|
When one thinks of a high-performance automobile, it’s usually not in the same mental moment as preservation of the environment. In fact, it’s ordinarily quite the opposite: if a person is in the least environmentally conscious, he or she normally feels a bit guilty if they own one. Such vehicles as a rule require high-octane fuel and have a trade-off in lower mileage for higher performance. It may feel great while you’re speeding down the highway, but one glance off to the side at the forest or the ocean or hearing yet another news item about the world’s dwindling fossil fuel supply and those feelings of guilt come back again.
Fossil fuel shortages, global warming and pollution are complex problems that won’t be solved until each contributor to these problems is doing his, her or their part to reverse them. Fortunately, BMW has stepped up to the plate and has taken some remarkable steps to address these issues.
Coming from the Top
The BMW Group—the parent company of continental BMW companies throughout the world—has a list of guidelines with which they expect compliance from executives and various BMW subsidiary companies. These include the development of transportation technologies with the overriding concept of maintaining mobility (keeping up performance) without undermining the quality of life and the development of propulsion technologies alternative to the gasoline-fueled internal-combustion engine.
The company also employs the use of advanced technology to enhance safety and minimize exhaust emissions, noise emissions and fuel consumption.
These guidelines extend far beyond the vehicles themselves to the other area from which environmental harm can stem—the manufacturing processes. The company has committed to use technical and economic means appropriate to conserving resources and minimizing environmental impact in the development, design, production and operation of facilities. They have also developed extensive recycling solutions and the utilization of secondary raw materials.
The company additionally encourages their suppliers to follow their guidelines, and in the U.S., suppliers sign on to—and become part of—the BMW environmental program.
A Driving Example
But as we all know from years of political and corporate rhetoric, it’s one thing to make pledges, promises and policies and quite another to carry them off. And here is where BMW has truly proven itself—where the rubber meets the road.
The company has developed the very first luxury performance sedan with a hydrogen drive, the BMW Hydrogen 7. This 12-cylinder, 260-horsepower piece of supreme engineering runs on the most plentiful element in the world and releases nothing but water vapor. Because the infrastructure for refueling a hydrogen internal combustion engine is not yet complete, the car also runs on gasoline at the push of a button. The vehicle is not yet available for purchase, but has gone beyond the “concept auto” stage and is in limited production, proving that a luxury performance car—a far cry from the tiny hybrids currently available—can be made extremely environmentally friendly.
“Performance and the reduction of emissions are not mutually exclusive,” said BMW U.S. Chairman and CEO Tom Purves in a recent address. “In the case of the Hydrogen 7, it means a car that is capable of running 143 miles per hour top speed yet emitting virtually nothing but water vapor. This is what we consider to be the ultimate driving machine among green cars.”
The car is being offered to select users this year, including legendary opera singer and conductor Placido Domingo. Other luminaries have opted to drive the car as well, among them Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori, Jay Leno, Richard Gere and Sharon Stone.
The company recently unveiled the X6, termed a “sports activity coupe.” While currently only in the concept stage, nearly identical production models are expected in dealerships in 2008. BMW also announced an ActiveHybrid version of the X6, which the company claims will be 20 percent more fuel efficient.
Out in the real world, the company has worked diligently to make their regular line of production vehicles environmentally safe as well. BMW topped an August 2007 “carbon conscious list” in a report entitled “Automakers’ Corporate Carbon Burdens.” The report, compiled by a nonprofit environmental group called Environmental Defense, focused on carbon dioxide emissions from major auto manufacturers between 1990 and 2005, and found that BMW achieved a 12 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions across its entire fleet of cars—higher than that of any other automaker in the study.
Michael Ganal, member of the BMW AG board of directors, recently commented, “Our strategy is clear: We want to reduce fuel consumption across our entire model portfolio. Because this is the only way to really help the environment. Complementing a model line-up by one single eco vehicle sold in low numbers—as some other manu-facturers do—is plain window dressing. The positive effect for the environment is close to zero.”
BMW also seeks to keep their buyers fully informed. Key environmental data is included within all vehicle brochures, and every car on display in a customer showroom has a label detailing CO2 emissions.
Leading in Environmentally Safe Manufacturing
The BMW U.S. South Carolina plant has an environmental design and operation that is unparalleled in the automotive industry. Even before construction of the plant was begun, BMW rearranged the plant layout so that local wetlands would be preserved. Waste water is pretreated before being discharged to the local municipal treatment facility. The plant is even painted with environmentally friendly water-based primer.
Sixty-three percent of the power used to run the facility comes from methane gas generated at a local landfill. The gas is conveyed through a 9.5-mile pipeline directly to the plant. Recent expansion of the landfill gas initiatives has extended to the largest consumer of energy within the factory—its paint shop—and this expansion is expected to achieve a CO2 reduction of approximately 17,000 tons per year.
This energy initiative earned the company the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Energy Partner of the Year” award, as well as being cited as a reason the plant was named “2006 Top Plant” by Plant Engineering magazine.
“Three of our core principles are innovation, protecting the environment, and being a good corporate citizen,” said Briggs Hamilton, BMW Manufacturing’s environmental section manager. “This is such a positive for everyone involved. There literally hasn’t been a downside to this project. This project allows us to take a previously wasted energy source and use it to generate electricity and heat for our plant, resulting in lower emissions, which helps to protect the environment and the community.”
The plant also recycles material wherever possible, from aluminum beverage cans to containers for entire transmission assemblies. They also utilize returnable shipping containers, reducing cardboard, wood and other packaging waste by 67 pounds per vehicle.
Elsewhere at the company’s engine plant in Steyr, Austria, a new recycling system has been implemented that treats all manufacturing waste water and feeds it right back into the production facility. The system affords an annual savings of 7.9 million gallons of water, and even allowed BMW to close the main drainage connection at the plant.
While many auto manufacturers seem to be taking mostly a public-relations approach to environmental issues, taking real-world steps only when forced by regulation or bad press, it is comforting to see one that has voluntarily raced out ahead in an effort to preserve our planet.
loading...
loading...
