##MFN :
##TITLE: Can the automobile industry contribute to improving the environmental impact of their processes? The example of Volvo in Sweden. 
##SUMMARY: Volvo began pollution control very early on with the aim in particular of eliminating certain materials and taking into account the recycling stage at the beginning of the fabrication phase. This policy does not only correspond to environmentalist convictions, but above all to a self-interested strategy that goes further than just optimizing production, it takes into account technological benchmarking, and cultural and political parameters.
##AUTHOR OF FILE: GUIHENEUF, Pierre-Yves
##COMPILATION DATE: 1996/06/05
##TEXT: Making a car causes as much damage to the environment as a car user does during the whole of his or her life. Car manufacturers therefore have great responsibility in controlling pollution sources; however, can they make this effort themselves? Volvo, a Swedish automobile manufacturer, shows that it can be done. As from 1972 (International Conference of Stockholm), its President decided to strike at pollution sources at every stage of an automobile's lifecycle: fabrication, use and destruction.
At fabrication level the main products responsible for pollution are the solvents used to treat surfaces, and paints. Since 1991, Volvo has used a process to treat chassis that completely eliminates the use of solvents. As for paints, toxic emissions have been reduced by 80%. Volvo's workshops emit 15 grams of solvent per m² of painted bodywork, whereas German standards, which are among the world's strictest, set the maximum limit at 35 grams per m².
From 1986 to 1990, Volvo got its subcontractors to reduce quantities of CFCs (CFCs cause the destruction of the ozone layer) in the plastics they produced by 70% and definitively forbid products that were too toxic. Since then, environmental audits are carried out on Volvo's production sites and those of its subcontractors.
It was Volvo that invented the catalytic converter in 1974, followed by another intended to reduce emissions of exhaust gases on starting. The company also produces "clean" diesel engines whose carbon oxide and hydrocarbon emissions are 60% lower than traditional systems, and it produces air-conditioning systems without CFCs. It is the only European constructor to have carried out research with American companies on the use of methanol as a fuel.
To facilitate recycling old cars, Volvo gives priority to recyclable plastics, and classifies them to aid sorting. It also carries out research into the automatic dismembering and sorting of recovered parts. The company estimates that environmental issues have an impact on its long-term survival and it intends to stay ahead in this field. 
##COMMENTARY: The President's convictions don't explain everything and it is obviously in Volvo's interests to take the lead in technological research in this field. Firstly, in terms of image in a country with a strong tradition of ecology.
Next, in terms of industrial strategy, it would be interesting to know, for example, if Volvo has been able to profit from its patents by licensing them to other manufacturers. It could also be prudent for an automobile constructor to be efficient in this field if it thinks that in the long term, public opinion will cause standards to become stricter. Thus, by talking the initiative, it obliges its competitors to join in an "ecological race" in which it would have pole position, leaving some of its competitors on the tiles. Lastly, the efforts made by an audacious constructor can give orientations to legislation and avoid more restrictive measures, such as limiting road traffic in cities. Can the mechanisms of competition and capitalism be used cunningly to encourage companies to orient technological progress towards better treatment of the environment? Instead of lagging behind, couldn't they try take the lead? Whatever the case, the example of Volvo already shows that research can make cars cleaner than they are today. 
##SOURCES AND NOTES: Book by Amaury Daniel de Seze, "L'état de l'environnement", La Découverte/FPH, 1993
##ORGANIZATION: GEYSER (Research and services for economizing resources) 
##ADDRESS: 104 Rue du Plein Soleil 34980 St Gély. Phone:+33 4 67 84 89 44.
##FILE LANGUAGE: FRE
##TOPIC KEYWORDS: Industrial ecology ; Biosphere ; Enterprise ; Pollution ; Techniques and viable development 
##DPH KEYWORDS: Industrial ecology ; Pollution control ; Economy-ecology relation ; Enterprise and society
##GEOGRAPHIC KEYWORDS: Sweden
##PROPOSED KEYWORDS: 
##WORKSHOP: Industrial ecology
##END