Implementing Water Footprint at Volvo Car Corporation

Abstract

This thesis concerns the implementation of Water Footprinting as a part of the strategic environmental work at Volvo Car Corporation. The aim of the thesis is to determine if and how Volvo Car Corporation should use Water Footprint to calculate and present its environmental impact on global water resources, and to create an accounting tool that can be used to calculate operational blue and grey water footprints. Volvo Car Corporation is a multinational corporation with headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, with manufacturing sites in Sweden and Belgium. A Microsoft Office Excel Water Footprint Accounting Tool that can be used for calculating the operational blue and grey water footprint of any production site has been created. The tool is customizable and can be used for sites in any region with any conditions if necessary data is entered. Region specific data has already been included for Sweden and Belgium, where the Volvo Cars Manufaturing sites are located. An inventory of these sites has also been performed to evaluate how well they are equipped to implement Water Footprinting at present, and what needs to be done before a complete operational water footprint can be determined. A number of possible applications for how to use the results from the Water Footprint Accounting Tool have been formulated. Finally, an evaluation of the grey and blue parts of the Water Footprint methodology using a sustainability indicator reviewing framework has been performed. One of the conclusions of the thesis is that the Water Footprint indicators are good in the sense that they convey important information about the impact on water resources. However, standardization is necessary in order to use Water Footprinting to its full potential. Also, data collection for the Grey Water Footprint has proven to be very difficult. Volvo Car Corporation are recommended to use the tool developed during this thesis to calculate its blue and its grey operational water footprint at a site level. The inventory show that this can be achieved using mostly already installed equipment. The results can be used to present the company’s impact on water resources, and to formulate environmental goals for the company.