Swedish carmaker Volvo has published a position paper on nature and biodiversity, pledging to take action to reduce its impacts and to invest in conservation and restoration to counterbalance residual negative effects of its activities.

Based on 2021 data, Volvo has developed a baseline for its nature impact, using a Lifecycle Impact Assessment method following the ReCiPe model, it said in the paper, released this week.

While stating it will continue to improve data and understanding of its role, Volvo found that only 2% of its impact on nature and biodiversity stems from its own operations. Instead, 64% is from the production and use of fuels, while 34% occurs in the upstream value chain.

“We are committed to avoid and reduce our negative impacts on biodiversity throughout our value chain, while making positive contributions towards nature recovery,” Volvo said.

It is still developing a roadmap of short- and long-term actions it will take, but listed overarching positions and types of activities it intends to implement, based around the principles of the mitigation hierarchy.

“Since a large part of our biodiversity impact occurs in our upstream value, we will focus on avoiding and reducing the impacts of the materials and processes used for producing our cars,” it said.

“This will involve ramping up circularity and resource efficiency ambitions, so that we use fewer primary materials in our cars overall; conduct research and development to reduce the impact of our components, including material selections; and engage with our suppliers to decrease the impacts of production processes.”

Among the actions it is already taking is to shift to electric cars, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions from its products, though that means it must continue to assess and develop actions to avoid and reduce the biodiversity impacts of batteries.

COUNTERBALANCE

However, Volvo said that as a producer of goods it will be impossible to completely eliminate all its negative impacts, and that it will invest in restoration and conservation projects as a ‘countermeasure’, though did not specify whether it intends to purchase nature or biodiversity credits or offsets.

“We intend to carefully select a portfolio of restoration and conservation activities, in landscapes and ecosystems which are negatively impacted by our business activities,” it said.

In order to be ‘net positive’ across its value chain and contribute to a nature positive future, Volvo said plans will be formulated for action centred around its own operations, its products, and three main pressures it is contributing to: Climate change, pollution, and land and water.

“We also need to understand the state of nature at our sites to be able to act effectively where needed,” said the paper.

“For example, in our own operations, a first step is to assess activities within our main site in Torslanda, Sweden, which is adjacent to a biodiversity sensitive area as well as work with ‘net positive’ principles for development of our site in Slovakia,” Volvo said.

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