“If large, transport-intensive companies like us collaborate, we can produce a far greater effect. I think we are going to see more partnerships like this in the future,” says Åke Niklasson, president of Volvo Logistics.
Volvo Logistics has been challenged by its customers in the Volvo Group and Volvo Car Corporation to reduce the carbon content of transport to their plants by 20 per cent by 2010. The use of environmentally adapted fuel is one of many ways of realising this target. Diesel Bio30 contains 30 per cent of the renewable fuel RME (rape methyl ester).
“This inauguration is an important step towards this objective, as far as we are concerned,” says Susanna Hambeson, Environmental Manager at Volvo Logistics. “Even if we are in the midst of a recession, we have to keep working for the things we regard as important. Volvo’s corporate values of quality, environmental care and safety are always important.”
Viking Rail, an intermodal solution that combines trucks and trains, is another example of a joint-venture project designed to reduce carbon emissions. A daily goods train between Hanover and Göteborg is filled with components for the automotive industry on the northward journey and first and foremost with other goods returning south. The goods are transported to and from the rail terminals by truck.
Volvo Logistics is also a member of KNEG (a Swedish acronym standing for climate-neutral goods transport by road), together with the Swedish Road Administration, Chalmers University of Technology, Green Cargo and a large number of Swedish companies with environmental ambitions.
Renewable fuels have the potential to reduce carbon emissions, but they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Read more about the Volvo Group’s research on renewable fuels at: http://www.volvo.com/group/global/en-gb/responsibility/envdev/renewable_fuels/fuel_comparison/fuel_comparison.htm
Press images are available for download at: http://imagegallery.volvogroup.volvo.se/CumulusE_Z/VolvoGroup_ImageGallery/Login2.jsp?assets=G2009_1279;G2009_1280;G2009_1281;G2009_1282
20 August, 2009
Journalists who would like further information, please contact
Tatiana Butovitsch Temm, Head of Corporate Communications, Volvo Logistics, tel +46 31 322 89 29, e-mail tatiana.butovitsch.temm@consultant.volvo.com