Have you heard of the RE100?
"RE stands for renewable energy" "RE100's plan is to recruit at least 100 very influential large companies around the world to work together by 2020, promising to gradually increase the proportion of renewable energy use to 100% within a certain period of time, hoping to help the global clean energy transition through such an action." ”
The term RE100 has become a hot potato in the automotive industry. According to Greenpeace, 23% of the planet's carbon emissions come from the automotive and automotive industries. 14% from transportation and 9% from manufacturing. This means that responsibility for climate change is inevitable.
Fortunately, through electrification, this number has been reduced by 14%. The auto industry is now trying to cut it by 9 percent. The plan is to achieve RE100 through the use of renewable energy and tree planting.
[1] What are the reasons for automakers shouting about environmental protection?
In 1990, as discussions on climate change at the United Nations level began, the Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted for the first time in 1992, clarifying the responsibilities of developed countries.
The Paris Agreement on Climate Change aims to go beyond reducing carbon dioxide and lowering the Earth's "temperature" to promote human development. It is about setting a new greenhouse gas emission reduction target every five years and checking its implementation at the international level. It is also from this time that the state or industry introduced carbon credits, and when carbon dioxide is emitted in excess of the standard, the corresponding cost must be paid.
The issue weighs on the shoulders of automakers. Major developed countries have set national carbon-zero emission targets by 2050 in compliance with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. To this end, they agreed to take environmental actions corresponding to carbon dioxide emissions. This is a composite program of environmental action corresponding to carbon dioxide emissions. It's a way to plant trees or use clean energy.
That's why the auto industry is calling for electric vehicles and being environmentally friendly. From manufacturing cars to scrapping, full-process environmental protection is the fundamental goal of the development of the automotive industry.
[2] Bentley uses solar panels and rainwater reuse
The more luxury car brands, the less environmentally friendly they are. Bentley is one of them, because in the use of interior materials, Bentley uses at least five cows to build a car, and processes a large amount of solid wood for interior decoration. Given the fuel economy, it's hard to say it's environmentally friendly. Interestingly, Bentley has been the most aggressive in dealing with environmental issues in recent years. It was even the first UK manufacturing company to achieve carbon neutrality certification.
Solar panels play an important role here. A total of 30,000 solar generators were installed in the outdoor car park and on the roof of the factory. Up to 7.7 MW of self-power. The energy collected in this way is said to be used for plant operations, enough to provide electricity for 1,700 households for a year. Recently, it was also announced that the facility will be further expanded.
It also uses rainwater. A water tank for 20,000 litres of rainwater was installed and 1,800 litres of rainwater were supplied to the plant each day through a separate purification process. Of course, all used wastewater is purified and treated.
Bentley has also developed artificial proteins that can replace cowhide and is working with the livestock industry to process by-products other than meat and leather. In the future, Bentley promises to introduce vegan leather that is completely free of animal protein.
Beekeeping is also carried out in the factory area. The main purpose is to protect the plant diversity around the plant. To this end, 50 years of experience in beekeeping experts were hired, 120,000 bees were raised, and the harvested honey was distributed to factory workers and tourists every year.
[3] Ford turned "food waste" into plastic reuse
Ford is working on developing auto parts from grocery companies' food waste. Most of this is an effort to replace plastics, and the results are already being drawn little by little.
To that end, Ford partnered with McDonald's in 2020. The aim is to utilize the coffee hulls produced during the roasting process. In the United States alone, more than 3,000 tons of coffee hulls are produced each year, and research is being made to process them into parts that can replace plastic.
According to Ford, prototypes have been built to replace headlamp housings, lower body parts and wheel shrouds, and they are considering applying additional quality tests to actual mass-produced vehicles.
Not only that, but Ford is also researching plastic replacement parts using agave by-products, and working with Heinz to study the development of parts using tomato by-products.
[4] Nissan reasons for the construction of energy storage systems for abandoned batteries
In addition to measures to achieve carbon neutrality in the production process of automobiles, there are also ways to achieve carbon neutrality of end-of-life vehicles. It's a way to take advantage of batteries that are produced when electric vehicles are scrapped. Expectations in this market are rising as it can use renewable batteries to derive related industries.
Lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles are characterized by their ability to store high-density electricity. Even if it is inefficient to use on the car, if there is no problem in storing electricity, then it can be reused. Nissan is actively taking advantage of this. We plan to provide an energy storage system (ESS) by using waste batteries for electric vehicles.
It also contributes to the retrofit of old construction machinery. To that end, it is working with Japan's Sumitomo Group to study ways to graft waste batteries onto excavators and forklifts.