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Sustainability Scorecard

Sustainability Scorecard

Trends

The scorecard provides a quick overview of trends in areas that are relevant to our contribution to sustainable development. We consider each plus a step in the right direction. Click on an indicator for information regarding its definition, the reasons for choosing it and other details.

Comments

Trend

2010

2009

2008

2007

Creating Value

Customer satisfaction, rankings
Fullfilment of customer satisfaction targets (%)

A

n/a

33

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---

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Percentage of independent surveys in which Volvo Cars was ranked among the top five carmakers (%)


 

12

33

29

22

Employee satisfaction (%)

 

84

82

n/a

80

Total Sales (retail deliveries)

B

373,525

334,808

374,297

458,323

Revenue – excl. special items (SEK million)

 

113,100

95,700

95,120

121,620

Earnings before interest and taxes – excl. special items (SEK million)

2,340

-5,185

- 9,493

- 1,117

Assuming Social Responsibility

Product Responsibility

C

Safety test results
Share of independent tests where Volvo Cars received the highest rank (%)


 

88

80

70

69

Occupational health and safety

D

Health
Sick leave per hours worked (%)

 

4.5

4.7

5.0

5.5

Occupational injuries
Number of injuries resulting in at least one day of sick leave per 200,000 working hours  

0.6

0.5

0.9

1.5

Diversity and Equal Opportunity

Gender balance

Share of women in leading positions (%)

19.6

18.7

18.5

18.0

Equal Opportunity
Ratio of basic salary of women to men (blue collar; average for grade levels SG2-SG6)

0.790

0.994

0.947

n/a

Ratio of basic salary of women to men (white collar; average for grade levels SG4-LL3)

1.010

1.034

1.027

n/a

Employment

Workforce
Total Workforce 

19,494

19,650

22,732

24,384

Turnover
Rate of employee turnover

n/a

3.3

12.8

9.2

9.1

Supply chain and human rights

E

Number of significant suppliers and contractors that have undergone screening on human rights 

n/a

n/a

615

476

---

Promoting Ecological Sustainability

Emissions from product

Fuel efficiency
Fleet average CO2 in EU (g/km)

157

173

182

190

Harmful emissions
Share of Volvo cars sold complying with Euro 5/ULEV standards (%)

G

n/a

54

---

---

---

Alternative fuels
Number of alternative fuels cars sold

9,098

11,260

25,771

10,899

Energy use in car production

H

Total energy consumption in car production (MWh)

861,121

713,079

816,581

916,669

Total energy consumption in car production (MWh/car)

1.61

1.71

1.59

1.42

Emissions from production

Total carbon dioxide emissions (tonnes)

67,585

58,980

68,367

126,735

Total carbon dioxide emissions (kg/car)

190

158

151

311

NOx emissions (tonnes) 

85

71

90

101

SOx emissions (tonnes) 

<1

<1

<1

1

VOC emissions (tonnes)

738

527

712

740

VOC emissions (kg/car)

1.98

1.80

2.01

1.66

Hazardous waste (tonnes) 

9,087

5,594

9,320

11,395

Supply chain and environment

I

Share of the 500 largest suppliers, based on number of purchased articles, that are certified according to ISO 14001 (%)

n/a

99.6

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---

---

 

Trend Comments

A. Customer satisfaction
It is ultimately the customer who assesses our performance and we gauge our customer satisfaction based on a broad market perspective that covers 44 independent studies in 11 of Volvo Cars’ most significant markets. During 2010, we noted declining figures in the number of independent customer sur¬veys in which Volvo Cars was ranked among the five top car brands, and thus during the year we also began to analyse the results and established goals of our work to improve the company’s customer satisfaction. Volvo Cars’ long-term goal is to be ranked among the five leading brands in independent market surveys.

B. Sales
Following two difficult years, Volvo Cars reversed the negative trend and raised its sales 11.6 percent compared with 2009. Overall, Volvo Cars sold 373,525 vehicles during the year. In China, sales rose 36.2 percent and in Northern Europe by 29 percent. In the key US market, however, the downward trend continued, with Volvo Cars selling 7,474 fewer cars than in 2009, representing a decline of 12.2.

