The BMW Group took the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, on November 14 to announce major innovations in its energy strategy. Always on the leading edge of environmental responsibility, BMW said that by the year 2020, it will use electricity only from renewable sources, and that this will be a global policy for the company. As of the beginning of 2017, about 63% of electricity used by the BMW Group worldwide came from renewable sources.
BMW has been working with the UN Climate Change Conferences since 1992. The 23rd such meeting took place this past November in Bonn, Germany and was presided over by the Government of Fiji. The BMW Group was the headline sponsor of the Sustainable Innovations Forum, which is usually the key event addressing sustainability by government officials, business leaders, and other societal stakeholders.
Markus Duesmann, BMW AG Board of Management member for purchasing and supplier network, delivered the keynote address for the Sustainable Innovation Form, and set the agenda on decarbonization. He began, saying, “The BMW Group has long been a partner of the UN Climate Change Conference and an active innovation leader in the field of sustainability. Decarbonization is a major theme in the sustainability discourse, and for the automotive industry it is and will continue to be a top priority. When it comes to sustainable responsibility, we consider the entire value chain, from purchasing and production to the product and our mobility services as a comprehensive system of lifecycles. Today, we already obtain 63% of our purchased electricity from renewable energies. And I’m proud to announce today that our new goal for the year 2020 will be 100%!”
There it is. BMW will rely on electricity sourced from renewable methods for all of its value chain to include production. Now it's obvious that when BMW talks about decarbonization, it's not referring to removing that black stuff from the valves of an internal combustion engine; but rather, eliminating the use of electricity derived from fossil fuels.
That's a pretty bold goal, since 2020 is less than three years away. But BMW is probably farther along in "decarbonization" than most automakers. Visit most BMW plants and you will probably see an array of solar panels and wind turbine generators. Plant Spartanburg is using landfill methane to power electric generators. Plant Rosslyn in in South Africa is already substituting methane from animal waste as fuel for electricity generation.
The BMW Group's approach to sustainability is a comprehensive one, and the company should be applauded for applying its strategy to the entire value chain, not just production. The entire process from raw materials to product distribution may never be totally decarbonized—at least in our lifetime. After all, those cars from Germany don't get here on wind-powered clipper ships and the parts that come from overseas to fix our BMWs don't arrive by glider. But we do believe that BMW is serious about decreasing its carbon footprint whenever and wherever it can and in that respect, it will be a leader in global manufacturing sustainability.—Scott Blazey
[Photo courtesy of BMW AG.]
