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Lars Mårtensson, Environmental Director at Volvo Trucks, said:
"Before we started this project we were convinced that carbon dioxide-free production would result in increased costs, a consequence we were prepared to accept. However, we can see already today that in the long term we will on the contrary be saving money. Therefore I can truly recommend other companies to consider similar measures for contributing to reduced eco-burden."

In order to show the world that even a truck factory can be run without any carbon dioxide emissions, Volvo Trucks launched a major project back in 2005 to investigate energy consumption in the production process. Concrete results can already be seen.

Mårtensson added:
"It actually all began with an unofficial competition between three of our factories – the Umeå and Tuve plants in Sweden and Ghent in Belgium.  The factory in Ghent reached its target first. And now it's not just Umeå and Tuve which are on the way there – Ghent's achievement has started a true carbon dioxide race among our other production facilities too."

Wind-power stations and biomass facility on the factory site
To begin with, a number of changes were made in the factory premises to reduce electricity consumption. Skylights were built into the roof to increase the amount of natural light. Lighter colours on the walls and floors helped reduce the need for lighting.

The Ghent factory chose to construct three wind-power units on site, covering half the factory's electricity needs. The remaining electricity comes from green energy sources supplied by Belgian utilities provider Electrabel.

70 percent of the heating requirements for the Ghent factory are covered by a new biomass facility. It is powered by pellets and the energy needed for the incineration process is supplied by rooftop solar cells. The remaining 30 percent are covered by a gas-fired boiler that has been converted to run on biofuel.

Doubled use of carbon dioxide-free energy by 2010
Volvo Trucks aims to halve its energy consumption per manufactured truck and already next year this is expected to have been reduced by 25 percent. When it comes to the company's total operations, the use of carbon dioxide-free energy will be doubled by 2010.

"We are fully aware of the environmental problems we have in the world today and we're working to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide in both fixed facilities and from vehicles," explains Claes Nilsson, President Europe Division of Volvo Trucks. "However, for practical and economic reasons it is simpler to make a factory carbon dioxide-free, something we achieved within a period of two years."

The Ghent factory produces 40,000 trucks annually and has 2,400 employees.