Volvo Cars’ engine factory in Skövde, Sweden, has become the company’s first climate-neutral manufacturing plant, having switched to ‘renewable heating’ at the start of the year (
www.volvogroup.com).
This marks a significant step towards the company’s vision of having climate-neutral global manufacturing operations by 2025; Skövde also becomes one of only a few climate-neutral automotive plants in Europe.
Javier Varela, senior vice-president (manufacturing and logistics) at Volvo Cars, said: “Improving energy efficiency is our first priority, and for the energy we need to use, we aim for supplies generated from renewable sources.
“The Skövde plant achievement is an important addition to our broader efforts in minimising our environmental footprint.”
A new agreement ensures that all heating supplied to the Skövde plant is generated from waste incineration, biomass and recycled bio-fuels.
Since 2008, along with the company’s other European plants, its Skövde site’s electricity supply has come from renewable sources.
Stuart Templar, director for sustainability at Volvo Cars, said: “Environmental care is one of our core values. Along with our plan to electrify all new Volvo cars launched from 2019, climate-neutral manufacturing operations will significantly reduce our overall carbon footprint, supporting global efforts to tackle climate change.”
In 2016, Volvo’s production plant in Ghent (Belgium) introduced a district heating system that reduced carbon emissions by 40%, saving 15,000 tonnes of CO
2 per year.