Production
Environmental protection in production
Sustainability must be thought of along the entire value chain - also for production. What the automotive industry is doing.
Sustainability must be thought of along the entire value chain - also for production. What the automotive industry is doing.
- Topics
- Automotive industry
- Production, logistics, aftermarket
- Environmental protection in production
Ecological and social sustainability
Our automotive industry is working hard to increasingly align manufacturing to the principles of sustainability. The aim is to anchor economic, ecological, and social goals vertically, i.e., across all stages of the value chain. The responsibility for sustainable business should be shared – by companies, politicians, and society as a whole. The German automotive industry is contributing to this, with manufacturers and suppliers assuming responsibility throughout the entire production and life cycle of a vehicle. From the selection of materials to manufacturing in Germany and fuel-saving use, and right up to the closing of the circulation of materials at the end of its life cycle. Over the past two decades, German automotive manufacturers have been enormously successful in saving the resources used in manufacturing. Among other things, they have reduced the amount of clean water needed to produce a vehicle by more than 60%, while more than 80% of production waste is now recycled. Solvent emissions from painting vehicles in mass production have also fallen by 65% since 1990, currently the lowest level when compared internationally.
We of the automotive industry seek to make vehicles that are not only sustainable to drive but also in their manufacture.Vision statement
Together with other associations and policymakers, we set common goals to achieve sustainable production for our entire sector. In so doing, we are guided by the Paris Climate Agreement, the Global Compact Initiative, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.Mission statement
The participating companies within the automotive industry make sustainability an integral part of their corporate strategy. They agree on ecological and social standards as stipulations for the OEMs and all suppliers along the entire supply chain (similar to ISO 16949). They are considering standardizing reporting comparable to the Harbour Report or Value Balancing Alliance (data collection, data quality, methods, basis for calculation, KPIs, monetization, etc.). The employees are made aware of ecological and social sustainability (such as the Go Green Initiative).
Among other things, ecological sustainability includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants, as well as the sustainable use of such resources as energy and water, preventing waste or wastewater, and recycling more production waste. These issues go some way toward the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nonetheless, one particular focus is on avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2.
CO2 emissions are considered according to the following scopes:
i.e. from sources within the boundary of the company
from electricity, steam, heating, and cooling purchased from and generated outside the company.
including from the manufacture, transport of purchased goods or distribution and use of the company's own products or waste disposal; emissions resulting from business trips are also included here. Since the direct focus here is on manufacturing, we will not go into processes as part of Scope 3 at this time.