It has approximately 3 million parts,

and before it ever takes off,

Boeing engineers already know how

those parts will effect its flight along with its environment.

From raw materials and production methods

to fuel efficiency and aircraft retirement,

Boeing is designing jetliners to improve

every aspect of their use and environmental performance.

Airplanes have very long inservice life spans.

[Jeanne Yu, director of Environmental Performance] My job is to look for ways to continue

improving environmental performance of those products

over their entire life cycle.

When jetliners were first built,

there wasn't much thought given to materials,

components, or even whole aircraft

once their service lives were over,

often 30 or more years after they were originally manufactured.

But that's all changed.

Boeing is now building entire airplanes with recycling in mind.

Take composite wing and fuselage structures, for example.

The 787 is made of composite structure,

which is what makes it lighter weight

and makes it significantly more fuel efficient

than the airplanes they replace.

With composites, we've been working very

hard with the industry to understand how to preserve carbon fiber,

because once you can recycle the carbon fiber,

you can put it into many other applications

at much lighter cost and much less energy

than it would take for raw material use.

However, designing for the environment goes well beyond

high-tech materials such as carbon fiber.

It includes better recycling approaches for the most ordinary materials,

like aircraft carpeting.

We were surprised to find out how often

carpet is turned over in an aircraft.

So over the 20 to 30 year lifespan on one single aircraft,

tons of carpet can go to landfills.

That's why Boeing is helping airlines replace small sections of worn carpets

with recyclable carpet squares.

If there's a stain or a spill,

you can remove 1 carpet tile and replace it with a fresh tile,

and it fits right in, and its seamless.

We love it.

Our customer loves it,

and it's better for the environment,

so that's a win-win-win for all.

What really makes designing for the environment important

is the scale it represents.

Boeing produces more than 48 large commercial jetliners a month,

so an improvement in an airplane's design

can be reflected in 1000's of planes

in just a few years.

There's nothing simple about aircraft.

The real challenge is that

to make an airplane more recyclable or more sustainable,

we need everyone who has anything to do with the airplane

to begin to think in a more sustainable way.

[Boeing Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.]