AIR TRANSPORT Boeing and sustainability

Boeing charts a greener flight path

TIM ROBINSON FRAeS reports on how the US airframer is putting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at the core of its efforts to advance green aviation and win back trust.

It is no exaggeration that the two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX airliners in which 346 people lost their lives, shattered many people’s trust in the US icon of aerospace engineering excellence that is Boeing – a searing scar that the company is still coming to terms with.

Chris Raymond, Boeing, Chief Sustainability Officer (Boeing)On top of these crashes, the wider global aviation industry itself has been facing the biggest crisis in its history – with the Covid-19 pandemic that has grounded flights, furloughed pilots and closed borders on an unprecedented scale. There have also been massive social upheavals, with protests and anger about racial injustice and anger directed at the wealth of the 1%. Finally, climate change (too late, some might argue) has gone from an abstract concept to a frightening reality for those affected by extreme weather and wildfires. This has caused a shift at both the political level and with the general public. Aviation, at least in the West, can no longer take support for granted.

What this means then is that former assumptions of ‘business returning to normal’ are no longer valid. Boeing has responded to this with the creation of a new Global Enterprise Sustainability division that is aiming to strengthen the values of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and put them at the company’s core. Appointed in September 2020, Chris Raymond is the company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer and the creation of this new division and position (which reports directly to the CEO) is a sign of how much importance the company now places on this key area – with the company releasing its first comprehensive sustainability report earlier this year.

Boeing’s sustainability efforts are not new (its ecoDemonstrator green airliner programme dates from 2011) but this represents a new singular and unified focus across the whole of its business, from satellites to airliners. Says Chris Raymond: “The collection of activities that falls under ESG now is really the environmental topics, the social topics and the governance of the company. I think we’ve done a lot of those things as a company since our inception but we weren’t really pulling it all together and we probably weren’t putting it in the language that the world expects it now.”

Regaining trust

Raymond notes the implicit issue of Boeing’s credibility post-737 MAX: “Because of Boeing’s challenges before the pandemic, the reality is we have to earn some trust. We have to re-earn some trust and I think this topic was just one that was so important to our stakeholders, regardless of who they were: an employee, a customer, a regulator or the flying public.

BECAUSE OF BOEING’S CHALLENGES BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, THE REALITY IS WE HAVE TO EARN SOME TRUST. WE HAVE TO RE-EARN SOME TRUST...

We wanted to put more attention or focus on it. And so we did that by naming a dedicated organisation. I report directly to the CEO, we set the organisation up around ESG, so we had the right focus on those topics inside and across the company.”

Raymond agrees that, even pre-pandemic, the aviation industry was on the back foot in getting its message across in its efforts to improve sustainability and its immense societal value. “Just think going forward, we’re going to have to be a little more mindful of making sure we’re humbly and credibly communicating what the industry is doing because there’s this view that we’re just growing and aren’t paying attention to it by some.

We’ve got to make sure the public sees the societal goodness but also understands that ‘we get it’ and it’s changing to be more sustainable as it grows and goes forward,” adding: “we have to stay focused on that constant, credible communication. I just look at what’s happened with the oil, gas and automotive industries and we certainly don’t want aerospace to fall into that perception.”

Diversity and inclusion

Boeing Defense

Boeing’s new sustainability division is not just about greener airliners and communicating progress to stakeholders better. It is also about securing the long-term future of the aviation industry by opening its doors to include a wider set of skilled workers than ever before by embracing diversity and inclusion. Again, this is not new and, in fact, dates from the company’s founding, when a Chinese man, Wong Tsu, was the first aeronautical engineer employed by Bill Boeing in 1916.

So what more needs to be done on D&I? “I think it’s never-ending. On diversity, I think how a company is developing its workforce; what’s the culture of a company? Is it diverse in its thinking? Is it a place, not just for gender diversity or racial diversity, but a diversity of thought? Is it a culture that supports speaking up? All of that is important, having the right culture in a company and it’s all part of what is now defined as a more sustainable company.”

End-to-end sustainably

Raymond’s wide-ranging remit not only covers green technology that may make it on to future Boeing airliners but also the end-to-end sustainable process from design, manufacturing, support and disposal, and recycling – to the amount of energy used in Boeing’s factories. New methods of digital design and 3D printing, such as on Boeing/ Saab T-7A Red Hawk trainer, have the potential to reduce traditional waste. Meanwhile, he says, progress is being made on recycling, including previously difficult materials, such as composites. Says Raymond: “In the UK, when we started making the 787, the industry for the waste created with carbon-fibre was not as mature as the industry for aluminium or titanium waste. An industry had to be created. Boeing and a company called ELG Composites in the UK figured out a way to take that carbon fibre waste from the fuselage cut-outs that we do for windows and recycle that material, and resell it as plastic blocks that other industries can use. So your computer case on your laptop might be created out of carbon-fibre from the 787. That kind of circularity is going to be more and more prevalent.”

The 2021 Boeing ecoDemonstrator uses a 737 MAX in partnership with Alaska Airlines. Boeing

Lessons from the pandemic

With the world now emerging from the pandemic and airliner orders creeping back up again (Boeing has reportedly got rid of nearly all 200 737 MAX ‘white tails’ it had on its books), Raymond is bullish about growth. “I’m pretty faithful that air travel is going to recover. More people are going to want to travel.

The US Air Force has ordered 350 Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk aircraft which used advanced digital design to cut time and waste

World GDP is going to allow more people to do it and so this gets back to, if we grow, we have to make sure that it’s seen as growing safely and sustainably.” As well as this pent-up demand and the importance of air freight during Covid, Raymond explains that: “one thing that I think has been, maybe, not learned but maybe relearned is how important the fleet renewal is and, as the industry roars back, I think these airlines are going to put their newer equipment online first, be it Boeing, Airbus or Embraer. That’s going to be another step forward on carbon emissions. I don’t think the industry talks about that enough or the airlines may not get enough credit for that.”

Scaling up SAF

Finally, Raymond sees the biggest challenge, yet the biggest opportunity to decarbonising the aviation, is the scaling up the production of drop-in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). With events now coming together to make this possible – “The biggest challenge in the near term, which I’m hopeful on, is the scale-up on sustainable aviation fuel.” he says, adding: “I look at what’s occurring with governments with net-zero ambitions and, to me, these megatrends are all creating an environment where the collaboration is more likely to occur that will let banks and capital flow to this and scale up sustainable fuel. That scale-up over the next decade of SAF, frankly, is the biggest and most reachable opportunity for the industry and would be huge for this sector to continue to grow but also start to change the carbon emissions curve.”

Indeed, in a recent move, Boeing struck a deal with Netherlands-based SkyNRG in July to accelerate and scale up the rollout of SAF. Concludes Raymond: “SAF is a no-regrets move; almost regardless of how fast you believe hydrogen or electric or of any of these things can scale in our industry, we’re still going to need SAF.”