Scania unveils decarbonisation strategy for its supply chain

Scania, a world-leading provider of transport solutions based in Södertälje, Sweden, last week announced far-reaching measures to decarbonise its supply chain by 2030.  Together with its suppliers, Scania outlined an ambitious industry-leading strategy to eliminate the largest carbon emissions sources from the most common  production materials and batteries.  

The supply chain decarbonisation strategy and targets initially comprises Scania’s  production in Europe but will gradually be extended to its production in China and Latin  America.  

“Once again Scania leads the way in ambitious climate action,” says Andreas Follér, head of  Sustainability at Scania. “We were the first in our industry to adopt science-based carbon  reduction targets and we are now showing the way by decarbonising our supply chain.” 

Through life cycle analyses, Scania has identified four emission “hotspots”—batteries, steel,  aluminium and cast iron—which together constitute approximately 80% of carbon  emissions arising from production materials.

In electric vehicles, for example, batteries can account for half of sourcing emissions  whereas in combustion engine vehicles, steel has the greatest carbon footprint. These four  hotspots are therefore the focus of Scania’s supply chain decarbonisation strategy.’ 

The 2030 target is 100% green batteries, 100% green steel, 100% green  aluminium and 100% green cast iron in its production. Scania’s definition of “green”  requires eliminating the main sources of emissions by utilising new technologies, green electricity and/or recycled material. In batteries, for example, access to green energy in  production is key whereas in the production of flat steel, replacing coal with green hydrogen is key. 

“Scania has ambitious decarbonisation targets for all its activities, including our supply chain  sourcing,” says John van Rossum, head of Purchasing at Scania. “We’re pleased to note  that several of our current and future suppliers are frontrunners in decarbonisation and will  collaborate with us to reach the targets.”