Sahib Gafarov

Tarlan Ramazanli
Shamsi Nasirov
Sabina Teymurova
MEhran Isgandarli

Sustainability Case study. BMW Group.

BMW Group is a German-based automaker which has been inspiring its customers with fascinating
products for a hundred years. BMW considers global sustainability problems as an opportunity to
make and develop innovative products and services. Not only making its customer to benefit from
those innovations but also having a positive impact on whole society is the aim of BMW
[1].Sustainability is the crucial part of BMWs identity and strategy.

This year celebrating its 100th anniversary, BMW Group has been ranked the most sustainable
automotive company in the rating published by RobecoSAM AG for the Dow Jones Sustainability
Indexes (DJSI) [2] in 2016. At the same time, in Corporate Knights release of Spotlight on the 2016
Global 100 BMW has been ranked to be the most sustainable company of this year [3].
In 2014 replacement of companys self-assessment questionnaire with sustainability questionnaire is
considered to be one of the most innovative initiatives. With this new approach, each nominated
supplier have to make the information about implementation, environmental, governance and social
standards available to BMW.
Since 1995 BMW has made considerable steps toward more sustainable production. As a commitment
to climate targets the company developed the first small series hydrogen powered car in 1997. By
2015 average fleet CO2 emissions per kilometre has decreased by 3.3 % to 147 g/km. BMW uses
natural renewable and recycled thermoplastic materials for the construction of BMW i3 series
comprising 25% of the thermoplastic materials. So that seat covers are made from recycled PET
bottles. BMW group brought the first electric truck on the road in summer of 2015. This 40-tonne
truck is used for carrying components to BMWs plant and produces 11.8 tonnes less carbon dioxide
than diesel truck annually.
Besides all the action that have led to above mentioned developments being a considerable success
in more sustainable production there are some new innovations towards decreasing the negative
environmental impacts of produced cars which should be emphasized. In 2016 energy consumed,
waste water production, CO2 emission, waste for disposal, volatile organic compounds produced per
vehicle produced has decreased 2.7%, 4.3%, 13.6%, 18.9%, 5.4% respectively [1] with respect to
2015. At by the end of 2020 BMW Group plans to reduce the energy, water and water solvents
consumption per production by 40 % with 2006 base. Also, between 2015-2016 renewable energy
purchased from third parties has increased 13.7 %. Since July 2016, the BMW Group line-up has
included seven models that are either all-electric, like the BMW i3, or combine a conventional engine
with an electric motor as a plug-in hybrid. This signals the companys clear commitment to
sustainable mobility. The plant of BMW in Leipzig for production of BMW i3 4 wind turbines are
producing 10 MW electricity, so that 100% carbon dioxide free production is realized. The 58 % of
the total electricity used is obtained from renewable based electricity production vendors currently.
The long term plan of the company is, however, to shift to 100% renewable electricity.
BMW Group pays close attention to the equity of staff members and donates additional benefits to
disabled people to make them involved in the production and manufacture. The BMW plant in
Dingolfing has dedicated a support programme aiming to fully integrate deaf employees into the
manufacturing process. Additionally, In 2015 BMW expenditures on donations reached to 17,000 $.
The expertise of BMW employees has played a great role in the success of the company. The
company dedicate time an investment to its employees trainings to get most out of them. Attractive
and fair pay, social benefits, as well as, long term carrier opportunities are offered to the employees.
In December 2013 Climate Counts and Centre for Sustainable Organisations carried out a study for
evaluating 100 companies in terms of sustainability. Sustainable organizations were considered to be
ones graded less than 1. Sustainability testing of 100 companies executed and BMW was graded with
1.011 which placed BMW in 50th place out of 100 companies [4].
In April 2015 environmental sustainability of BMW group was assessed by Ethical Consumer. View
of the companys website revealed the fact that petrol and diesel cars are also produced by BMW.
Road transportation accounts for considerable amount of air pollution. Due to the revealed facts
BMW lost half a mark under Ethical Consumer's climate change and pollution and toxics category
[5].
In April 2015 Ethical Consumer viewed BMW UK's website and found that it offered customers the
chance to have the interior of their car covered in Merino Leather. No policy could be found regarding
the sourcing and the processing of the leather. Leather, as the hide of a dead animal, naturally
decomposes. To prevent this decomposition the leather industry uses a cocktail of harmful chemicals
including trivalent chromium sulphate, sodium sulphide, sodium sulfhydrate, arsenic and cyanide to
preserve it. Tannery effluent also contains large amounts of other pollutants, such as protein, hair, salt,
lime sludge and acids. These can all pollute the land, air, and water supply making it a highly
polluting industry. As a result the company lost half a mark in the pollution and toxics category. In
addition, as leather is a slaughterhouse by-product, the company lost a whole mark in the animal
rights category [6].
In summary, BMW Group can be considered to be sustainable production, although some negative
cases are present. There have been great efforts towards minimizing the negative environmental
effects by BMW. An initiative to shift form fossil fuel to electric cars is quite important act. The
complete replacement of conventional fuels with the more clean ones is pain staking process and
should be dealt with globally. Therefore, ongoing production of petroleum based vehicles should be
evaluated as requirement of the current economic system.

References:
[1] BMW Group Sustainable Value Report 2015,
Available online at: https://www.bmwgroup.com/content/dam/bmw-group-
websites/bmwgroup_com/responsibility/downloads/en/2015/BMW_SVR_2015_RZ_EN_Offic
ePrint.pdf/
[3] SUSTAINABILITY AT THE BMW GROUP, BMW GROUP ONCE AGAIN SECTOR LEADER IN
THE DOW JONES SUSTAINABILITY INDEX,
Available online at: https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/responsibility/sustainability-at-the-
bmw-group.html

[3] Corporate Knights, 2016 GLOBAL 100 ISSUE, Featuring 2016 Global 100 Most
Sustainable Corporations in the World Ranking,

Available online at: http://www.corporateknights.com/magazines/2016-global-100-

issue/spotlight-on-the-2016-global-100-14533333/

[4] Climate Counts - www.climatecounts.org :Report "Assessing Corporate Emissions

Performance through the Lens of Climate Science" (December 2013)
[5] Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) Corporate Communications: http: Available
online at: www.bmwgroup.com (12 April 2015)
[6] BMW UK Ltd Corporate Communications: Available online at: www.bmw.co.uk (20
April 2015)