C. Product safety
Volvo Cars’ vision is a completely accident-free traffic environment and the goal for 2020 is that no one is killed or injured in a new Volvo car. To attain this vision, Volvo Cars is continuing its lengthy research tradition and its efforts to strengthen safety in and around its cars to achieve a safer driver environment and a collision-free future. Each year a large number of inde¬pendent safety tests are conducted and Volvo Cars’ objective with these tests is to be among the very best in its class. In 2010 Volvo Cars gained the top ranking in 59 of 67 tests completed, which corresponds to 88 percent of the tests. This represents an improvement of 8 percentage points compared with 2009 (when 56 tests were completed).

D. Employee health and safety
Volvo Cars’ work environment directive describes our work environment policy. One of Volvo Cars’ objectives is to attain world-class status in terms of employee health and safety. Sickness absenteeism among Volvo Cars’ work¬force in Sweden and Belgium has declined steadily in recent years. During 2010, Volvo Cars attained the lowest level to date for sickness in the com¬pany, namely, 4.5 percent. Also, the company is continuing to monitor work-related accidents carefully and follows up all injuries in a bid to achieve improvements and avoid future accidents. During 2010, the company achieved a result of 0.6 LTCR (number of injuries resulting in at least one day of sick¬ness absenteeism per 200,000 hours worked), which is actually very close to the 2009 level and lower than a year earlier.

E. Supplier chain and human rights
During the period 2003 to 2010, Volvo Cars participated in Ford Motor Com¬pany’s global programme for the training and review of direct materials suppli¬ers. Consequently, the reported data currently show the reviews conducted through Ford Motor Company. Since the change ownership of Volvo Cars in the mid-2010 financial year, work aimed at developing new processes has been in progress. A new code of conduct was prepared during the year with guidelines that also apply to suppliers and a supplier portal was developed and launched in 2011. In addition, the company also completed internal training programmes focused on responsibility specifically aimed at the purchasing department.

F. Fuel efficiency and alternative fuels
Volvo Cars’ environmental programmes and its focus on the development of powertrains to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions are yielding results. The aver¬age emission levels for the company’s car models in the EU declined from 173 to 157 grams of CO2 per kilometre and will continue to fall during the years ahead as a result of continuing product improvements. One objective that Volvo Cars is working toward is that carbon emissions for the entire fleet are adapted to the EU’s target of a maximum of 95 grams not later than 2020. Examples of efforts to achieve this objective are the current and future DRIVe models and the development of fuel-efficient technology. Looking ahead, the company’s ambitious electrification strategy is in focus, including a test fleet of C30 Electric and the introduction of plug-in hybrids on the market in 2012.

G. Environmental classification of products
During 2008 and 2009, information was presented regarding the proportion of cars sold that met the requirements of Euro 4. However, for 2010, Volvo Cars instead presents the proportion of cars sold that meet the more demanding requirements of Euro 5. The proportion of Volvo cars sold that met the require¬ments of Euro 5/ULEV during 2010 was 54 percent. ULEV is an abbreviation for Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle and is an environmental classification that applies in the US state of California and imposes more stringent emission requirements than Euro 5.

H. Production and environment
Volvo Cars has an overarching objective of continuously reducing total energy consumption and our goal is to be climate neutral. All purchased electric power used by Volvo Cars in Europe derives from certified hydropower. Heat¬ing, which derives mainly from district heating facilities, originates largely from waste heat and biofuel. During 2010, total energy consumption from direct and indirect energy utilisation increased. This was primarily due to the un¬commonly cold winter in Northern Europe and drastic rise in our demand for district heating. The increase in purchased energy for in-house consumption is mainly associated with more intensive vehicle production and the higher number of cars produced and sold. Overall energy consumption increased per vehicle to 1.61 MWh/vehicle in 2010, compared with 1.71 MWh/vehicle in 2009.

I. Supplier chain and environment
Environmental work undertaken by suppliers is a quality issue and Volvo Cars seeks to ensure that the suppliers conduct such programmes as methodically as possible. For 2010, the company elected to gauge this directly by means of a key metric that is defined as the proportion of 500 largest suppliers, based on the number of purchased articles that are ISO 14001 certified. The company reached 99.6 percent in terms of this metric.

DEFINITIONS


Customer Satisfaction, rankings

Percentage of independent surveys in which Volvo Cars was ranked in top three makes (%).
This Key Performance Indicator (KPI) indicates the number of customer satisfaction surveys in which Volvo Cars was ranked 1, 2 or 3 compared with its industry competitors. The indicator includes a total of 25 different surveys in 8 different countries: Sweden, Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, USA and Japan.

