The Air Transport Action Group has just finished hosting its 2014 Global Sustainable Aviation Summit in Geneva. The conference focused on global politics, the UN’s sustainable development goals, building sustainable aviation infrastructure, and meeting capacity demands. With a nod to the centennial of airline travel marked this year, the conference also looked forward to the next century of commercial air travel.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ managing director for environmental strategy and integration, Julie Felgar, moderated a panel discussion on preparing for growth and provided the aerospace perspective. Other panelists included leading figures representing airlines, airports, and air traffic management providers.
Given aviation’s projected growth rates, the group discussed how the industry can meets its future capacity demands — in the air and on the ground — in a sustainable manner. Boeing’s corporate-wide efforts to promote sustainability continue to build its industry-leading position and provide a commercial advantage.
The conference also addressed the historic greenhouse gas emissions agreement inked at the ICAO assembly last year, government-industry partnerships, and aviation’s economic benefits.
Boeing values opportunities like these to share what the aviation industry is doing to continuously improve its environmental performance. Besides significantly reducing our own CO2 emissions, energy use, hazardous-waste generation and water consumption within our operations, Boeing is continuing its leadership role on global efforts to help the commercial aviation industry achieve the goal of carbon-neutral growth from 2020. To that end, Boeing is researching and developing new technologies that help define the next generation of cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient airplanes, such as the 787 Dreamliner or the 737 MAX.