Since the 1960s, we've taken our environmental commitment even further than just building cleaner engines. We've looked at how we can make our factories and manufacturing processes cleaner and safer, too. That's why we've installed several kinds of cleaning technology and substantially reduced our emissions to air and water – and we're working on lowering our energy consumption too. Find out more below.
Solvent emissions
With inhalation of high concentrations of solvents affecting human health – not to mention contributing to the formation of ground-level ozone – it's not surprising that solvent emissions from industry have attracted much attention in the last 30 years. That's why we've prioritised reducing them throughout our plants, with solvent emissions from the Torslanda plant reduced from 30 kg/car in the 70's to 1.95kg/car in 2004.
Use of chemicals
In 1991, Volvo Cars established a database containing detailed information on more than 5,000 chemical products. Since its introduction, the number of chemical products used in production has been reduced and a large number of substances have been eliminated from production operations.
Volvo Cars has been using standards for chemical substances since the beginning of the 1990s. These standards are actually tougher than the relevant legislation, and substances such as CFCs and asbestos were phased out before the legislation came into force.
Energy consumption
Significant amounts of energy are used in car manufacturing and Volvo Cars is working continually to reduce energy consumption in its plants therefore reducing its environmental impact. That's why Volvo plants mainly use natural gas, a preferable alternative from the environmental point of view. The Torslanda plant also uses residual heat from a nearby oil refinery for heating.
Water consumption
Our factories also use closed water cycles to reduce the consumption of fresh water and are equipped with advanced water treatment facilities, while residual products are treated in an environmentally compatible manner. This introduction of water treatment has significantly reduced emissions of substances such as phosphorus, iron, chromium, nickel and zinc.
Waste and recycling
Volvo Cars has introduced waste management systems to minimise residual products and improve material utilisation. In addition, it is important to continually increase the proportion of recycled and reused materials. The implementation of recycling and waste management procedures has yielded very successful results.