3rd ICAI 2024

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2024

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

Importance of Environmental Product Declarations and Environmental Footprints in the Automotive Industry Dorota Burchart Silesian University of Technology Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering Krasińskiego 8, 40-019, Katowice Poland e-mail: dorota.burchart@polsl.pl Abstract Significance of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and Environmental Footprints (EF) for the Automotive Industry is discussed in the paper. EPD is a voluntary environmental declaration by manufacturers, but is increasingly required by many public transport operators. EPD supports conscious environmental choices and motivates transport producers to manage the supply chain responsibly and sustainably throughout the life cycle. In order to develop an EPD, it is necessary to perform a detailed life cycle analysis (LCA) for many categories of environmental impact like environmental footprints. Environmental footprints allow to assess potential environmental impacts associated with transport sector throughout their whole vehicle life cycle, from extraction via manufacturing and use to end-of-life. The article presents an overview of methods with life cycle approach for Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for public transport operators. Keywords: Environmental Product Declarations, Environmental Footprints, Automotive Industry JEL Classification: Q53, Q54, Q56 1. Introduction The most important environmental footprint in transport sector according to European Comission is carbon footprint (CF). Companies in many industries, including the automotive industry, should report environmental aspects, including primarily carbon footprint, in accordance with ESP reporting. ESG consists of three key elements: Environmental (refers to a company’s efforts to protect the environment), Social (refers to a company’s relationships with employees, the community, customers and other stakeholders) and Governance (focuses on a company’s management structure, transparency, ethics and regulatory compliance). ESG is economic, social and environmental one that affects the company’s value and its long-term perspective. ESG is non-financial factors that help companies report their activities that are not related to purely economic development indicators. From January 1, 2024, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) came into full force, significantly supporting the goals of ESG – a set of practices aimed at focusing enterprise strategies on meeting the criteria of sustainable development, which also is very important for the automotive industry. Public transport operators are increasingly developing environmental product

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