Most of the surveys include the majority of Volvo models. Three to four different surveys were carried out in each country under the following headings:

1. Sales: Customer satisfaction with dealer performance when buying a car
2. Service: Customer satisfaction with dealer performance with regard to service and/or car repairs
3. Product, short time in service: Customer satisfaction with product quality after 3 months of ownership
4. Product, extended time in service: Customer satisfaction with product quality after 3 years of ownership

This KPI does not include all surveys monitored by Volvo Cars. Surveys are carried out in all of Volvo Cars' most important markets. In parallel with the surveys conducted by different independent institutes and bodies, Volvo Cars undertakes its own survey, Customer for Life, to monitor trends in customer satisfaction with regard to the quality of sales and service provided by dealers in the majority of Volvo's markets.

Customer for Life is used operationally to develop local improvements which, in turn, produce improved results in competitor surveys.


Employee satisfaction

Volvo Car Corporation issues an annual Attitude Survey (VAS) sent to all employees within the company in Q3. The ESI is an index derived from the responses of 11 out of the total 68 questions in the survey. These questions deal with

1. Respect
2. Co-operation
3. Delegation/influence
4. Performance feedback
5. Internal information/communication
6. Confidence/performance orientation
7. Overall understanding
8. Goals
9. Individual development
10. Easily implemented
11. Planning/follow-up
Of these the first five are "key areas" and come in order of priority. The percentage of answers amounted to 85% (from 89% in 2006).

The answer options are:
“Yes – Definitely”
“Yes – Mostly”
“Neither yes or no”
“No – improvement are necessary”
“No – improvement are very necessary”
“Don’t know”

Total Sales

Number of cars sold worldwide is defined as “cars delivered to end customers”

Revenue – excl special items (million USD)

Figures refer to total income of Volvo Cars Corporation.

Profit Before Tax – excl special items (million USD)

Figures refer to Volvo Cars Corporation total revenue minus expenses before tax.

Safety test results

Figures refer to number of independent tests performed where Volvo cars were awarded the very highest ranking. A number divided with all independent tests performed. Independent refers to independent and non carmaker affiliated, institute or insurance company (such as EuNCAP, US NCAP, IIHS, HLDI, Folksam and Thatcham). The tests are based on crash testing in a well controlled environment at a certain speed, accident statistics and expert assessment.

Health

The KPI is calculated by dividing sickness absenteeism (absence from work due to illness) by working time (total working hours).


Occupational injuries

An occupational injury includes on-premises work-related accidents and is measured as the number of injuries resulting in at least one day of sick leave per hours worked x 200,000 (= 100 man-years). Crushing injuries and falls are examples of accidents.


Gender Balance

Volvo Cars has a model for classifying managerial and other leading positions on different levels (leadership levels 1 to 6). In total, these groups comprise about 2,000 employees. Most members on the executive management team are included in level 2 while the CEO is level 1. The average percentage of women in all these groups (levels 1-6) is used to measure the indicator for percentage of women in leading positions. The figures refer to Volvo Car Corporation at the global level.
Although the indicator only portrays the increase of women in these leadership levels, it is noteworthy that we carefully monitor other women in management positions not included in the leadership level system in order to have a succession basis for the future.


Ratio of basic salary of women to men

Figures refer to basic salary which a fixed, minimum amount is paid to an employee for performing his/her duties. This does not include any additional renumeration.
SG 2 - SG8 indicate salary grade according to increasing level of qualification. LL6 - LL3 mainly indicate managerial positions according to increasing level of qualification.


Diversity

Percentage of employees that believe the working group is working actively to promote diversity (%). The KPI measures the percentage of the respondents who answer “Yes – excellent” or “Yes – good” to the following question: “Do actions of your working group show that Diversity is important?”

The answer options are:
“Yes – Excellent”
“Yes – Good”
“Neither good nor bad”
“No – improvement are necessary”
“No – improvement are very necessary”
“Don’t know”

This question was introduced in our annual Employee Attitude Survey as of 2004. In 2007 the question concerning diversity in the survey was changed, and is now addressing the working group instead of the company.

