential impact on the environment and our greatest opportunity for a positive change. Commercial aviation accounts for 2 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and our industry is addressing this issue with credible actions.

Aerospace was the only industry to present a clear plan to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. We called for global guidelines placing tough fuel-efficiency standards on new airplane designs, improvements in the global air traffic control system to cut air travel-related CO₂ emissions by 12 percent, and continued efforts to commercialize sustainable biofuels – all with the aim of achieving carbon-neutral growth across the industry by 2020.

Even though the world did not reach a comprehensive agreement, we are pushing forward.

Since December, two new Boeing jetliners – the 747-8 and the 787 – have entered flight test. Both airplanes will consume less fuel and produce a smaller carbon footprint than the jetliners they replace.

Boeing has tested enhanced air traffic control systems at major airports in Australia, Europe and North America. At San Francisco International Airport alone, four airlines cut annual fuel consumption by 1.1 million pounds. If these innovations were adopted worldwide, airlines would reduce annual emissions by millions of tons. That is why we continue to urge governments to update aging air traffic control systems.

Together with leading researchers and industries, Boeing employees are advancing ways to develop sustainable biofuels made from algae and other feedstocks that reduce emissions over their life cycle without competing with food crops for land or water. In the past two years, five airlines have flown Boeing jetliners with sustainable fuels. Our government customers also have begun test flights powered by sustainable biofuels; one of these tests included an F/A-18 Super Hornet flight by the U.S. Navy on Earth Day this year.

Applying innovations designed to meet complex national-security challenges, Boeing is working with the U.S. Department of Energy and utilities to provide smart grid technology to improve the efficiency and security of power distribution systems. We also are adapting the clean technology that powers satellites and the International Space Station to produce the most efficient way to convert sunlight into electricity on Earth.

End-of-Service Recycling and Recovery

We believe that when our products reach the end of their useful lives, they still can provide value. That is why Boeing helped bring together 11 companies to form the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association.

This group has grown to 42 members that, combined, have efficiently recycled more than 7,000 commercial and military aircraft.

These are just a few ways Boeing is applying our technical leadership to enhance environmental performance across our industry.

We recognize that this is the start of a long journey. We also believe the innovative spirit that helped us conquer seemingly impossible challenges, such as landing on the moon, will help us pioneer new technologies to address environmental issues and enable people around the world to continue to grow and prosper.

 

Jim McNerney		Mary Armstrong
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer		Vice President
The Boeing Company		Boeing Environment, Health and Safety

 

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