A team from Volvo Car UK joined colleagues around the world in a global beach-combing initiative to raise awareness and help tackle plastic pollution in our oceans. Twenty-four Volvo UK staff, together with some of Volvo’s British Sailing Team brand ambassadors, took to the shoreline at Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire for the clean-up exercise in support of the 2018 United Nations World Environment Day.
Around the world, more than 850 Volvo Cars employees and retail staff from 16 countries put down their tools, left their desks and picked up litter in aid of World Environment Day and the UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign. The UK group was able to provide more than 70 man-hours of litter clearing. The sailors among them are acutely aware of the hazards to seawater quality and marine life from discarded plastics and other waste materials.
The brand ambassadors included multiple World and Olympic champions and medallists: Chris Grube, Jess Lavery, Eilidh McIntyre, Hannah Mills, James Peters, Chris Rashley and Ian Walker all lent support. Ian Walker MBE, Director of Racing at the Royal Yachting Association, said: “Having sailed around the world three times in the Volvo Ocean Race, I’ve seen just how bad plastic impact has been on the environment. As sailors, we spend most of our time out on the seas and oceans, and we’re absolutely delighted to partner with Volvo because it is a company that cares so much for the environment.”
Jon Wakefield, Managing Director of Volvo Car UK, stated: “We take our environmental responsibilities seriously at Volvo and the beach clean initiative really helps to raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans. As a company, we have also started to remove single-use plastics from our offices and factories and, by 2025, our aim is to be carbon neutral in all of our manufacturing plants worldwide.”
World Environment Day, established in 1974, is dedicated to taking action and caring for the earth. This year’s theme is ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, more than eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans each year. If nothing is done to alleviate the situation, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea.
In its wider commitment to environmental responsibility, the company announced last year an industry-leading commitment to electrify all new Volvo cars launched after 2019. It has since reinforced this strategy, stating in April that it aims for fully electric cars to make up 50 per cent of its global sales by 2025. In terms of operations, in January this year, Volvo Cars’ engine plant in Skövde, Sweden, became the company’s first facility to achieve climate-neutral manufacturing processes, which I am delighted to confirm following a visit to the quiet and phenomenally clean factory.
