Sustainability

The world's natural resources are limited. So we're aiming towards becoming a circular business by 2040 – minimizing our use of primary resources. We're focused on eliminating waste and pollution, making greater use of recycled material, and remanufacturing and reusing parts.

A man working under a hoisted car.
Anders Kärrberg, head of global sustainability at Volvo Cars

“If we are to reach our goals, we need to embrace the circular economy.”

Anders Kärrberg, Head of Sustainability

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.

Two women and a man sat around a table discussing materials that are on the table.

Circular business

The foundations of our circularity ambitions are minimising primary resource use, eliminating waste and pollution, and generating more circular revenue.

Circular economy 2030 ambitions

99%

of all waste either resused or recycled

50%

average per-car reduction in water use in own operations

35%

recycled content in new car models

Recycling

Our largest waste stream is metal from car production, which amounted to 188,000 tonnes in 2022 and is entirely recycled

Many boxes drenched in grease and oil in a waste disposal area.

Our position

We're aiming towards becoming a circular business by 2040 – so we need to overcome some challenges. We're changing our company, value chain and industrial system. We commit to being transparent throughout this transformation. We'll act responsibly and we'll continue talking with stakeholders inside and outside of our industry.

You’re welcome to read the resources below and learn more about what we're doing. And of course you're welcome to engage with us where you have expertise you think will help us on our journey.

Downloads

You're welcome to access below documents to learn more about Volvo Cars position on important sustainability topics.