By Wasana Nadeeshani Sellahewa
(Commonwealth) _ In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the industrial sector must acknowledge its significant contribution. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that industry contributes roughly a quarter (23%) of direct carbon emissions in the US. The situation is as severe in Europe, where the sector is one of the biggest contributors to the continent’s greenhouse gas emissions with an annual total of 880 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.
The industry must collaboratively adapt our processes and products to ensure future-proof company development, and happily, significant improvements are already being implemented in every facet of production. The Science Based Targets program, which promotes effective action to reduce global warming, has received support from more than a thousand businesses. As a result, a small number of businesses, such as Volvo Group, have vowed to work toward the Business Ambition for 1.5C objective, which calls for a value chain with a net-zero emission of greenhouse gases by 2050.
As a significant automaker, the largest issue we still face relates to emissions when customers use our goods. Since this makes up the largest percentage of our overall carbon footprint, we concentrate on using electromobility and other non-fossil fuel alternatives to lessen the effects. We simply cannot ignore the remaining emissions brought on by the production and delivery of those same items, even if they may represent a lesser proportion of the total.
Industry-wide emissions have historically been significantly influenced by overproduction, waste, and a reliance on fossil fuels, but manufacturers are currently making substantial efforts to buck this trend. This transition has been greatly aided by one philosophy: the circular economy. To make manufacturing more sustainable, it emphasizes optimization throughout the value chain, discovering savings in production processes, and using a “reuse, reduce, recycle” strategy. The early step of product creation and design must incorporate the circular economy.
Recycling components and the difficult process of bringing discarded parts back to life through recovery, disassembly, and repair are two crucial strategies to make manufacturing more sustainable. At Volvo Group, we salvage damaged auto parts and other parts for use in new cars, and we even remanufacture diesel particulate filters. For certain of our parts, remanufacturing uses up to 80% less energy than creating a product from scratch. Additionally, we have established a specialized business unit called Volvo Energy to enhance battery performance and offerings over the course of their full life cycles and investigate ways to extend their life in various applications.
To improve resource efficiency, recycling is essential. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, making secondary steel consumes around 74% less energy than making steel from iron ore (sometimes referred to as virgin steel). While it is clear that we should utilize as much secondary steel as we can, as long as it is produced responsibly, we will still need a significant amount of virgin steel in the future to maintain global economic development. In reality, utilizing fossil-free power and green hydrogen, it will soon be feasible to produce steel that is 100 percent free of fossil fuels, having a much reduced impact on the environment. Long-term steel demand is expected to increase dramatically, necessitating the production of new, fossil-free steel.
The environmental impact of our manufacturing, processes, and services can be significantly reduced through wider adoption of new technologies, processes powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and techniques like additive manufacturing (using 3D printing technology to produce tools and parts to enable quicker production and continuous quality improvements). The possibility exists for all manufacturers to leverage the digital revolution to improve processes as the world changes. We must look outside our own operations and at all the other parties involved in the supply chain rather than just internally.
