Polestar Calls Shenanigans on Offsets, Aims for True Carbon Neutrality by 2030
By Edward A. Sanchez – April 7, 2021
It seems like every other day, another automaker is proclaiming their goal of carbon neutrality by “X” year. But the dirty little secret, and one that’s been going on for quite some time, is that a lot of companies accomplish this goal by purchasing “offsets” or credits from other companies. A big part of Tesla’s business, aside from actually building cars and stationary energy storage systems, is selling offset credits to other OEMs to allow them to be in compliance with regional regulatory bodies requiring certain levels for emissions or CO2 output. Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath called the practice out in an official release made public on April 7, 2021, in which he said, “Offsetting is a cop-out.”
Polestar’s goal is to hit true carbon neutrality with its lineup by 2030.
Polestar is calling its climate neutrality initiative the Polestar 0 project. Polestar’s Head of Sustainability, Fredrika Klarén, declared, “We’re electric, so we don’t have to worry about combustion engines producing toxic emissions – but that doesn’t mean our job is done. We will now work to eradicate all emissions stemming from production of our vehicles. Now is a historic and exciting time for car manufacturers, an opportunity to seize the moment, do better and dare to build the dream of climate-neutral, circular and beautiful cars.”
Words are one thing, and actions are another. This is a truly ambitious initiative, and one that cannot easily be achieved simply through the issuance of lofty, noble-sounding press releases and self-congratulatory presentations. The manufacturing of cars has traditionally been a “dirty” business, with issues such as industrial waste, energy consumption during manufacturing, and taking things full-circle, dealing with the end-of-life reclamation and recycling of the vehicles.
Although challenging, mitigating and minimizing the impact of manufacturing is not impossible, and many companies are already on their way to trying to achieve it, from Renault with its Re-Factory initiative, Redwood Materials, and Li-Cycle.
Although it’s easy to get jaded and cynical at the veritable firehose of releases claiming environmental leadership in this area, it is one that will likely be of increasing importance in the future as governments take a closer eye at environmental compliance, and some may be mandating disclosure of data for source materials, energy consumption, or other “green score” information.
Perfect circularity, or essentially zero waste, may never be completely achieved in the auto industry – or any other manufacturing industry. But if we can reach a point where the waste products are easily manageable and have minimal environmental or health impact, that is a noble goal, and one that seems to be within reach now more than ever.
(Images courtesy Polestar)
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