An assembly line at Volvo Cars' engine factory in Skövde, Sweden. Source: VolvoVolvo Cars has announced that its engine factory in Skövde, Sweden, has become the company’s first climate-neutral plant after switching to renewable heating at the beginning of the year.
The Skövde facility is the first step in the company’s plan to switch all of its operations to climate-neutral with a goal of this taking place by 2025. Volvo says it has formed an agreement with a local Skövde utility for all the heating supplied to the factory that is generated from waste incineration, biomass and recycled bio-fuels.
“This is a proud moment both for the Skövde plant and for Volvo Cars,” says Stuart Templar, director for sustainability at Volvo. “Environmental care is one of our core values. Along with our plan to electrify all new Volvo cars launched from 2019, climate-neutral manufacturing operations will significantly reduce our overall carbon footprint, supporting global efforts to tackle climate change.”
The Skövde facility has been operating with electricity supplied from renewable sources since 2008, but this is the first time it has all of its energy resources being generated from environmentally-friendly materials. In 2016, Volvo introduced a district heating system that reduced carbon emissions by 40 percent in its Ghent, Belgium, plant, saving 15,000 tons of CO2 per year.
