(Crewe, 18 July 2022) Bentley Motors has become the first company to be awarded South Pole’s Net Zero Plastic to Nature accreditation after engaging in a successful waste stewardship appraisal. The status, which is internationally-recognised, reflects the company’s ongoing environmental initiatives and is a key part of Bentley’s Beyond100 strategy to achieve end-to-end carbon neutrality by 2030.

Bentley’s industry-leading drive to assess, reduce and mitigate the global plastic footprint of its logistics packaging, vehicle protection and aftersales packaging was analysed by independent, Switzerland-based experts at the South Pole organisation.

The in-depth assessment covered everything from operational macro-plastic parts packaging used in logistics and manufacturing, to the disposal of plastic protection downstream at global dealerships. It also assessed micro-plastic emissions from tyre abrasion as part of the logistics and product lifecycle, identifying a total plastic footprint of 165.4 tonnes. The audit found that the majority of plastic waste was already recycled appropriately and made recommendations for in-region improvements to tackle the small amount of non-processed waste which was identified through the assessment.

To secure the status, Bentley has invested in certified units that support two of South Pole’s projects focused on developing specialist plastic waste collection and recycling infrastructure projects. These are with Neela Saga in India and Second Life in Thailand. This action ensures that the full volume of non-processed plastic waste found in the 2021 study has been effectively mitigated.

Peter Bosch, Member of the Board for Manufacturing at Bentley Motors, explains:

“Our drive towards a plastic-free future is an essential part of our Beyond100 strategy and this pioneering collaboration with South Pole has helped us evaluate the impact of the steps we’ve been taking to reduce and recycle plastic reduce around our site by examining every aspect of our logistics value chain. From the bubble wrap and foam used to package inbound parts, to the car body covers and shrink wrap processes employed on vehicle protection andaftersales materials, no stone has been left unturned and we’ve been able to make quick and effective changes."

"For example, we have reduced the amount of plastic parts protection on outbound products from 13 items to six. By removing unnecessary items like vinyl wheel protection and wiper blade covers, we’ve removed 12 tonnes of plastic from our outbound packaging operations in a year – and we’re ensuring that where plastic is still needed to ensure our cars arrive in perfect condition, it is minimal, lightweight and has low CO2 impact."

“Other measures, such as reducing unnecessary packaging for items moved around site, have reduced plastic shrink-wrap waste by 86 per cent. Even the plastic banding we use to secure items on pallets has gone under the microscope, as we’ve carried out tests on a cardboard replacement to ensure that it is equally as effective. We also recognised that one of the greatest contributors is inbound logistics packaging, so we are working closely with our suppliers to reduce packaging on inbound parts – as well as empowering colleagues to quickly and effectively reuse packaging around site."

“As a global brand this process has helped us gain a broader perspective and insight into our footprint out in our regions and we will follow with great interest the progress of the two plastic waste and recycling projects our credits will support in Thailand and India. Our next step is to broaden the scope to cover other aspects of our business.”

Announced in 2020, Bentley’s ground-breaking Beyond100 strategy targets sustainable mobility leadership, reinventing every aspect of the business. The aim is to be end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030, with the Crewe headquarters climate positive thereafter.

South Pole was established in 2006 and helps organisations around the world develop comprehensive emission reduction programmes and strategies that turn climate action into long-term business opportunities. It is aligned with the aims of the Paris Agreement and UN sustainability development goals.

Stuttgart. The holistic 360-degree brand campaign "Showcasing Innovations" focuses on pioneering technological features from Mercedes-Benz. In a newly conceived, almost surreal-looking visualisation, four innovations in the EQE are presented on social media, in TV commercials and print ads to illustrate the brand values of comfort, safety and quality:

• Aerodynamics using the example of the electrically retractable comfort door handles
• The MBUX Hyperscreen, which adapts completely to its user thanks to artificial intelligence
• DIGITAL LIGHT with projection functions such as guide markings and warning symbols
• The electric drive concept with enough range for relaxed long-distance journeys

The campaign film on the social media channels provides a first comprehensive insight. The campaign can also be experienced physically and digitally in an extended form in the Studio Odeonsplatz by Mercedes‑Benz in Munich from today, 7 June to 30 August. A variety of interactive scenarios will invite visitors to an all-embracing customer journey. The look and feel of the setup follows that of the campaign film, and provides further insights into innovations from the history of the brand.

Campaign details
"Showcasing Innovations" will run in Germany, and internationally with varying market-specific dates. In addition to the long films (94 seconds) on social media, there are eight different TVCs as 30-second cut‑downs, moving image assets and stills in various formats, as well as print and out-of-home ads. The campaign will continue with further activations in late autumn.

Credits

• Lead agency: Antoni for the idea, concept and implementation of the campaign with:
• Production company: Tempomedia
• Video: Spellwork
• Photos: Recom Berlin
• Agency: Liganova for the idea, concept and implementation of the Magical Garage in the Studio Odeonsplatz by Mercedes-Benz, Munich

Brian Bolain, Lexus’s global head of marketing, commented: “We are excited to return to Milan Design Week with an incredible array of projects that highlight next generation design and our commitment at Lexus to forging a path towards a carbon-neutral future through technology, craftsmanship, and innovation. We are especially thrilled to be able to present the work of the Lexus Design Award 2022 finalists and Royal College of Arts students in the context of Germane Barnes’s ON/ installation, in its second iteration here with lighting design studio Aqua Creations. As Milan Design Week opens, we look forward to seeing how the public engages with the Lexus presentation, and makes our vision for the future their own.”

