As a globally active automobile manufacturer, BMW Group takes responsibility for the environment, as well as social interests of employees and society as a whole.
The motor industry is clearly one of the world’s largest polluters; it
is perhaps ironic that this gives it the opportunity to become one of
the most proactive reducers of emissions. BMW is among the manufacturers
taking its responsibilities in this area very seriously indeed, on both
product design and corporate levels.
In corporate terms the organization has won awards and is completely
up-front about its principles around sustainability. In 2008, BMW won
the Corporate Responsibility Reporting Award for best carbon disclosure;
it also has production facilities based on the UN’s cleaner production
program and uses preventive environmental management on a voluntary
basis.
Its real innovation, though, has to be in its vehicle design and
manufacture. “We’ve been at the forefront of realizing from a product
point of view that the continued growth of performance needed to be
balanced against a realization that some sort of sustainability was
going to be necessary,” says Duncan Forrester, a PR for the company. The
company therefore initiated the scheme now known as Efficient Dynamics.
“Efficient Dynamics is an umbrella term for a number of technologies
that come together to deliver not only the customer’s desire for
increases in performance and output but at the same time decreases in
consumption and improvements in emissions,” he says. Products started to
emerge early 2007 and the specific elements of Efficient Dynamics
in a car depends on the model. The one with the most are four cylinder
manual cars, which get the whole bandwidth.
“Efficient Dynamics is a huge number of technologies and it comes
together to produce huge efficiencies in a number of our cars. When we
launched the new 6 series in the Autumn of last year, a three and a half
year old model, we announced up to 22 per cent increases in efficiency
which is a huge number.”
BMW has won awards in 2011 and this for the Efficient Dynamics
idea, leading to the current stage at which a diesel powered car with no
hybrid technologies or biodiesel won Green Car of the Year.
Sustainability is also about the future. BMW is keeping many of its
future plans secret but confirms that Efficient Dynamics is a work in
progress rather than a box which is now ticked and from which it will
move on.
To BMW Manufacturing, Corporate
Social Responsibility means being a catalyst for change. We strive to set
examples for those we work with, for, and around with high standards of
environmental management, corporate giving, and maintaining a diverse
workforce. We are proud to be in South Carolina, and we appreciate the many
different relationships we have established here.
Through education, environment, and
other philanthropic efforts, we carry out our pledge to diversity. As citizens
of both the global corporate economy and the Upstate community, we integrate
these commitments into everything we do at BMW Manufacturing. We support dozens
of local and statewide organizations, including our most visible initiative,
the annual BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by SYNNEX Corporation. Every
partnership is an instrument of change. Each contribution is a reflection of
our principle.
Corporate
Giving:
Nearly $28 million through 2010
- 47% to education
- 35% to the community
- 18% to the arts
"We assume responsibility" – following this principle, the BMW
Group strives to contribute actively to safeguarding and developing society at
all its locations and beyond. A company's success depends in no small way on a
stable social environment. Therefore, the BMW Group helps to shape important
conditions – to the benefit of everyone concerned – and integrates social
programs into its sustainability strategy. The BMW Group derives the core
themes of its social commitment from its corporate objectives and its corporate
culture, which combines success orientation, cosmopolitanism, trust and transparency.
These themes are traffic safety, education, intercultural exchange, the fight
against HIV/AIDS, particularly in South Africa, as well as art and culture. Our
long-standing commitment not only promotes the employees' identification with
the Company, but also substantiates and strengthens society's trust in the BMW
Group as a reliable partner and thus enhances the Company's reputation both
within its ranks and among the public at large.
