Volvo Says Swedish Plant Earns Climate-Neutral Status

Volvo announces its Torslanda site in Sweden is its first car manufacturing plant to reach fully climate-neutral status.

This makes Torslanda the second plant in Volvo’s overall manufacturing network to reach this status, after the Skövde engine plant in Sweden became climate neutral in 2018. The automaker says it counts a manufacturing site as fully climate neutral when it registers no net increase in emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as a result of the electricity and heating used by the plant.

Torslanda, the company’s oldest facility, has been powered by climate-neutral electricity since 2008. It now also has climate-neutral heating. Half of the plant’s heating comes from biogas, while the other half is predominantly sourced from district heating through industrial waste heat.

The plant is working to constantly reduce the amount of energy it uses. Targeted improvements in its operations during 2020 claimed energy savings of almost 7,000 megawatt-hours (MWh), equal to the annual energy usage of more than 450 Swedish family homes.

Volvo plans to make further efficiency upgrades in coming years to the plant’s lighting and heating systems, among other things, which should result in additional annual energy savings of about 20,000 MWh by 2023.

These energy savings are part of the automaker’s wider goal of reducing energy usage per car produced in its manufacturing network by 30% in 2025.

Javier Varela, head of industrial operations and quality at Volvo, says: “Establishing Torslanda as our first climate-neutral car plant is a significant milestone. We are committed to having a climate-neutral manufacturing network by 2025 and this achievement is a sign of our determination as we consistently work to reduce our impact on the environment.”