News
ATAG and GARDN sign agreement
March 23, 2012, Geneva, Swe. - The Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) and Canada's Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN) took the opportunity of the 6th Aviation & Environment Summit in Geneva to sign a cooperation agreement.
March 23, 2012 By Carey Fredericks
The two organizations intend to build on their respective mandates and networks to further foster and promote environmental research in aviation, particularly in the areas of sustainable aviation biofuels, sustainable development, industry collaboration and climate change.
ATAG is a global industry-wide body that brings together all aviation industry and works to promote aviation's sustainable growth for the benefit of our global society. GARDN is a Business-Led Network of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) based in Montréal, Canada, whose mission is to promote aerospace technologies for the protection of the environment through collaborative research and development projects.
"The aviation industry provides 56 trillion jobs worldwide and contributions of $2.2 trillion in GDP," says Paul Steele, Executive Director of ATAG. "With the sustainable development of economies and the creation of jobs comes the responsibility to carefully manage the resources we are using and the impact that we have on the world. All parts of the commercial aviation industry are engaged in ways we can reduce environmental impact – from new technology and operational efficiencies to infrastructure development. The amount of work occurring across the industry is an impressive sign of our commitment to sustainable development. A cooperation agreement with GARDN provides ATAG with a welcome opportunity to work collaboratively on reducing the environmental footprint on the planet, while maintaining benefits to the society and the economy," he added.
Sylvain Cofsky, Executive Director of GARDN, welcomes this transatlantic cooperation. "I see this as a great opportunity to expand GARDN's reach worldwide and promote further collaborative research opportunities. GARDN currently has 15 R&D projects in diverse areas such as Source Noise Reduction, Source Emissions Reduction, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, Airport Operations, Aircraft Operations, Alternative Fuels and Product Lifecycle Management. Our first official joint activity of this partnership will be ATAG'S participation in the organization of GARDN's Annual Conference on September 25th and 26th, in Toronto, Canada. We hope that this will pave the way for increased visibility for this vital activity.
