Global automaker includes procuring recycled-content materials when describing its sustainability efforts.
BMW is pointing to recycling activities at its aluminium foundry in Landshut, Germany, as a reason it is setting and meeting sustainability targets within the automotive industry.
“The BMW Group’s light metal foundry in Landshut has once again been certified by an independent party for its sustainable use of aluminium, meeting the standards of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), an international non-profit organisation supported by environmental and industrial associations, aluminium producers and processing companies,” BMW states.
Australia-based ASI is considered by BMW to have gained traction in its efforts to define and standardise sustainability criteria for the aluminium industry.
For more than 10 years, BMW foundry has been working with metals companies to implement a recycling loop for post-production scrap metal salvaged from the foundry process, says the firm. BMW, based in Germany, says residues are collected from all casting and mechanical processing stations according to type, so materials with different compositions are not mixed and, after reconditioning, aluminium scrap can be remelted to manufacture the same components.
“Sustainable extraction of raw materials and conscious use of resources play a key role for our in-house component production and our global supplier network,” says Joachim Post, a member of the board of management of BMW AG. “The circular economy is also key to reducing emissions and conserving natural resources. Going forward, the aim is to build our new vehicles with 50 per cent secondary raw materials.”
The Landshut foundry is the BMW Group’s only production facility for light metal castings in Europe. Since producing aluminium can be energy intensive, the use of green power such as solar electricity offers considerable potential for reducing CO2 emissions, the firm says.
Along with steel, aluminium accounts for the largest share, by weight, of the materials used in BMW Group vehicles. Around two-thirds of the aluminium used in Landshut comes from a recycling loop, with almost two-thirds from the foundry’s own closed loop, according to BMW.