Developed in partnership with Lexus and Germane Barnes, the ON/ installation presents a vision for an electrified, carbon-neutral and human-centred future. The display showcases the Lexus RZ, the first Lexus dedicated battery-electric model. Rendered in a suspended wire frame, this interpretation of the vehicle embodies Lexus’s vision of a more sustainable future coming into focus, embracing the ideas of electrification, technology, and bespoke design. The RZ is illuminated by Aqua Creations’ Code 130° silk collection of colourful pendant lights, which add a material quality to the immersive installation, illustrating the Lexus vision of a carbon-neutral future becoming a reality. The installation is accompanied by a lounge area featuring the new ToTeM lighting collection by Aqua Creations.

Visitors can also explore the work of the six finalists in the Lexus Design Award 2022.  They were chosen by a panel of design luminaries for their original solutions for contributing to a better tomorrow, concepts that articulate the Lexus brand’s three core principles – Anticipate, Innovate, and Captivate – while seamlessly enhancing the happiness of all. The finalists spent three months developing their original proposals and creating prototypes, guided by a team of highly skilled mentors This mentorship is a key feature of the award and rewards the finalists with a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Lexus’s presentation also includes work by students presenting radical new luxury transport concepts in a creative programme commissioned by Lexus, 2040: The Soul of Future Premium for the Royal College of Art in London.  The project challenged postgraduate students at the college’s Intelligent Mobility Design Centre (IMDC) to explore new vehicle architectures to meet changes in European city life and society and to re-imagine the role Lexus might play as a luxury mobility brand. The six-month programme included mentoring and assessment sessions with Ian Cartabiano and Lance Scott, respectively President and Senior Manager at Lexus’s European design studio, ED2, together with Prof Dale Harrow, Chair of the IMDC, and Dr Chris Thorpe, the RCA’s Intelligent Mobility Head of Programme.

Lexus exhibit dates and opening hours:

6-12 June, 11:00 – 21:00

Venue:

Superstudio Più (Art Point)

Via Tortona, 27 20144 – Milano, Italy

Exhibits:

•           ON/ installation created by Germane Barnes with Aqua Creations

•           Designs by the six finalists in the Lexus Design Award 2022

•           Designs by students at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London

About Germane Barnes

Germane Barnes is the director of Studio Barnes and Associate Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Barnes’s practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation.  Believing strongly in design as a communal process, he approaches each condition imposed on a project as an opportunity for transformation.

Barnes was a winner of the 2021 United States Artists Fellowship, 2021 Wheelwright Prize, 2021 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, and is a 2021-2022 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.

“A sustainable approach to steelmaking is not just good news for the environment, it is also good business as it limits our exposure to future climate risks and regulations,” said Kerstin Enochsson, chief procurement officer at Volvo Cars. “We are pleased to join the SteelZero initiative and support its ambitions to transform the steel industry. By signalling our demand for responsibly sourced low- and zero-carbon steel, we aim to help drive an increased supply to our sector.”

Jen Carson, head of industry at Climate Group, said: “Volvo Cars joining SteelZero marks an important step change in the global demand signal for low emission and net zero steel, and a pivotal moment for the automotive industry. This sector plays a central role in driving the net zero transition of steel. It’s supporting the creation of a decarbonised steel market internationally, that can enable the sector to meet its own net zero targets and deliver a product that is truly aligned with the climate agenda.”

SteelZero was launched by the Climate Group in partnership with ResponsibleSteel, a steel industry-wide standard and certification body which Volvo Cars has also joined. Through ResponsibleSteel, Volvo Cars gains access to reliable, third-party verified and audited information about its steel supply chain and relevant sustainability credentials, helping to ensure it is responsibly sourced.

As well as CO2 reductions, ResponsibleSteel also focuses on other important issues in the steel supply chain like labour and human rights, engagement with local communities, water use and biodiversity impact.

The SteelZero signing is only the latest initiative by Volvo Cars to address one of car making’s most intensive sources of CO2 emissions. Only last year, it announced a collaboration with Swedish steel maker SSAB to jointly explore the development of fossil-free, high quality steel for use in the automotive industry through SSAB’s HYBRIT initiative.

Volvo Cars is the first car maker to work with SSAB and HYBRIT, an ambitious and advanced project in fossil-free steel development. HYBRIT aims to replace coking coal, traditionally needed for iron ore-based steelmaking, with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen. The result is expected to be the world’s first fossil-free steelmaking technology, with virtually no carbon footprint.

Volvo Cars’ ambition to by climate neutral by 2040 is part of its comprehensive climate action plan, one of the most ambitious in the auto industry. It aims to become a fully electric car maker by 2030 and plans to roll out a whole new family of pure electric cars in coming years.

The company’s electrification plans are part of its ambition to reduce the lifecycle carbon footprint per car by 40 per cent between 2018 and 2025, including through reducing carbon emissions in its supply chain by 25 per cent by 2025.

In terms of its own operations, the company aims for climate-neutral manufacturing by 2025. Already now, all of Volvo Cars’ European plants run on 100 per cent clean electricity, while its Torslanda plant in Sweden is fully climate-neutral. Elsewhere in the world, its Chengdu and Daqing sites in China are also powered by climate-neutral electricity.

Last year, Volvo Cars introduced an internal carbon price of 1,000 SEK for every tonne of carbon emissions from across its entire business, the first car maker to implement such a mechanism across all its operations. The aim is to future-proof its organisation and be ahead of the regulatory curve, as it anticipates and favors more governments implementing carbon price in coming years.

Under the scheme, every car project undergoes a ‘sustainability sense-check’ and a CO2 cost is imposed for every anticipated tonne of carbon emissions throughout the car’s life cycle. The aim is to ensure that each car model would be profitable even under a strict carbon pricing scheme, steering all project and sourcing decisions towards the most sustainable option on the table.

Image feature: Car manufacturing underway at Luqiao manufacturing plant in China