Car manufacturers have been vying for the reputation of the most climate-friendly car manufacturer for years. The environmental impact of car factories has long been ignored. However, the new international study meticulously listed them for the first time: How high were the emissions of greenhouse gases in the factories? How many industrial accidents occurred? How sparingly or wastefully did the individual car manufacturers use the most important natural resources compared to the industry as a whole? And how much profit or loss did the companies realise with these resources? Using this data and the new sustainable value approach, the scientific team determined which car manufacturers produced particularly resource-efficiently. The result, the sustainable added value or "Sustainable Value", was expressed in a single integrated, monetary indicator.

The sustainable value approach on which the study is based was developed by the participating scientists Dr Tobias Hahn (IZT Berlin) and Prof Dr Frank Figge (Queen's University Belfast). The approach has already been applied and refined in recent years in two extensive comparative studies funded by the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

These studies already indicated quite large differences in efficiency in the automotive industry, but were limited to European and German manufacturers. The BMW Group was interested in having its own efficiency advantage assessed in a global industry comparison and had therefore significantly financed the present application to the automotive industry.

The study revealed unexpectedly large differences in efficiency in car production. This showed that there is still considerable potential for sustainability not only in fleet consumption, but also in car production.

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