Attending the MRO Conference always reminds me what a global business we're in. I talked with Francois-Xavier Foubert, CEO of Snecma America Engines Services, who talked about opening the new CFM56 MRO facility in Queretaro, Mexico. So here's Snecma, a French based company opening a joint venture in Mexico. I also talked to Boeing about its new facility in Shanghai, as well as Brazil-based Embraer, which plans to open three new business aviation maintenance facilities here in the U.S. The list of new cross-border companies and joint ventures goes on.

This conference also makes it evident that the MRO industry has come a long way in improving its environmental footprint. As Per Noren, Boeing's director of environmental strategy, so eloquently summarized, companies are approaching green in different ways, but the core thing is that they're working on internal projects within their companies and external initiatives with their customers.

However, because MRO is connected and global, Noren suggested the industry needs to get a baseline for where it's at environmentally and establish a platform to work together on green stewardship.