EADS encourages environmental certification of its industrial sites. As of 31st December 2005, 29 sites were either ISO 14001 certified or EMAS registered, representing 42% of the total workforce of EADS.

Airbus has set the goal of achieving the international environmental standard ISO 14001 certification for its complete organisation by the end of 2006. As of the end of 2005, only two European sites, Hamburg and Toulouse remained to be certified to ISO 14001, as scheduled in Airbus’ implementation plan. These projects should be accomplished by April 2006, bringing the former ratio from 42% to 64%. Site compliance is only part of overall corporate certification. With this continuous improvement process, Airbus is strengthening its environmental expertise throughout all sites and functions, expanding its site-dedicated environmental network. Environmental experts are charged with reviewing and improving all environmental aspects of Airbus’ operations across all functions. These experts play a decisive role in the certification process, including the “environmental analysis” of Airbus products. Launched in 2006, product certification is the other fundamental element that will lead to Airbus’ overall corporate certification.

In December 2005, EADS Space Transportation also decided to target an ISO 14001 certification of its French site by the end of 2006, following successful re-certification of its German sites in 2005.

The same applies to ASTRIUM : re-certification of German and UK sites in 2005, certification of the French site (Toulouse) scheduled for April 2006.

While classical ISO 14001 addresses only SITE-related certification, Airbus has joined forces with several other organisations (Chamber of Commerce, National Trade Associations, EADS Germany) to set the rules for an approach to environmental certification of both SITES and PRODUCTS along their lifecycle (production sites being only one aspect of this lifecycle). This approach will help Airbus, among other organisations, to systematically assess the environmental impact of its products along their entire life, and to target improvements at the earliest design stage. SPOEMS was selected by the European Union under its “LIFE” Programme.

Powered by the ISO 14001 certifications, many local initiatives on waste recycling are taken by the BUs, going beyond the certification requirements (identification, separation, management of disposal). One example is with Astrium UK: introduction of two recycling waste streams: one for glass and one for paper.

EADS operations have a very low impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. In the main, EADS’ energy use results from heating and lighting requirements (offices, administration buildings, production facilities etc).

A potential risk from climate change to EADS operations comes from the ever-increasing pressure on energy costs.

However, both from a cost and an operational efficiency viewpoint the Group recognises that it has a responsibility to reduce energy usage where possible and so EADS views this as an opportunity to make continuous improvements.

In 2005, EADS was a participating Company to the G8 Climate Change Panel, led by Tony Blair, for the post Kyoto Protocol actions. In this perspective, the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative anticipates the definition of a satellite-based system allowing the monitoring of global greenhouse gase emissions.

As a further example, ATR also applies a “green policy” in the conception of its aircraft. ATR aircraft are recognised as the most fuel-efficient aircraft in their category thanks to their advanced engine technology and highly efficient propellers. Low levels of engine emissions are essentially the result of low fuel consumption. On routes with an operating radius of 200 nautical miles, ATR 72−500 fuel consumption per passenger is up to 15% lower than for a typical European car. The associated gaseous emissions per passengers in terms of CO (carbon mono_xide) are 15 times lower than from a car and comparable to those of a train. As far as nitrous oxides are concerned, the ATR is three times less pollutant than a car and 40% less than a train. All these factors make the ATR an environmentally friendly aircraft that contributes less to the greenhouse effect than most other forms of transport.

The alignment of environmental targets (CO₂ emissions reduction) with economical targets (energy consumption reduction) drives many local initiatives such as the installation of energy efficient motor drives at Astrium UK or the improvement of efficiency of the satellite assembly clean rooms by Astrium in Germany. Other examples include the installation of a 98.6 Kwatt-peak of photovoltaic solar power connected to the public electricity system on the roof of a new office building at Airbus Spain.

An important issue addressed in 2005 concerned the product life cycle with the transition to lead-free electronics for aerospace. This was in particular driven by the European RoHS directive, which restricts the use of six hazardous materials (Lead, hewavalent chromium, Mercury, cadmium, PBB and PBDE) in electric and electronic applications and thus leads to necessary substitutions. These substitutions are difficult for aerospace activities due to the length of the aerospace products life cycle and stringent safety certifications; the introduction of substitute substances requiring additional testing and certification. As a consequence, the European Commission has accepted that “equipment containing such targeted substances specifically designed to be installed in airplanes, boats or other means of transport are out of the scope of the RoHS Directive”. The defence products are also out of the scope of RoHS.

In 2004, EADS installed a specific network on the RoHS / Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) issue, managed by CQO. A prior focus of EADS was on the replacement of lead. A position paper was issued in July and flowed down to the supply chain and to the engineering community. Standards are under preparation to set the rules for the global aerospace industry’s transition to lead-free production, taking into account the environmental need to ban lead soldering and the need to move to safety / reliability proven lead-free solutions.

EADS and many of its BUs (Airbus, MBDA, Defence Electronics, Space Transportation) participate to the LEAP (Lead-free Electronics in Aerospace Project) Consortium which is preparing these standards. Furthermore, EADS and Boeing have decided to team up to address this difficult transition, by jointly defining the technical solutions, the validation tests protocols and the configuration management rules that will be enforced throughout the aerospace Industry and its supply chain in the coming years.

Dedicated IT tools are starting being implemented (Defence site of ULM) tot race and manage hazardous substances, such as lead, from supply to disposal.

The life span of an aircraft is about thirty years; as a consequence, the first Airbus aircraft models are about to reach their end of life. Approximately 200 planes are expected to be withdrawn from the worldwide market each year for the next 20 years.

So far, old planes were stored in hangars or dismantled in a non-environmentally friendly way. Airbus has created a consortium to dismantle and recycle old planes, with EADS CRC, Sogerma, Sita (a waste management company) and the Préfecture des Hautes-Pyrénées. This €2.4 million project, called PAMELA (Process for Advanced Management of End of Life Aircraft), was approved in 2005. A special centre will be set up at Tarbes Airport, where procedures for the decommissioning and recycling of aircraft in safe and environmentally responsible conditions will be tested. The aim of this project is to demonstrate that 85 – 95% of aircraft components can be recycled, reused and recovered. It will also enable EADS to anticipate further environmental European Regulations on waste recycling. The first dismantled aircraft will be an Airbus A300 from a Turkish company. Its dismantling will last 20 months. Pamela is also expected to create up to 100 jobs over the next few years.

Further reporting: Airbus publishes an environmental report every two years which is available on its website at http://www.airbus.com . Airbus’s fourth environmental report will be published in June 2006.