After leading the industry in automotive safety for decades, Volvo Cars has recently broadened its focus to ensure climate change and sustainability becomes as engrained in the company culture as safety always has been.
Volvo's 2021 "Ultimate Safety Test" global advertising campaign reinforced this commitment with a stark reminder that the biggest threat to our safety isn't on the road - climate change is the ultimate safety test.
Now, Volvo Car Australia is upping the ante on this commitment by supporting a new initiative by its media agency, Mindshare, and parent company GroupM Australia, which is designed to reduce the environmental impact of its digital media spend and help make advertising more sustainable, and better for the planet.
GroupM Australia's agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, MediaCom and Essence have taken the first major step to decarbonise the programmatic media supply chain by partnering with Good-Loop, a B-Corps certified advertising platform, to measure, offset and reduce the carbon cost of clients' digital campaigns.
The partnership will establish GroupM as the first agency holding group in Australia to offer carbon offsetting and climate-positive activities across Display and Online Video, including reforestation, habitat protection and coral reef restoration[2
"As a mobility provider we recognise that we're part of the problem of climate change and have a responsibility to act," said Volvo Car Australia Managing Director, Stephen Connor.
"Volvo is pleased to support the carbon offsetting initiative launched by GroupM Australia, which is in line with our commitment to being part of the solution to address climate change by reducing our direct and indirect emissions.
"By reducing emissions across our entire value chain, we are aiming to become a climate-neutral company by 2040. We want to be a force for good and have a positive impact on society.
"This means doing the right thing when conducting business, and the expectations we place on business partners like GroupM Australia. Via this partnership through our media agency Mindshare, it means we can begin to pay forward by participating in climate positive activities like tree planting that will actually help us reduce CO2."
"By rolling out a new family of pure electric cars in coming years Volvo aims to become a fully electric car maker by 2030, which is one of the auto industry's most ambitious electrification plans.
"This is part of our ambition to become a climate neutral company by 2040, as we work to consistently cut carbon emissions across our business. We seek to reduce the lifecycle carbon footprint per average car by 40 per cent by 2025, including through reducing carbon emissions in our supply chain by 25 per cent, by 2025.
"Congratulations to GroupM Australia for its innovative approach to reducing the carbon costs of digital media. I look forward to supporting this initiative in Australia as part of our global ambitions on climate change."
Aimee Buchanan, GroupM Australia & New Zealand CEO, says: "In our ambition to be responsible for shaping the next era of advertising and making advertising work better for people, ensuring that we make advertising more sustainable is key. We've launched Alpha, as a whole of business strategy because we believe we have a responsibility to take positive action for the current generation of kids - Generation Alpha[3]. There is no greater motivation than that. Helping decarbonise digital media in Australia is the first step. Digital media might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but we know that every ad and every impression has a carbon impact. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce carbon emissions, and right now, we can now offer our clients a simple solution to first measure, and then offset carbon emissions from digital media campaigns, and then move towards climate positive activities. Volvo understood and embraced this initiative from the get-go, and we're pleased to have them as a partner on this journey."
Volvo Cars in 2021
Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 20.3 BSEK. Revenue in 2021 amounted to 282.0 BSEK, while global sales reached 698,700 cars.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales to customers in more than 100 countries. Volvo Cars is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, where it is traded under the ticker "VOLCAR B".
Volvo Cars aims to provide customers with the Freedom to Move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. This is reflected in its ambition to become a fully electric car maker by 2030 and in its commitment to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral company by 2040.
As of December 2021, Volvo Cars employed approximately 41,000 full-time employees. Volvo Cars' head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars' production plants are located in Gothenburg, Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu, Daqing and Taizhou (China). The company also has R&D and design centres in Gothenburg, Camarillo (US) and Shanghai (China).