Boeing has made absolute reductions in energy consumption, carbon emissions, water use, production of hazardous waste and waste sent to landfill in the United States, according to the latest environmental report from the aerospace and aviation company.

The Boeing 2011 Environment Report released yesterday shows improvement ranging from 5 percent to 26 percent in the five environmental metrics across a four-year period, from 2007 to 2010 inclusive. Boeing also reported year-over-year progress in the five categories.

The areas showing the greatest improvement were:

• Waste diversion. In 2010, the company diverted 73 percent of its nonhazardous solid waste from landfill, compared with 68 percent in 2009. From 2007 to 2010, the company's diversion rate improved 26 percent. In April, the Boeing 787 assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C., became the company's fourth zero-waste-to-landfill site and its first major commercial airplane production facility to attain "zero waste" status. The other zero-waste sites are a helicopter plant in Philadelphia, a Salt Lake City factory for fabricating commercial airplane parts and a strategic missile and defense systems facility in Huntsville, Ala.
• Hazardous waste. The amount of hazardous waste Boeing generated fell 15 percent from 2009 to 2010. From 2007 to 2010, hazardous waste generation dropped 23 percent.
• Water use. The firm reduced its water intake by 4.8 percent from 2009 to 2010 and charted an 11 percent decrease from 2007 to 2010.

Boeing's environmental performance goals for U.S. operations call for 25 percent reductions in the intensity of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water intake and hazardous waste generation from 2007 to 2012 -- with consumption and generation indexed to revenue. For example, the revenue-adjusted target for carbon emissions would compare the number of metric tons of CO2 generated per $1 million in revenue in 2007 with the metric tons of CO2 generated for each million in revenue for 2012.

At the time the original targets were set (an early version of the goals appears in the company's 2008 Environment Report), "Boeing projected that achieving these goals would equate to an approximate 1 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water intake and hazardous waste generation during a time of significant growth," the company said in this year's report.

Although growth in revenue has been uneven in the past four years, the company's environmental performance has steadily improved, resulting in absolute reductions that have exceeded the initial projection, as the chart below shows.