Corporate news 2009

Italy is back in the world’s premier ocean race for the first time since Brooksfield entered the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1993-94. Italy’s Giovanni Soldini has been named as the skipper of the Italia 70 team, which will race under the Italian flag with a fully Italian crew.

Volvo is one of the best companies to work for in Brazil, according to the survey carried out by the magazines Você S/A-Exame, of the Abril publishing house. This is the fifth time that the company is highlighted in this survey.

The Volvo Group has won the ”Top 50 Green Companies” award in China. The award is assessed by the country’s leading business magazines.

Kerstin Hanson, business innovation manager at Volvo IT, was interviewed in the Fast Company magazine about the CO2 pedometer that has helped Volvo employees reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent.

In May, Volvo started series production of engines that meet new European emission standards. The Volvo Group is the global leader in the race for reduced emissions, and the diesel engine – a veteran that has been going strong for over 100 years – still plays a key role. The diesel engine has become 100 times cleaner in just 20 years.

In one of the closest finishes in the race to date, Ericsson 4 held off the recently resurgent PUMA and Green Dragon teams to win Leg 8, and claim their third consecutive leg win and fifth in the race so far. The victory puts Ericsson 4 in an all but unassailable position on the leaderboard.

The Volvo Group’s environmental dedication has contributed to an all-new wind-power station in Göteborg. “Wind-power is one of the most promising future energy sources and it feels great to be able to do something on behalf of society,” says Gunnar Bengtsson from Environmental and Public Affairs at the Volvo Group.

The Swedish Energy Agency is to contribute SEK 87.6 M to eight of the Volvo Group’s research projects that are aimed at reducing fuel consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases from commercial vehicles. Several of the projects are related to projects that are partly financed by the US Department of Energy and are being conducted by the Volvo Group in the US.

Implementing a common system for administration worldwide is not an easy task. But the Volvo Group is being awarded for it’s capacity to explain and implement the administrative system SAP R/3 Master Finance globally, using the modelling tool ARIS.

The first hybrid bus from Volvo Buses has now entered regular operations. Yesterday Volvo Buses President and CEO Håkan Karlsson handed over the keys to the customer, Göteborgs Spårvägar. “This is a true milestone. After three years of hard work, we can now see the finished result. A quieter bus that cuts fuel consumption by up to 30 percent,” said a pleased Håkan Karlsson.