Boeing's Environmental Priorities Driven by Decreasing Emissions, Increasing Efficiencies

2016 study points the way
Jul 10, 2017 2:25 PM ET
Text in green indicates topics explored in more detail in Boeing's 2017 Environment Report. Visit boeing.com/environmentreport to read more.

**This is the fifth article in a series focusing on The Boeing Company's environmental performance and progress in 2016. Visit www.boeing.com/environment for more information.**

In 2016, Boeing completed a comprehensive third-party review and assessment of the company’s most significant environmental priorities.

The analysis included direct input and perspectives from diverse stakeholders—such as customers, environment-focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the company’s global leadership—as well as research into industrial best practices and community requirements.

One of the assessment’s main goals was to help Boeing identify and update its understanding of current and emerging environmental topics that are critical to the company and its stakeholders. The analysis supports a focused and dynamic global strategy to address the most important environmental priorities facing Boeing, its customers and communities around the world.

Most Significant Environmental Priorities

The assessment analyzed diverse viewpoints and organized environmental priorities by order of importance and influence on business strategy, as identified by Boeing and its external stakeholders. The topics relate to products, operations and a variety of other issues. Several topics were identified as highest importance and largest influence on business strategy by both Boeing and our external stakeholders and are explored at length later in this report.

They include:

  • Products Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: fuel efficiency, operational efficiency and sustainable aviation fuel.

  • Operations GHG emissions: energy conservation, water management and solid waste management/waste to landfill.

Boeing named additional priorities—including managing hazardous materials in our operations and products and managing chemicals in our aircraft and production—as well as opportunities, like pursuing innovations in environmentally progressive buildings.

External stakeholders added supply chain practices and reporting and product noise as high environmental priorities.

It's important to note that while topics are ranked, we are currently addressing all identified priorities in our global environmental strategy.

Global Environmental Concerns

The assessment reported current and emerging global trends that may affect Boeing’s business, including climate change, resource scarcity, rapid urbanization, regional collaboration on environmental regulations and rapid innovation in new technology.

Environmental Leadership

The analysis concluded that Boeing has in place the policies and governance to address the most significant environmental priorities the company faces. Opportunities to strengthen our leadership include improving the measurement and reporting of progress made to environmental goals with increased transparency in communication to all stakeholders. Work has already begun on these fronts.