Some argue that one of the key ways to tackle the climate crisis is to plant trees as carbon offsets, but for companies that strive to be the most environmentally friendly, this is just a way to divert attention. They prefer to step out of the smokescreen of traditional net-zero and come up with a real and responsible vision for a sustainable future.
Such ideas are sometimes even bold, such as the Polestar Zero Carbon initiative of Polestar, a Swedish electric vehicle company that wants to create climate-neutral, circular cars.
Launched by Polestar in 2021 when it released its first annual sustainability retrospective, the plan is ambitious in terms of deepening the decarbonization of vehicles throughout their lifecycle.
However, it is undeniable that compared with the simple addition and subtraction of carbon offsetting, the practice of accurate dissection of the whole industry chain with "climate friendliness" as a knife is much more complex and difficult.
"There may be a lot of stakeholders involved in an automaker, such as the company that makes the car, the policymakers, the local government and the end users, so we really need to collaborate and coordinate to further change this area. Recently, Fredrika Klaren, Polestar's global sustainability officer, also said frankly when asked by Wall Street.
Polestar's 2023 Polestar Sustainability Report, released in mid-to-late April, may provide a glimpse of the Polestar 0 program three years after its implementation.
Fredrika klaren, Global Sustainability Officer, Polestar
Numbers and goals
According to the report, in 2023, each Polestar car sold reduced greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 9%, which is equivalent to a reduction of 3.4 tonnes of CO2e per Polestar car sold compared to 2022.
It is worth mentioning that this is another progress against the backdrop of the high base growth of carbon reduction performance in the previous year. It is reported that in 2022, Polestar delivered about 51,500 vehicles, an increase of 80% compared to 2021, but the relative CO2 emissions per car decreased by 8% compared to 2021 and 13% less than in 2020 in terms of intensity.
The Polestar 0 Project, which aims to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from all aspects of the supply chain and production, and to produce a truly climate-neutral car by 2030, is just one milestone in Polestar's larger climate agenda.
"We have identified three more important climate-related goals, the 2030 target is just one step, and then there are 2040 related targets, and we believe that if we want to achieve the goal in 2040, we must take into account the needs of the whole industry, which means that we need to achieve some achievements in 2030, such as the climate neutral car that we build is scalable, can be scaled from a single car to the rest of the industry can use our solutions, and finally promote their climate neutrality process。 Frederica Claren told Wall Street that "interested parties" include partners in the supply chain or in-house manufacturing plants.
Frederica Claren told Wall Street News that the Polestar 0 program is important in helping Polestar achieve its goals, "on the one hand, we want the whole company to be more innovative in this area, and on the other hand, we want to be able to promote collaboration with some key partners." ”
Wall Street has learned that Polestar has established contacts with 30 key partners, including from the steel industry, the plastics industry, etc., to conduct research on carbon reduction issues in related industries.
In addition to the cooperation with the upstream, Polestar also hopes to help downstream end consumers make more climate-friendly purchasing decisions from a climate perspective, such as providing users with carbon footprint data in different configurations to guide greener products.
"We hope that ESG data can be managed in the same way as financial data, not only to help companies better identify strategies and initiatives internally, but also to open up to our users, such as users who are entangled between buying electric vehicles and buying traditional fuel vehicles, and can compare data to see the impact of different models on the environment. If you choose to buy an electric vehicle, you can go to the charging station and use solar panels to generate electricity, which will supply electricity to the charging station accordingly, so that users can visualize how they can choose to contribute more to the carbon footprint. Frederica Claren added to the Wall Street experience.
Three paths
Polestar's greenhouse gas emissions reduction is due to three main factors: the use of carefully selected materials with a low climate impact, the use of renewable energy in the production of cars and batteries, and the improvement of energy efficiency in the use of vehicles.
This coincides with the findings of Song Xiaocong, an engineer at the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences who is engaged in life cycle impact assessment and carbon accounting. Song Xiaocong believes that the raw material acquisition and operation and use stage is the key link of pure electric vehicle pollution reduction and carbon reduction, raw material acquisition and operation and use stage of respiratory system and climate change impact are contributed to more than 90% of the total environmental impact category of each other, through the lightweight and efficient power system, can reduce energy consumption, reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, to achieve the purpose of pure electric vehicle pollution reduction and carbon reduction.
The carbon footprint distribution characteristics of pure electric vehicles are also similar to the environmental impact, the total carbon emissions in the raw material acquisition and operation and use stages account for 96% of the total carbon emissions of pure electric vehicles before scrapping and recycling, and the carbon emission intensity of a pure electric vehicle driving 150,000 kilometers is 0.17kg/km (in terms of CO2), and the lightweight production of the power system and the optimization of the power structure are the key to carbon reduction in the raw material acquisition and operation and use stages, respectively.
Song Xiaocong's calculations also found that at present, pure electric vehicles can achieve 17.64% and 12.51% carbon reduction potential respectively by optimizing the power structure and improving the energy efficiency of the power system, and the carbon emission reduction potential of about 2% can be achieved by recycling valuable metals in waste batteries.
In terms of optimising the power mix, Polestar's plan last year called for 100% renewable green energy in its supply chain by 2025, and the procurement information shows that about half of its suppliers have already made a corresponding commitment last year, and this figure is constantly being updated.
"By 2025, all Tier 1 suppliers will need to use renewable energy or renewable electricity in their production processes, which means that when the Polestar 5 is put into production, the electricity used in the entire production process will be renewable. Frederica Claren revealed that most of the existing suppliers have achieved the same vision or have the same goals.
According to the first LCA report released by Polestar 4 last year, Polestar 4 produced only 19.4 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) when it rolled off the assembly line, which is currently the lowest overall carbon footprint of any Polestar model.
In terms of the green dimension of raw material procurement, many components of the Polestar 4 are made from low-carbon aluminium from hydroelectric smelters. According to the LCA report, 19.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent were generated for the single-motor standard-range version, 19.9 tonnes for the single-motor long-range version, and 21.4 tonnes for the dual-motor long-range version. Among them, aluminum accounts for 23-24% of the carbon footprint, steel accounts for 20%, and battery modules account for the highest proportion of the carbon footprint of material production and refining, at 36-40%.
Last year, Polestar also focused on enhancing traceability from raw materials to finished products and expanding the number of risky materials for tracking batteries. The ability to trace lithium and nickel used in Polestar 3 batteries is an advancement, in addition to cobalt and mica that began to be traced using blockchain technology in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Interestingly, Polestar has chosen to use the word "Lagom" internally to outline the unique values of the Scandinavian automaker. The earliest term Lagom comes from the Vikings, with the root word "Laget om" (team), and fleets adrift at sea often shared a cup of therap's feet, requiring everyone to refrain from drinking alcohol and divide it evenly.
Contemporary Lagom refers to a modest, unassuming, and life-present attitude, and combined with the original semantics, Lagom clearly also contains a sustainable artistic conception. Sustainability is to explore how to live in harmony with modern society and the environment on the basis of the Lagom spirit.
It's a value that really sets Polestar apart from other car companies. As a brand with Chinese genes, Polestar is an electric vehicle manufacturer jointly owned by Volvo and Geely, which is of great significance in leading China's sustainable development, and may even affect the sustainable development of China's automotive industry.
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