Discussion Question: What has Renault been doing to reduce its environmental footprint?
Renault was the first carmaker to make a public environmental commitment to shrink its global carbon footprint which aligns perfectly with the 13th sustainable goal established by the UN.
Since 2005 the group has been committed to shrinking the environmental footprint of its vehicles across the life cycle and from one generation to the next. To measure those efforts, it carries out a Life cycle analysis (LCA) for each new model. The internationally renowned methodology measures the five potential environmental impacts of a car over its life cycle: global warming; the depletion of natural resources; low-level ozone; the acidification of lakes, soil and forests; and eutrophication (oxygen depletion) in aquatic environments.
The group’s most recently built plant, opened in Wuhan, China in early 2016, exemplifies the group’s approach in production. Equipped with the latest technologies in energy efficiency – LED lighting, recovery of the thermal energy contained in air emitted to the atmosphere – the plant recycles 40% of its industrial effluent discharge for internal use and uses paints with mainly water-based solvents.
It is designing vehicles that are more economical in terms of materials, 95% of their mass being recyclable or recoverable. It is also developing technical solutions and industrial sectors in the collection, reuse, reconditioning and recycling of parts and materials issuing from the 390,000 end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) processed in 2015.
Because cars account for 17% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Renault-Nissan Alliance is working to be a part of the solution to environmental challenges. Renault-Nissan Alliance decided to officially partner COP21 in 2016 by providing a fleet of electric vehicles. The initiative was a world first for an international conference of this scale! Since 2010, Renault has with its partner Nissan proposed the immediate solution of electric vehicles, which have a reduced overall carbon footprint and can be powered by 100% renewable energy. The Renault-Nissan Alliance, the world leader in zero emission electric mobility in use, having sold over 300,000 electric vehicles worldwide since its launch, is on the leading edge of the transition to low-carbon mobility.
In 2015, before COP21 event, Renault published its climate commitments – notably the 3% reduction of its global carbon footprint per vehicle per year between 2010 and 2016 and the use of 20% renewable energies by 2020 – on the NAZCA Climate Action website set up by the United Nations framework agreement on climate change.
Lastly, Renault is working to integrate a growing share of recycled materials in new vehicles (over 30% on cars produced in Europe).