By Greentech Lead Team: Volvo Construction Equipment and
Volvo Buses have joined the Volvo Group’s cooperation with WWF Climate Savers.
The cooperation is based on the Volvo Group’s commitment
to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 30 million tons from construction
equipment, buses and trucks manufactured through 2014.
Volvo’s joint-venture company, SDLG, which manufactures
construction equipment in China, will also become the first-ever Chinese
company to be a member of Climate Savers.
“By expanding the partnership with the WWF to
include our buses and construction equipment, the Volvo Group demonstrates that
it is serious about continuously raising the targets in terms of reducing
carbon-dioxide emissions from our products, by complying with our vision for
sustainable and carbon-neutral future transportation,” says Volvo’s CEO
Olof Persson.
WWF’s Climate Savers program involves multinational
companies in the battle to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. These companies
pledge to reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions pursuant to an agreement
between the WWF and the company. The results will be reviewed by independent
technical experts. The agreed target must be ambitious than the company would
have set on its own, and must also signify that the company is leading its
sector in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Emissions in the transport sector have a major
impact on the climate and must be met with vigorous initiatives. It is
therefore very encouraging that the Volvo Group now wants to broaden their
cooperation with WWF by expanding to new business areas,” said Hakan
Wirten, secretary general of WWF Sweden.
In 2010, the Volvo Group became the world’s first
automotive manufacturer to join Climate Savers, in an agreement whereby the
Group’s truck brands committed to reduce the total amount of CO2 emitted during
the lifetime of trucks manufactured and sold from 2009 to 2014, by 13 million
tons, compared to trucks manufactured in 2008.
In the next step, starting January 1, 2012, Volvo
Construction Equipment and Volvo Buses will be included in the agreement. The
total amount of CO2 emitted by trucks, construction equipment and buses
manufactured within the Volvo Group through 2014, will be reduced by more than
30 million tons, compared to vehicles manufactured in 2008. 30 million tons is
the equivalent of the total carbon dioxide emitted by Sweden in a seven month
period.
Volvo Buses has also committed to expand the number of
field tests with plug-in hybrid buses during the commitment period. The plug-in
technology has excellent fuel-savings potential for city buses.