Ocean lovers make waves for sustainability
Advertorial for Volvo
The 2023 Volvo Ocean Lovers Festival — a festival of ideas, art, music, and positive action — was held in perfect sunny weather at Bondi Beach from March 15-19.
Over five days, locals and visitors dived deep into an ocean of education, information, inspiration, and entertainment.
Volvo Ocean Lovers Festival is a fusion of positivity, art and music.Credit: iStock
“We’re so proud to have a naming rights partner like Volvo,” says festival founder, Anita Kolni. “They’re so committed to making the world a better place for everyone.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Volvo Car Australia managing director, Stephen Connor. “It is a privilege to be partnered with the Ocean Lovers Festival as our aims are closely aligned,” he says.
“Sustainability has been at the heart of our values since our inception in 1927 and is central to our company’s purpose. We recognise that this is essential for not only our future success but for the future of us all.”
With the 2023 festival coming to an end, Volvo remain committed to driving the sea change of sustainability action — supporting ocean care initiatives beyond partnership and support for the Volvo Ocean Lovers Festival.
Living seawalls
Volvo Car Australia has partnered with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Reef Design Lab to create flourishing habitats for creatures that call our oceans home.
Seawalls, built in most developed regions of Australia, are designed to protect humans from the changing nature and power of the sea. Their flat, featureless design is functional from a human point-of-view but does not provide anything for the creatures that live alongside these walls.
Volvo has brought one stretch of seawall to life. Fifty 3D-printed tiles were retrofitted along the existing seawall at Milsons Point, right at the north end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The tiles are creatively designed to mimic the roots of mangrove trees, with texture and spaces for marine life to live in.
The result? After just two years, North Sydney Council reported that biodiversity increased at Milsons point by 73 per cent, with 90-plus species of algae, fish, oysters, and barnacles living on and around the seawalls.
This is good news for our ocean-dwellers. It’s also great for the health of our oceans as living seawalls attract the natural cleaners of our environment; organisms that absorb and filter out water-based pollutants.
You can get up close and personal with Volvo’s living seawalls, all without getting wet, here.
Goals from now into the (near) future
Volvo Car Australia knows climate action needs to happen now rather than in a distant hypothetical future, so they are working towards some major milestones for the coming decades.
Climate neutral by 2040
It’s a big goal. But such an important one.
Volvo’s goal to become climate neutral by 2040 is both about the cars they are manufacturing and reducing emissions across the entire company.
Volvo is prioritising sustainability both in its manufacturing processes and broader company activities.Credit: Volvo
Our vehicles
Vehicle electrification brings benefits such as lower air pollution (particularly in urban areas) and a lower lifetime carbon footprint compared with vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Currently, all new Volvo models offer an electrified version and pure-electric models are on their way to becoming the norm as Volvo Car Australia moves on plans to sell only fully-electric cars by 2026, a full four years earlier than the global aim.
However, Volvo is aware that this will only be possible once charging infrastructure is further developed and so the company is conscious of the need to continue to develop lower-carbon footprint batteries and consider the different carbon footprints that result from alternative electricity generation.
Volvo is a trailblazer in the auto industry, aiming to only sell fully-electric cars by 2026.Credit: Volvo
Our business
Volvo also understand that electrifying vehicles is not enough. That’s why its ambition for climate neutrality is for the entire business, including manufacturing and supply chains.
The business is already working towards a goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent by 2025 and, by the same date, have manufacturing operations climate-neutral. Currently, 80 per cent of global plants are powered by climate-neutral power, as measured by the international standard Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Circular economy by 2040
Circular economies are the alternative to a ‘linear economy’, which is when raw material is used to create a product that, once used, is disposed of as waste.
Volvo will increasingly ‘remanufacture’ parts like engines, gearboxes and clutches by using less raw material (up to 85 per cent less) and less energy (likely a decrease of up to 80 per cent).
Learn more about Volvo’s striving for sustainability or bask in the afterglow of the 2023 Volvo Ocean Lovers Festival.