BMW Group - Industry leading vehicle footprint disclosure project
Customer requirement
The sustainability of the automotive industry and passenger cars is becoming increasingly important to customers, regulators, civil society organisations and the industry itself. Pressure is growing due to the urgent need to address climate change around the world but also in relation to a range of other high-profile environmental issues, including virgin material resource scarcity, energy consumption, air pollution and water resource issues (amongst others). All industrial sectors are coming under increased pressure and the high-profile nature of the automotive industry means that there is a major focus on vehicle sustainability from customers, regulatory authorities and the NGO community.
To respond to this demand from their customers and stakeholders, the BMW Group sought strategic support for the development of a first-of-a-kind vehicle sustainability disclosure. The objective was to create a vehicle footprint concept to communicate, in a transparent and robust way, sustainable performance metrics for a BMW vehicle over its entire life cycle.
Ricardo Solution
Ricardo was directly sought for this project following the work our experts had done on the world’s most comprehensive vehicle life cycle assessment for the European Commission.
To support the development of the vehicle footprint concept, Ricardo’s experts worked with the BMW Group to identify and propose robust and credible metrics for the vehicle footprint concept. This included information on lifecycle CO2 emissions, fuel or energy efficiency, vehicle recyclability, use of recycled materials, and social impacts, among others.
As part of the project, Ricardo conducted research to identify the needs and expectations of regulators, NGOs and customers in relation to the provision of vehicle sustainability information. These insights were used to refine the sustainability metrics and to inform the development of a concept design that proposed how the information should be displayed and what level of detail should be provided. Ricardo’s behavioural economics and stakeholder engagement experts also supported the testing of these metrics and the concept design with relevant stakeholder groups.
In parallel, Ricardo’s sustainable transport and life cycle assessment experts reviewed, validated and made recommendations for a methodological approach for the estimation of the metrics to be included in the vehicle footprint.
Customer benefit
The BMW Group is are now able to provide a robust disclosure that will help to demonstrate the sustainability performance of their vehicles, information that is critically sought by customers, especially fleet customers and regulators.
Importantly, the project will not only help to improve visibility of BMW’s already leading sustainability credentials, but to also raise the bar on robust sustainability data across the industry.
“Ricardo’s work supports our ambition to lead the way with sustainability and enables us to transparently communicate the sustainability metrics of our vehicles to our customers and other stakeholders.”
Annette Connor, Senior Manager Strategy Sustainability, BMW Group
Further information
Find out more about Ricardo's life cycle assessment capabilites