We’re updating our sustainability strategy

“Taking actions to combat climate change is non-negotiable and going fully electric is an important step on our pioneering journey,” says Jim Rowan, CEO of Volvo Cars. “As we move to further reduce emissions throughout our value chain, we have a responsibility to do more and address our biodiversity footprint as well as help improve people’s lives. Our updated strategy has been designed to help us do just that.”

Here are our new sustainability ambitions for 2030 in short:

1. Reduce our CO2 emissions per car by 75 per cent (compared to 2018 levels).
2. Reduce energy usage in our operations per average car by 40 per cent (compared to 2018 levels).
3. Reach 30 per cent average recycled content across our fleet, with new car models having at least 35 per cent recycled content.
4. Reduce water use in own operations by 50 per cent average per car (compared to 2018 levels).
5. At least 99 per cent of all waste from our operations to be either reused or recycled.

Since we released our sustainability strategy in 2019, we’ve made some significant strides towards achieving our climate action targets. For example, 69 per cent of our operations are now powered by climate-neutral energy, compared to 55 per cent in 2019. And we now use 100 per cent climate neutral electricity across our manufacturing plants globally, compared to 80 per cent in 2019. We have also reduced our CO2 emissions per car by 19 per cent since 2018.

Net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040

Our aim now is to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. This expands upon our previous ambitions of being climate-neutral by 2040 and clarifies our intention to use carbon removals only to offset any unavoidable emissions. Our priority remains to reduce real emissions before turning to carbon removals, and we encourage our suppliers to do the same.

In recognition of the fact that finance plays a critical role in advancing sustainable development, we also intend to achieve 100 per cent green debt or sustainability-linked financing of assets by 2025.

2030 is a milestone year for us. By then we plan to be fully electric while also aiming to reduce CO2 emissions per average car by 75 per cent compared to 2018 levels. We believe that through a combination of only selling fully electric cars and reducing emissions by 30 per cent from both our supply chain and operations per average car, we will be on track to meet our CO2 reduction goals.

Working towards becoming a circular business by 2040

Since 2019, we’ve also focused on embracing the circular economy. Volvo Cars already have a larger proportion of recycled materials than ever before. For example, nearly 25 per cent of all aluminium in our new EX30 small SUV is recycled, while approximately 17 per cent of all steel and plastic in the car comes from recycled sources.

By 2030, we aim to use 30 per cent average recycled content across our fleet ¹, and for new car models released from 2030 to contain at least 35 per cent recycled content. Also by 2030, we want 99 per cent of all our waste to be either reused or recycled compared to recycling 94 per cent of global production waste in 2022.

Striving to be net positive and to contribute to a nature positive future

We believe in taking a complete value chain approach to the impact we have on biodiversity. To uncover how our actions affect biodiversity, we conducted an impact assessment using production and sales data from 2021, to estimate our annual biodiversity footprint using the ReCiPe model. With these findings as a baseline, we’re now setting a long-term ambition to strive to be net positive across our value chain² and to contribute to a nature positive future³.

In a nutshell, this means that we will take actions to avoid and reduce our impacts, as well as engage in restoration and regeneration of nature to the extent that it positively balances our negative impacts.

This will require a mixture of short-term and long-term measures that we’re currently developing. For example, avoiding and reducing the impacts of our value chain, designing a programme for restoration and conservation activities within ecosystems where we operate or source from, and working together with supply chain partners to establish awareness on biodiversity issues.

Help protect people’s lives within and beyond our value chain

As a company that cares about people, we want to have a positive impact on society. One of the ways we’re trying to help protect people is by focusing on our injury rate (LTCR)⁴. The current injury rate is 0.07, which is on industry-leading levels, but our goal is to further reduce the workplace injury rate to 0.02 by 2030. Across our value chain, we’re also working hard to help safeguard human rights through risk-based due diligence processes⁵ to trace, identify, assess and address human rights risks.

Together with like-minded partners, we look forward to unveiling new social and environmental initiatives in the year ahead, aimed towards helping protect people and the planet. Recent examples include our financial and in-kind support to Save the Children and UNICEF’s Ukraine response, and our collaboration with Girls Who Code.

¹ This refers to all models currently being produced at that time.

² This means that we will take actions to avoid and reduce our impacts, as well as engage in restoration and regeneration of nature to the extent that it positively balances our negative impacts.

³ Our aim to contribute towards nature positive means that we will not only aim to be net positive but also aim at continuously reducing our negative impact relative to a 2021 baseline.

⁴ Injury rate (LTCR) is defined as the number of work and occupational accidents reported with at least one day sick leave, divided by hours worked and multiplied by 200,000.

⁵ Risk-based due diligence processes implemented globally to assess the potential or actual adverse impact and prioritise actions to cease, prevent, mitigate and remedy identified human rights violations. The processes should fulfil upcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and our human rights compliance programme. This includes a responsible sourcing management system aiming to introduce a formalised and consistent process to proactively manage human rights and environment-related risks in Volvo Cars’ supply chains for all our identified Raw materials of concern (RMOC).