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Print articleGallois said: ?Airbus recognises no one company holds all the answers and is proposing a summit with the CEOs of engine and airframe manufacturers to ensure the critical issue is given the highest attention and commitment.?
Backing Mr. Gallois's vision, the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Enterprise and Industry G?nter Verheugen has urged industry to act now.
Mr. Gallois outlined his vision and Airbus targets at a corporate certification award ceremony recognising Airbus as the first aircraft manufacturer to meet the ISO 14001 environmental management standards covering all products and sites.
As part of an immediate target of Mr. Gallois's overall vision to lead the aviation sector into becoming eco-efficient, he called on the industry to undertake whatever possible to contain CO2 emissions from aviation that today represent two per cent of the total man made emissions.
To help achieve this, Mr. Gallois has committed Airbus to embrace an environmental life cycle approach to operations targeting a 30 per cent reduction in company energy consumption and 50 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. He also committed to re-invest savings expected from environmental initiatives back into research into cleaner technologies.
Going further, Mr. Gallois also committed to a 25 per cent budget increase in Research and Technology starting 2008, targeting that by 2020 all new Airbus aircraft entering the market would produce 50 per cent less CO2 and 80 per cent less NOx than levels in 2000. Airbus will also revisit fuel cell and hydrogen technology to power ground operations at airports.
European Commission Vice-President G?nter Verheugen, who also attended the ceremony, said:
?Airbus' commitments will make a positive difference whilst also recognising that people want and need to travel. They make environmental and business sense. I hope this leadership will foster increased research which I fully encourage and support.?
ISO 14001 corporate certification recognizes Airbus uses a robust environmental management system to continually monitor and minimize environmental impact at all levels and to make the company greener. On the production side this includes for example new processes such as chemical free milling of aircraft parts. On the product side this includes the increasing use of advanced materials in aircraft to reduce weight and increase fuel efficiency.
