Volvo Car UK furthers core sustainability aims with multi-year Eden Project collaboration
Volvo Car UK has announced a new three-year partnership as the Official Automotive Partner of the Eden Project and the Eden Sessions music concerts, a deal brokered by AEG Global Partnerships.
This long-term collaboration aims to inspire and educate visitors about people’s relationship with the environment and how we can protect the planet to create a safer future.
By partnering with the Eden Project – the UK-based educational charity dedicated to connecting people with the natural world – and the Eden Sessions concert series, Volvo hopes to firmly establish its commitment to supporting a more sustainable future and share expertise across industries.
Volvo Car UK will provide the Eden Project with a fleet of Volvo XC40 Recharge pure electric vehicles to support its ongoing operations. By working together collaboratively, Volvo and the Eden Project hope to tackle some of the challenges and barriers consumers have around purchasing and driving electric cars, and accelerate the uptake of zero-emission vehicles.
Alongside the partnership with the Eden Project, Volvo Car UK will also be the Presenting Partner of the Eden Sessions, the annual series of concerts which takes place this month (September 2021) in front of the world-famous biomes near St Austell in Cornwall.
Artists taking part this year are Ben Howard (September 11), McFly (September 12), Royal Blood (September 14), Snow Patrol (September 16), The Script (September 17) and IDLES (September 18).
Kristian Elvefors, Managing Director of Volvo Car UK, said: “In 2020, Volvo set a number of bold climate targets, including the goal of being a completely climate-neutral company by 2040. Furthermore, our transformation to becoming a fully electric car manufacturer by 2030 is already well underway with the launch of the XC40 Recharge pure electric and the forthcoming C40.
“This is a collective effort, and to achieve these targets we need to partner with organisations and individuals that share our same vision. The Eden Project is the perfect long-term partner for us in this respect. As a business, we can learn a lot from their ongoing initiatives that provide an eye-opening insight about our relationship with the planet. With our shared values, we hope to bring this environmental message to the forefront of everyone’s mind and continue to be a catalyst for change.”
Sir Tim Smit, Co-founder of the Eden Project, said: “Eden rocks! By 2023, the pioneering Eden Project will be completely powered by renewable energy. A combination of deep geothermal energy and solar continues our journey to make Eden the most ecologically sympathetic visitor destination in the world. Transport is a vital ingredient of this, and we are hugely impressed by Volvo’s vision for the future and are entering a long-term partnership with them to show our global audience what a post-combustion-engine age can look like. Shared values and a shared vision will make us better. Eden and Volvo are demonstrating a future that remains ours to make… today.”
Matthew Zweck, Director of Global Partnerships AEG Europe, said: “It’s been fantastic to bring Volvo, a world-leading brand committed to a sustainable future, together with the Eden Project and the Eden Sessions in this three-year deal. The Eden Project’s dedication and educational drive is invaluable to all of us, and through this partnership it will help to reach further audiences with key information around electric vehicles.”
This partnership is Volvo’s latest commitment to support and work with those whose initiatives are making a genuine and authentic difference to supporting planetary safety.
To learn more about Volvo’s sustainability commitments, please visit https://www.volvocars.com/uk/about/our-company/this-is-volvo-cars/sustainability
For more information about the Eden Project, visit https://www.edenproject.com/
To book tickets or learn more about the Eden Sessions, visit https://www.edensessions.com/
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Volvo Car Group
Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world, with sales of 661,713 cars in 2020 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of Zhejiang Geely Holding since 2010.
As of December 2020, Volvo Cars employed approximately 40,000 (41,500) full-time employees. Volvo Cars’ head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars’ head office for APAC is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu and Daqing (China).
Under its new company purpose, Volvo Cars aims to provide customers with the Freedom to Move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. This purpose is reflected in a number of business ambitions: for example, by the middle of this decade it aims for half of its global sales to be fully electric cars and to establish five million direct consumer relationships. Volvo Cars is also committed to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral company by 2040.
The Eden Project
The Eden Project is an educational charity that connects people with each other and the living world. Eden’s home in Cornwall is a striking contemporary space for the 21st century combining botanical garden, plant collection, park and visitor destination.
The project opened on 17 March 2001, the brainchild of Co-founder Sir Tim Smit, and since then has attracted more than 22 million visitors and generated more than £2.2 billion for the regional economy.
Over those two decades, ordinary people working together have transformed a disused clay mine into a paradise, blending extraordinary nature-inspired architecture with the two massive Biomes. One contains the largest rainforest in captivity, the other the Mediterranean regions of the world.
In September 2019, the Eden Project and global live events company AEG Presents announced a new partnership, Eden Sessions Ltd, to run the Eden Sessions.
AEG Global Partnerships
AEG Global Partnerships oversees the worldwide sales and servicing of sponsorships for AEG’s entire portfolio of assets. Creating customised and innovative marketing programs for established and emerging brands, it has created some of the most iconic brand partnerships in the entertainment industry, including The Staples Centre in L.A., The O2 in London and Coachella Music Festival. Overall, the division manages naming rights deals, premium seating and other strategic partnerships. Through its worldwide network of venues, portfolio of powerful sports and music brands, and its integrated entertainment districts, AEG entertains more than 100 million guests annually. More information about AEG can be found at www.aegworldwide.com