The Swedish electric car manufacturer Polestar was awarded the first-ever Sustainability Award in Automotive by the automotive magazines ATZ and MTZ and the management consultancy Roland Berger. The Sustainability Award in Automotive honours companies that develop sustainable mobility solutions. The award was given for seven categories and recognizes that sustainability is also becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry. Polestar won the award in the “Holistic Sustainability Approach” category.
With Polestar's state-of-the-art manufacturing centre in Chengdu, China, Polestar is showing the automotive industry the way to a more sustainable future. The Polestar plant in Chengdu is the only automobile plant in China that has received a gold status in the globally recognized "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" (LEED) rating system. The plant is operated 100% with green electricity. Around 65% of the electricity supplied comes from hydropower, the rest from solar, wind and other renewable sources. Jury member Peter Mertens: "This is a very impressive, holistic approach that takes into account all areas upstream and downstream of the product and documented in the product - 100% transparent, comprehensible and honest."
The awards for the solutions and products were based closely on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN). “The automotive industry has long thought of sustainability holistically and no longer just related to CO2 emissions in the usage phase. It is impressive to see the concepts with which the industry is now changing, for example, production or the supply chain through sustainable purchasing principles ”, says Christian Böhler, partner at Roland Berger and co-initiator of the award. In a varied and intensive pitch, all finalists presented their project to the jury, which then voted directly on the winners. A total of 50 projects were submitted for the first Sustainability Award in Automotive, 23 of them made it to the final.
The electric car manufacturer Polestar has an energetic sustainability strategy. Only recently, the company announced that it would develop a climate-neutral vehicle by 2030 that would do without compensation. In addition, the manufacturer has committed itself to disclose all key figures for determining the CO2 footprint and the tracing of risk materials in a sustainability declaration. Polestar advocates new standards in the automotive industry to promote transparency, similar to what is already common in other sectors such as the fashion industry. @via polestar.
