Boeing

The Boeing Company today was named the Green Lights® Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The honor was given in recognition of the company's installation of energy-efficient lighting in the company's facilities.

The Green Lights Partnership is a voluntary program, begun by the EPA in 1991, with Boeing as a charter member. Since then, the company has switched to more efficient lighting at more than 55 percent of its building space - nearly 44 million square feet of company facilities. This has reduced energy consumption by 200 million kilowatt hours annually. Because the production of energy usually involves the burning of fossil fuels, this translates into a reduction in air pollution of more than 40 million pounds of carbon dioxide each year. The reduced use of energy also has cut emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

"Boeing serves as a remarkable example of environmental leadership," said Jean Lupinacci, director of the EPA's ENERGY STAR Buildings and Green Lights Partnership. "By reducing its annual operating costs by more than $12 million, it has also shown that implementing energy-efficient practices is a smart business strategy."

Energy conservation is just one of several areas of environmental emphasis for the Boeing Company. Others include waste reduction, chemical process research, recycling and commute trip reduction. In 1998 Boeing was given the EPA's Climate Wise award. The company has also twice won the EPA award for ozone protection.

"Our partnership with the EPA and the Green Lights Program has been quite natural for us," said Kirk Thomson, Boeing director of Energy and Environmental Affairs. "Conserving energy and investing in high-efficiency lighting makes much more than economic sense for us. It improves the quality of life in the communities where we live and work, it helps keep everyone's energy bills lower and it avoids the generation of greenhouse gasses."

The Energy Star Buildings and Green Lights partnerships are designed to prevent pollution by optimizing energy efficiency in commercial and industrial buildings. Program participants reduce their energy bills by approximately 30 percent, while improving the comfort of their buildings.

As of September 1998, more than 2,700 participants nationwide reduced annual energy use by 21.6 billion kilowatt hours. Cumulatively, Energy Star Buildings and Green Lights Partners have prevented the emission of 34.2 billion pounds of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of removing the pollution from 20 million cars for the next decade.