Total Workforce

Figures refer to the number of employees and supervised workers working for Volvo Cars by December 31. Supply chain workers are not included. Volvo cars are also produced in Chongqing (China) and Uddevalla (Sweden) and assembled in Bangkok (Thailand). At these locations, only a few people are directly employed by Volvo Cars. They are not included in the reported figure.


Employee Turnover

Figures refer to the rate of the net employee turnover at Volvo Cars Corporation during the year.


Significant Suppliers Screened for Human Rights

Figures refer to suppliers and contractors that are either:
The primary providers of a given type of good or service and overall comprise the majority of the organization's purchases or identified as having the highest risk or incidents related to human rights.


Fuel Efficiency

The figure represents the average percentage improvement in the fuel efficiency of Volvo cars sold in the EU 15 relative to the base year of 1995.


Harmful emissions

The number of cars complying with Euro 5 and/or ULEV standards supplied to end customers, as a percentage of total sales of Volvo cars globally. In the EU, emissions from new cars are governed by statutory limits. From 2005, all new cars were required to comply with the following emission levels, as specified in the Euro 5 standard.
Limit (g/km); Emission reduction compared with 2000 (%)
Total hydrocarbons (THC) 0.1; 50
Carbon monoxide (CO) 1.0; 57
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) 0.06; 60 

Alternative fuels

Alternative fuels can be defined as any other power or fuel source other than petrol and diesel. This includes bioethanol (E85), CNG (Compressed Natural Gas, or methane), biomethane (methane), LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), ethanol and RME (Rape Methyl Ester). Carbon dioxide emissions are lower than for petrol - about 25% lower with CNG, and about 10% lower in the case of LPG, and when Bi-Fuel is fuelled with biomethane, the fossil carbon dioxide emissions are negligible. Powered by E85, Volvo Flexifuel has up to 80% lower emissions of fossil carbon dioxide.

Energy consumption in car production

In terms of cars produced, data were collected from the car production/assembly plants owned by Volvo Cars in Sweden, Belgium, Thailand and Malaysia with Göteborg (Sweden) and Ghent (Belgium) as the predominant locations. .
In terms of energy (MWh), the figures include both heating and electricity consumption. All energy consumption is expressed in MWh. The figures refer to actual energy consumption and data relating to heating have not been corrected to a standard year basis

Carbon dioxide emissions from car production

In terms of cars produced, data were collected from the car production/assembly plants owned by Volvo Cars in Sweden, Belgium, Thailand and Malaysia with Göteborg (Sweden) and Ghent (Belgium) as the predominant locations.

In terms of emissions, the figures are based on both heating and electricity consumption. The figures refer to actual emissions.

NOx emissions (tonnes)

Figures refer to total nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions of wholly-owned plants, including the component plants in Floby, Skövde and Olofström. The NOx emissions are measured directly at the production sites. NOx is a generic term for mono-nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2). These oxides are produced during combustion, especially combustion at high temperatures. When NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react in the presence of sunlight, they form photochemical smog, a significant form of air pollution. Mono-nitrogen oxides eventually form nitric acid when dissolved in atmospheric moisture, forming a component of acid rain.


SOx emissions (tonnes)

Figures refer to total sulphur oxides (SOx) emissions of wholly-owned plants, including the component plants in Floby, Skövde and Olofström. The SOx emissions are calculated on the basis of the sulphur content in the fuel. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulphur compounds, their combustion generates sulphur dioxide. Further oxidation of SO2, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as NO2, forms H2SO4, and thus acid rain


VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions from car production

In terms of cars produced, data were collected from the car production/assembly plants owned by Volvo Car Corporation in Sweden, Belgium, Thailand and Malaysia, with Göteborg (Sweden) and Ghent (Belgium) as the predominant locations.

In terms of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions (kg), our cars undergo anti rust treatment and painting in our paint shops. The figures refer to emissions from both painting and anti rust treatment processes, and from cleaning of painting equipment.

Hazardous waste (tonnes)

Figures refer to total waste of plants in Sweden and Belgium. The waste is a by-product of Volvo Cars Corporation's operations. Over 99 per cent of Volvo Cars’ production waste originates in Volvo Cars' plants in Sweden and Belgium. Hazardous refers to subjects which could potentially be harmful to a person's life, health, property or to the environment.
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