Airbus underscores its commitment to enhancing the aviation industry’s eco-efficiency with initiatives that extend throughout the entire life-cycle of an aircraft – from the design and production phases to its eventual retirement from service.
The Airbus ACADEMY project - which stands for Airbus Corporate Answer to Disseminate integrated Environmental Management sYstem- leads company initiatives to develop an innovative environmental management system (EMS) for its entire family of aircraft.
An EMS is a means to address potential environmental impacts and provides an organised approach to management decisions based on business needs, resources and goals.
The ACADEMY project expands the scope of a standard EMS, establishing one that integrates Airbus’ manufacturing processes and airliner products through a life-cycle approach – allowing for the mapping, assessment, control and reduction of an aircraft and its production’s effect on the environment.
In a first for the aerospace industry, Airbus received International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001 environmental certification in 2007 - covering the entirety of the company's 16 production sites, as well as all of its airliner products throughout their useful service life.
Awarded in recognition of companies' achievements in monitoring and minimising the effect their operations have on the environment, this designation was subsequently extended to Airbus' company sites in North America, along with Airbus China Limited and its subsidiaries.
Airbus also is compliant with REACH regulation N°1907/2006 (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals), the European Union’s regulatory framework for industrial chemical manufacture, market placement and/or use. While Airbus is not a producer of substances, the company is held to REACH standards as a downstream user and importer of a large amount of substances/preparations and as an importer and producer of articles. A specific REACH Compliance Programme has been set up with a dedicated team and budget to ensure that all tools and processes will integrate REACH requirements in a recurrent mode. As a first step and as part of its obligations under this regulation, Airbus has identified and pre-registered all eligible hazardous substances used in the manufacture of its aircraft. Additionally, it has developed a monitoring tool to keep track of data for hazardous materials.
