UN World Environment Day in Sydney
Volvo Car Australia is joining the United Nations' global movement to combat plastic pollution with a ground-breaking recycling solution designed to help marine life to thrive in Sydney Harbour.
On Tuesday June 5, UN World Environment Day, Volvo will unveil plans to develop and install specially designed tiles to create an artificial mangrove attached to a "Living Seawall". The Living Seawall, featuring fifty (50) tiles each measuring 55cm x 55cm, will be installed in Sydney Harbour to create one of the world's largest living seawalls. The tiles are made from concrete reinforced with recycled plastic fibres and mimic the root structure of mangroves trees that used to be prolific around Sydney Harbour.
Using 3D printing technology to create the moulds, tiny alcoves are etched into the tile design to give oysters, fish and filter feeding organisms a place to live and thrive just as they would in a natural habitat.
"With eight (8) million tonnes of plastic finding their way into our oceans each year, researches agree that simply 'cleaning' the ocean and removing all of the plastic is not feasible", said Nick Connor, Managing Director of Volvo Car Australia.
"Solving the scourge of plastic pollution requires different thinking and local innovative solutions. There is a Swedish word, omtanke, which means 'caring' and 'consideration'. But it also means 'to think again'. I think this really captures what we are trying to achieve with the Living Seawall, and it sums up Volvo's approach to sustainability and design in general. At Volvo we are always trying to rethink, reinvent, redesign for the better of people and the world we live in."
Volvo collaborated with several partners to create the Living Seawall, and in the upcoming months will install and monitor its habitat.
REEF DESIGN LAB, a Melbourne-based eco-engineering design studio, Emesh by Fibercon and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.
Alex Goad, Industrial Designer at REEF DESIGN LAB, said: "Living Seawall shows what could be done when we're designing and building coastal structures around the world. It's about making these structures, which of course are often necessary, as beneficial to the environment as possible. 'Living Seawall flips a harmful structure into a marine habitat and presents a unique opportunity to research which specific designs and geometries are the best to support the ecosystems in our oceans."
Melanie Bishop, Associate Professor at Macquarie University and of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, said: "We've lost fifty percent of the world's mangroves due to urban development, and in their place we've built things like seawalls, which proliferate around Sydney Harbour. The Living Seawall adds complexity to the existing seawall structure and will provide a rich habitat for marine life. The more organisms we have, the more water can be filtered and the cleaner our oceans become."
Living Seawall is just one part of Volvo's approach to sustainability. By 2025, Volvo aims to put 1 million electrified cars on the road and achieve carbon neutral manufacturing operations. Volvo designs cars in smart and considerate ways - textile interior mats of the XC40 are made from recycled plastic bottles, and its cars are 85% recyclable and 95 recoverable.
For more details about the 'Living Seawall' project visit; www.volvocars.com/au/living-seawall
Volvo Car Group in 2017
For the 2017 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 14,061 MSEK (11,014 MSEK in 2016). Revenue over the period amounted to 210,912 MSEK (180,902 MSEK). For the full year 2017, global sales reached a record 571,577 cars, an increase of 7.0 per cent versus 2016. The results underline the comprehensive transformation of Volvo Cars' finances and operations in recent years, positioning the company for its next growth phase.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 571,577 cars in 2017 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.
In 2017, Volvo Cars employed on average approximately 38,000 (30,400) full-time employees. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company's main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).