Five insights from the IAEG Fall 2024 Technical Meeting
The latest International Aerospace Environmental Group (IAEG) Technical Meeting took place 30th September - 4th October 2024 in Madrid, strengthening industry engagement with sustainability initiatives.
The IAEG is a non-profit organization promoting a responsible and sustainable aerospace industry. Its bi-annual face-to-face technical meetings mark a unique opportunity to work on practical sustainability solutions across ten domains and learn what’s on the minds of aviation industry leaders. The recent Madrid event was no exception.
Representatives from a broad range of aviation companies came together for a week of intensive discussion and decision-making; reporting progress made since previous meetings, taking immediate actions, and committing to larger goals.
As a liaison member, BSI participates in several IAEG working groups, bringing industry, standards, and assurance expertise to the discussion. We were represented in Madrid by Giancarlo Silvestri, Global Head of Aerospace, Space and Defence (ASD), and Rob Allen, Global Marketing Manager – Transport and Mobility.
Five Insights from the IAEG Technical Meeting
Here are five key insights our team observed from the event that you can use to accelerate sustainability progress.
1. Strong collaboration
A key theme of the meeting was collaboration. Collaboration on problem solving and defining actions which can make meaningful, lasting change. In a competitive industry, the willingness for major organizations to come together for the greater good was inspiring. The time invested by attendees could be equated to 30 days of collaboration – based on 10 working groups across three days.
The industry is seeking to expand the global aircraft fleet over the next decades for future generations of passengers – especially in India, China, and growing economies. Achieving this growth in parallel to reducing emissions to net zero is a critical challenge that demands collaboration.
Organizations across the Aerospace, Security, and Defence (ASD) industries can take inspiration from IAEG working groups to collaborate on sustainability initiatives. Sharing diverse experiences and working together with peers, customers, and suppliers is critical to driving collective change.
We also offer frameworks and methodologies to promote collaboration with your supply chain partners – helping drive collective change. A helpful framework for ASD companies to use in formulating their sustainability commitment and measuring progress is the ‘Assess – Reduce – Mitigate – Report’ framework outlined in BSI’s guide ‘Flightpath to Net Zero’.
2. Embrace accountability and ownership
Part of the IAEG remit is to bring companies together and encourage them to take meaningful ownership of the industry’s challenges. In Madrid, ten working groups met to address specific challenges through insights, shared experiences and listening to fresh ideas from others.
According to the World Economic Forum, aviation represents approximately 2% of global emissions today, which could rise to 22% by 2050. To help the industry collectively move towards net zero, IAEG supports its members in setting their own net zero goals and implementing effective governance.
The Madrid Technical Meeting showcased many examples of senior sustainability leaders with extensive technical expertise actively participating in the solutions: a true testimony to the commitment of each member - and the overall industry - to becoming more sustainable.
Attaining Net Zero Verification through our independent verification process is a powerful way to show your commitment to sustainability.
3. Nurture a creative, flexible mindset
IAEG encourages organizations to maintain a creative, flexible mindset to solve sustainability challenges. One example of this at the meeting was the creation of two new working groups for Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). They established essential principles and methods to change the way the industry uses vital resources and measures their environmental impacts.
The visible progress made by these working groups helps encourage the creativity, adaptability and open-mindedness which is critical for achieving net zero and creating a more collaborative aerospace industry. There’s a genuine openness within IAEG to explore emerging topics, defining the challenge and desired destination, even where solutions are not obvious or immediate.
The wider ASD industry must adopt and promote this approach at all levels of the supply chain to encourage sharing best practices and the use of standards. BSI is committed to sharing our expertise in standards and assurance with all members of the aerospace community. Our training, for example, helps individuals rethink their approach to sustainability, equipping and inspiring them to make changes from within their organizations and networks.
4. Access a wealth of expertise
The wealth of experience and expertise in IAEG’s membership is helping it influence the industry around this critical global issue. This was demonstrated in Madrid, when IAEG actively utilized world-leading expertise from members including Airbus, Boeing, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Rolls Royce, RTX, Safran and many more.
Events like the Madrid forum bring together industry leaders to drive positive change across the ASD industry. The IAEG’s ability to access knowledge from so many leading organizations ensures each working group benefits from best-in-class leadership. This in turn strengthens the credibility around the outputs from such events, including wider ongoing IAEG reports and initiatives which all aerospace organizations should engage with.
BSI takes a very similar approach when it comes to developing standards and assurance solutions: getting the input of diverse groups of subject matter experts and taking a consensus-based approach to defining best practice. This methodology helps underpin the credibility of our solutions in the eyes of the industry and accelerate their wide adoption.
5. Focus on action today
IAEG makes a demonstrable impact in the aerospace industry because its initiatives aren’t theoretical. Instead, everything the group does is firmly focused on meaningfully delivering a better, more sustainable industry of the future. As discussed in Madrid, a headline goal of the organization is to work towards net-zero by 2050 while helping fellow members keep track of—and share experience of implementing—emerging regulations.
Each working group is defined to achieve various specific solutions; examples include separate working groups on emerging regulations, ESG, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Achieving sustainability in practice means meeting new standards and complying with new regulations.
BSI is involved in these working groups, supporting their progress with expertise in aerospace industry standards and assurance. As the only such body in the group, it’s an important role. We’re helping IAEG member organizations and the wider ASD industry by providing a standards-driven pathway to work towards the headline 2050 net zero goal.
Moving forward together
Considering the World Economic Forum estimates that the aviation industry’s global emissions could rise to 22% by 2050, few conversations are as important right now as those about a considered, collaborative response to the climate crisis—and the ASD industry is in a strong position to make a real difference.
There’s much to be done, and BSI is proud to be right by IAEG’s side.
We invite all partners from across the global ASD ecosystem to join us in this critical mission – together, we can deliver meaningful progress towards net zero.
For more information about BSI’s sustainable aerospace solutions, please download our guide, ‘Flightpath To Net Zero.’
