By Lutz Bertling, President and CEO of Eurocopter

Like any other power-driven vehicle, the helicopter must become more environmentally friendly. As part of the European Clean Sky project, Eurocopter is working on different ways to produce greener helicopters. Introducing active rotor control, optimizing the shape of main blades, making airframes more aerodynamic, reducing empty weight, thus improving the power to payload ratio, integrating a new, greener engine on light helicopters to slash average fuel consumption and reduce CO2 emissions—these are some of the many projects we are carrying out to protect and preserve the environment. For many missions, low noise levels are a top priority when neighborhood-friendly helicopters are required. Just as for noise, our aircraft have set the standard in several areas, and will soon usher in further breakthroughs. In fact, we aim to raise the bar for environmental standards higher. But our environmental policy does not focus solely on the development of our products: It also integrates the requirements of the EU’s REACH regulation and the certifi cation of our plants according to the strictest standards. Over the last ten years, the efforts made at our European production sites are a perfect illustration of our commitment to this continuous improvement drive: All our European plants have now received the ISO 14001 certifi cation.
At the end of 2008, we created an Environmental Affairs department that is tasked with coordinating and harmonizing all the measures we take to protect and preserve the environment.
More than ever, we are harnessing our forces so that our products and services meet your expectations— particularly where the environment is concerned.