Sustainable consumption and recycling of products in transport industry

Sustainable consumption and recycling of products in transport industry

Based on data from the Paris Conference on Climate Change, transport is responsible for 23% of global indirect emissions. New initiatives for improving urban transport (Mobilize your City) and accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles have been launched. For the first time, innovation is at the heart of international climate action. However, despite technological advances that have improved energy efficiency, energy use in OECD countries will continue to grow by another 35% by 2020. The fastest growing area of ​​global energy use is still in transport. In 2002, in the OECD countries, there were 550 million vehicles on motor vehicles (of which 75 percent were personal cars). By 2020, an increase in ownership of over 32 percent of vehicles is expected. At the same time, projected kilometers for motor vehicles will increase by 40 percent, and global air travel will triple in the same period.

In the context of the SDG, "shared value" is a set of market potential, social demands and political actions to create more sustainable and inclusive paths to economic growth, prosperity and well-being.

Opportunities for shared value:

•        Designs and manufactures vehicles that consume less energy and which generate significantly less waste during the life cycle of companies by adopting new and innovative technologies.
•        Apply the concept of a circular economy by designing products with reuse and recycling.
•        Develop and implement processes to reduce the use and recycling of water, raw materials, non-renewable minerals, other inputs, side effects and waste.
•        Identify and adopt new technologies and improve the process for reducing fossil fuel combustion in industrial production facilities.
•        Increase energy efficiency in industrial production facilities and through distribution networks.
•        Build automated zero-defect equipment (avoiding intensive resource recall) in factories around the world.
•        Improve the operation of vehicles in order to increase the energy efficiency of transport.
•        Cooperation with Governments, the World Bank and other stakeholders to develop transport solutions in order to increase energy efficiency. Intermodal and Transmodal Transmission Systems, accessibility of public transport networks - for countries where the most need it, especially the least developed country, African countries, and small island countries.
•        Build a freight eco system that connects freight transport agents to improve the efficiency of cargo movement, thereby reducing carbon emissions in road traffic.
•        Minimize the use of non-renewable mineral resources using reusable, recyclable, reparganized, and renewable material.

Hyundai has set a target of 85% recycling rate for plastic, rubber and glass in its end-of-life vehicles (ELV), and a 95% recovery rate. The company also invests in handling and recycling ELVs, and pioneering ways to establish a vehicle resource recycling system. Hyundai recycling practice involves the reuse of plastic produced during the production of cars for the production of wheels, and other parts of the car, using the technology it developed independently with its partners. Also, Hyundai is able to re-use the thermoset polyurethane foam on automobile seats to create materials for other parts of the car, and uses it in the mass production of bulkheads. In order to improve the recycling of hybrid parts of the vehicle, Hyundai has produced a manual that gives guidance to customers for the safe handling of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries installed in these vehicles.

Educational materials regarding this topic find below:

• https://www.globalcompact.de/wAssets/docs/Sustainable-Development-Goals/Publikationen/SDG-Industry-Matrix/SDGMatrix_Transportation.pdf
• https://www.globalcompact.de/wAssets/docs/Sustainable-Development-Goals/Publikationen/SDG-Industry-Matrix/SDGMatrix-Manufacturing.pdf
• https://csr.hyundai.com/upfile/report/sar/Sustainability_Report(ENG)_2015_73-74.pdf
• Photo: Concept Car_RN30_Solutions by BASF, www.basf.com (source)

Author: Darko Milosevic