Volvo Car Corporation: Towards sustainable mobility - the 2010/11 Corporate Report with Sustainability now available
Volvo Car Corporation:
Towards sustainable mobility - the 2010/11 Corporate Report with Sustainability now available
Volvo Car Corporation has great heritage in sustainable mobility and continues to demonstrate leadership in the area.
In the past year, Volvo Car Corporation has delivered tremendous progress towards the objective of no injuries in a new Volvo by 2020, and a vision of a future entirely free of harmful emissions. Volvo Car Corporation was recently named the best car make in Sustainable Brands, Sweden's biggest consumer based sustainability survey.
"I'm very proud of the progress we have achieved on our journey towards sustainable development. Social and environmental responsibility is an integral part of what Volvo stands for and it's very pleasing to see that it is an important factor for our customers when they choose a car", says Linn Fortgens, Director of Sustainability and Financial Communication.
Below are the key achievements in Volvo Car Corporation's three areas of sustainability commitment:
Promoting ecological sustainability
- Launched the V60 Plug-in Hybrid - the world's first diesel plug in hybrid, charged via an ordinary wall socket, with CO2 emissions of just 49 g/km and fuel consumption of 1.9l/100km.
- Launched the C30 Electric - a fully electric car with no tailpipe emissions and a range of up to 150 km.
- Reduction of average CO2 emissions to 157 g/km fleet average in EU. This puts Volvo as the leading car brand in CO2 reduction over the past two years with 13.8 percent improvement.
- Initiated the One Tonne Life project with a number of partners - ambition is to show how an electric car can be part of a sustainable lifestyle for an ordinary family.
- Maintained position as world leader in emissions to air in production facilities. Reduction of 57% in energy consumption over the past five years, with all European plants now using climate neutral electricity mainly from hydropower.
Assuming social responsibility
- The pioneering safety system Pedestrian detection with Full auto brake was launched in the S60/V60 and progressively introduced into more models. It can detect a pedestrian who walks out in front of a car, then warns the driver - and automatically activate full braking power if the driver does not react in time.
- Improved results in safety tests - percentage of tests where Volvo models receive highest rank is now at 88 percent, an improvement of 8 percent versus 2009.
- Employee satisfaction rose to an all time high of 84 percent in 2010. Volvo Car Corporation improved in the list of attractive employers drawn up by Universum, an employer branding company. Women in leading positions increased from 18.7 percent in 2009 to 19.6 percent in 2010 - a target is set of 25 percent. Sick-leave decreased to an all time low of 4.5 percent per hours worked.
- Volvo Car Corporation is to recruit an additional 1,200 employees to meet expansive growth plans and the ambition to ensure sustainable mobility through an aggressive electrification strategy.
Creating Value
- During 2010, global sales rose 11.6 percent (373,525 cars) compared with the preceding year. Demand for the fuel-efficient DRIVe models remains buoyant, with the Volvo XC60 model sales outperforming all other models in the Volvo range.
- Earnings before interest and taxes improved by 7.5 billion SEK to a profit of 2.3 billion SEK.
- Over the next five years, Volvo Car Corporation plans to invest USD 10 billion in an aggressive product plan globally. The volume target is to achieve sales of 800,000 cars by 2020.
- China is to be established as the second home market for Volvo Car Corporation. An objective is set to sell 200,000 cars by 2015, supported by a new factory in Chengdu, a new Chinese head office with support functions in Shanghai, and a strengthened dealer structure.
- A new company vision has been launched - Volvo is to be the world's most progressive and desired luxury car brand.
Both the Corporate Report with Sustainability and a full GRI-Report can be downloaded at www.volvocars.com/sustainability.
Read more about Sustainable Brands (Swedish) at http://sustainablebrands.idg.se/ and about UN's Global Compact www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/index.html
For more information on competitive CO2 data, visit JATO Dynamics, www.jato.com