President Biden recommitted the United States to the Paris climate agreement. "Green New Deal"-type stimulus to recover from COVID-19 is being considered not only in the U.S., but also in many other places around the world. As environmental awareness increases, it appears that corporate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will accelerate in the coming years.
This time, I compare automobile companies because GHG emissions from the transportation sector are significant and automobile manufacturers play an important role in this.
First, I compared GHG emissions data from three automakers, Toyota, Volkswagen, and GM, that have disclosed detailed GHG emissions data in their environmental reports. (I also checked Daimler, Ford, and Tesla, but I could not find specific Scope 3 GHG emissions data in their sustainability reports.)
- Scope 1 emissions - direct emissions including on-site fuel combustion
- Scope 2 emissions - indirect emissions such as purchased electricity, heat and steam.
- Scope 3 emissions - all other indirect emissions from their value chain, including the purchase of materials and parts, use of sold products etc.
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are emissions from corporate activities. Compared to Scope 1 and 2, Scope 3 emissions are difficult to calculate but very important to capture the carbon footprint.
Looking at the CO2 emissions intensity (Scope 1 emissions + Scope 2 emissions per vehicle), the comparison is as follows.
Toyota has a much lower level of Scope 1 emissions compared to other companies. According to its environmental report, this is achieved by introducing innovative technologies and promoting energy savings through daily kaizen. The company plans to achieve zero CO2 emissions at its global plants by 2050.
In terms of water consumption per unit, Toyota's figure seems slightly better.
When it comes to the use of renewable energies, Volkswagen is ahead of the game. They already achieved 41% renewable energy in their electricity consumption, while Toyota and GM achieved 12% and 22% respectively.
We can see the strengths of each company by comparing their environmental data. For example, Toyota seems to be good at saving energy and improving energy efficiency, and Volkswagen seems to be good at utilizng renewable energy.
In the future, we can expect the amount of data disclosed in environmental reports to increase. By comparing different KPIs, we may continue to identify companies' characteristics and strengths.
Source:
https://global.toyota/pages/global_toyota/sustainability/report/er/er20_en.pdf
https://www.volkswagenag.com/presence/nachhaltigkeit/documents/sustainability-report/2019/Nonfinancial_Report_2019_e.pdf
https://www.gmsustainability.com/_pdf/resources-and-downloads/GM_2019_SR.pdf
https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2019-tesla-impact-report.pdf
https://global.toyota/en/company/profile/production-sales-figures/201912.html
