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Volvo Group
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Volvo Group at Stockholm Climate Week: ”The green transformation is a great business opportunity for us”
Volvo Group wants to lead the transformation to fossil-free transportation. Why? Because the climate crisis is the biggest challenge of our time – and because solving this crisis is a great business opportunity.
”We want to be 100 percent safe, 100 percent fossil-free, and 100 percent more productive”, says Karin Svensson, Chief Sustainability Officer at Volvo Group.
Volvo Group has set an ambitious net-zero target for 2040. It is a matter of futureproofing our business model, as our Chief Sustainability Officer Karin Svensson explained to the audience at the recent Stockholm Climate Week.
”We see this transformation strategy as a great business opportunity for us. In the last nine months, we have seen a 50 percent increase in companies taking action towards science-based targets. For many of those companies, the biggest footprint comes from transportation. This gives us a great opportunity to help those companies to bring down their CO2 footprint, and also to help society to decarbonize”, she said during her on-stage keynote in SPACE Arena in central Stockholm.
To take advantage of that business opportunity, Volvo Group has not only set an ambitious 2040 target. We have also set interim targets for 2030, and these are validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative.
”For example, for our products in use, we have decided to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent per vehicle-kilometer by 2030 compared to 2019”, said Karin Svensson.
For our own production, and for the energy we purchase, the goal is even tougher. We aim to decrease those emissions by 50 percent for the same period.
”Utilizing the Science Based Targets initiative has been very valuable for us. It has helped us in understanding how we can go from where we are at today, to 2030 and then 2040. How much we will have to decrease, and how quickly”, said Karin Svensson.
But the biggest challenge for us at Volvo Group is our scope 3 emissions. More than 95 percent of Volvo Group’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from vehicles when they are in use. Electrifying vehicles is therefore a key factor for reducing those emissions.
Volvo Group has been delivering electric buses for more than ten years, and we are now in the process of also electrifying our trucks and machines. Segment by segment, and for all business areas.
”By 2030, 35 percent of all vehicle and machine sales should be electric”, said Karin Svensson.
Not all of our fossil-free vehicles will be battery electric. Some will be fuel-cell electric vehicles that run on green hydrogen, and we will also keep a small share of vehicles with internal combustion engines, that will run on fossil-free fuel.
Volvo Group’s second biggest source of emissions is the materials that we use for producing our vehicles, Steel, aluminum, polymers, electronics. And of course batteries – which are crucial for the whole electrification strategy.
We are already assembling modules into battery packs, and will soon be producing our own modules. To further increase our own engagement in this value-chain, we have also decided to start producing our own battery cells in a new factory in the municipality of Mariestad in Sweden.
Susanné Wallner, former Head of Industry, Mariestad Kommun, and Karin Svensson during a panel discussion on fossil-free transport as a key driver in green local governance. To the right, moderator Catarina Rolfsdotter-Jansson.
So why there, in this small municipality by the shores of Sweden’s largest lake Vänern?
For several reasons. The site in the municipality of Mariestad is situated close to Volvo Group’s current main powertrain plant in Skövde and will benefit from the region’s existing industrial and logistics infrastructure and build on a strong heritage and world-class competence in advanced, high-volume manufacturing, while also having access to Sweden’s rich supply of fossil-free energy. On top of that, Mariestad is one of the country’s leading municipalities in terms of green local innovation.
”Mariestad’s sustainability agenda fits very well with our ambitions and our agenda”, said Karin Svensson.
Watch Karin Svenssons full keynote speech and the following panel discussion on fossil-free transport as a key driver in green local governance, with Susanne Wallnér, former Head of Industry, Mariestad Kommun; and Henrik Brodin, Head of Energy at the forest industry group Södra.
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Inspiring engagement by Volvo!
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The commitment we need
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Fossil fuel emissions should be stopped
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And everything should shift towards economic sustainable growth. Lets cut off fossil fuel emissions.
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The green economy offers very many entrepreneurial opportunities indeed.