BMW joins the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative

BMW announced their inclusion into the ASI or Aluminium Stewardship Initiative. The ASI was founded back in September of 2012 as an aluminium value chain initiative. A bunch of smart people got together to create a standard for how aluminium is mined, manufactured and recycled and there hope is that companies that use a lot of the stuff will sign on as partners.

BMW uses a lot of aluminium in its car alongside carbon fiber to help save weight. Ursula Mathar, head of the BMW Group’s Sustainability and Environmental Protection department said, “The BMW i3 uses mainly recycled aluminium or aluminium produced using electricity from renewable sources. As a result, all of the aluminium used in production of the BMW i3 entails much lower CO2 emissions than traditional manufacturing processes using aluminium.”

A lot of car manufacturers nowadays are finding out how to cut costs and improve efficiency in as many ways as possible. As a result of new CAFE regulations, increased awareness of green initiatives by corporate entities and coupled with a struggling economy, car companies like BMW are thinking outside the box. Just recently Honda announced a new paint process that eliminates one of the stages in a previous 4 stage paint process. BMW commitment to environmentally awareness also got them a #1 spot on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

With the new generation of consumers, a very realistic question that possibly BMW purchasers will ask is how sustainable are they compared to competitors and BMW will win them over and have the credentials to back them up.