Volvo

Foundation Member | Tracking Since November 2022

Volvo Sustainability Actions

Circular Economy

The world’s natural resources are limited. So we’ve committed to become a circular business by 2040 – maximising resource efficiency across vehicles, components and materials. We’re focussed on eliminating waste, making greater use of recycled material, and remanufacturing and reusing parts. Design for circularity: Most companies (and people) still participate in a linear economy – you take raw material, make a product, use it, and in the end, throw it out as waste. A circular economy maximises resources by designing products for durability, reuse and recycling. From the start, we’re considering a vehicle’s entire life cycle and how to maximise the value delivered throughout that time. When that’s over, the dissasembly and recycling process can provide high quality and quantity raw materials. More remanufacturing: Compared to producing new parts, remanufactured parts use around 85 per cent less raw material and 80 per cent less energy. We currently remanufacture 36 different component groups, including engines, gearboxes, turbo compressors and clutches. In 2021 we saved over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 by remanufacturing over 37,000 parts. Less production waste: In 2021, 96 per cent of our global production waste was recycled – so we avoided creating additional carbon emissions and were able to keep valuable material in circulation. This also reduced the amount of virgin material needed. Recycling: Our largest waste stream is metal from car production, which amounted to 209,000 tonnes in 2021 and is entirely recycled.

The Family Bond by Volvo Cars - Equal global parental leave for all

The Family Bond by Volvo Cars is our all-gender global paid parental leave policy – with this, we give all Volvo Cars employees with at least one year's service 24 weeks of parental leave at 80 per cent of their base pay by default. This global policy applies to either parent and is suited for a diverse variety of family types, as it includes adoptive, foster care and surrogate parents, as well as non-birth parents in same-sex couples. Learn more about The Family Bond at https://www.volvocars.com/au/about/family-bond/

Ethical sourcing

We're serious about wanting to reduce our impact on the planet and we know our responsibility extends beyond our own walls. The what, how and where from of our sourcing activities all must be accounted for when we calculate our impacts. We aim for transparency and traceability throughout our entire sourcing process. For example, we use Blockchain technology as part of our commitment to the responsible sourcing of batteries. Ethical batteries: We're committed to responsible sourcing of our batteries. As part of that commitment, we're the first car manufacturer to use blockchain technology throughout our entire cobalt supply chain, allowing us to monitor and trace the cobalt used in our batteries. Responsible cobalt sourcing: Cobalt is a vital component in the production of electric car batteries. In some cases, the extraction of cobalt can have human rights impacts. We use blockchain technology to increase transparency and traceability of our cobalt supply chain, ensuring the information about the material’s origin cannot be changed undetected. We use several other processes, in conjunction with our suppliers, including mine site inspections and GPS tracking to help ensure that the cobalt within our batteries is responsibly sourced.

Wordwide certification

We have achieved a worldwide certification complying with ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental care) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety). This means that all of the company’s sites and functions are working in a correct and consistent manner fulfilling all requirements in these standards. The three standards align with Volvo’s core values of quality, safety and environmental care. With the achievement of the worldwide certification, we prove we are a unified organisation, under one process model, fully aligned across all sites around the world.

Ethical leadership

In 2019, Volvo Cars was recognised as a World’s Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute for the third consecutive year. Ethisphere Institute is a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. Our past participation in the Ethisphere Institute survey was part of our continuous improvement initiatives. This award was a welcomed acknowledgement of our comprehensive Compliance and Ethics Programme, which aims to ensure that our employees and our business partners act responsibly and ethically. Volvo Cars is committed to fostering a culture of Ethical Leadership.

Sustainable financing

The financial community has a vital role to play in accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy. We want to support their growing focus on sustainable investment. Our Green Financing Framework aligns our sustainability strategy with financing opportunities that lead to a positive impact on our shared environment and society. The Framework is aligned with both the ICMA Green Bond Principles (GBP) and the LMA Green Loan Principles (GLP). We use the proceeds for strategic projects in clean transportation: increasing our fully electric cars production capacity and battery assembly; and for research and development of zero emissions vehicles, new electric powertrains and platform technology.

Governance

Our sustainability strategy is fully integrated into our corporate strategy and is challenged frequently by regular analysis, including climate-related risks and opportunities. We have a governance structure in place to monitor the progress of our sustainability strategy, ambitions and initiatives. Our sustainability governance structure is organised according to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). This means we conduct frequent sustainability reviews at each management level including Board of Directors. The global sustainability team oversees the development and progress of the sustainability strategy across the company. ESG reporting: We believe in external third-party validation of our sustainability performance. It’s essential to gaining credibility. It’s reassurance to our people and external stakeholders that our sustainability strategy and our ambitions support global goals, such as the UN SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

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