By What do a Rolls Royce, Beemer and Mini Cooper all have in common?
A green future.
BMW Group (owner of BMW, Cooper and Rolls Royce) announced a strategic direction that incorporates sustainability and efficient resource management central to their design. Like most companies, these targets are set for 2030 at the soonest because well, supply chain is hard to change for a company that is 104 years old.
We’re seeing 2030 targets everywhere. What’s different about BMW?
I’ll tell you. Their Board of Management and Executive Management will be measured and held accountable against sustainability targets. “The compensation of our Board of Management and executive management will also be tied to this,” says their Chairman. Talk about motivation.
Move over Elon. Or rather, can we sit next to you?
BMW Group believes that, “Sustainability and premium will be inextricably linked in the future.” I like the sound of that. In ten years, they also aim to have a total of more than seven million electrified BMW Group vehicles on the roads – around two thirds of them with a fully-electric drive train.
Drive Train: the system in a motor vehicle which connects the transmission to the drive axles. I’m not a car person so I had to look this up…
A circular economy at it’s finest
Electrified vehicles require a high-voltage battery that uses a number of critical raw materials. The EU requires only 50 percent recycling rate for these, however, the BMW Group has partnered with a German recycling specialist to develop a method that can achieve a recycling rate of 96 percent.
This feels like the anti of the Volkswagon incident
It is…who could forget? Volkswagon had two different modes of emissions software on their cars: a test version that would pass Environmental Protection Agency emission requirements and a live consumer version which failed those emission requirements. If it makes you feel better, German investigators actually performed a surprise raid in December of 2019 to ensure that they were not up to any funny business.
In the meantime, we’ll look forward to BMW Group’s first sustainability report to see how they are progressing.
with love for the planet,
the sustennial
