Sites taking action for the environment

Vehicle production poses no major risks for the environment, provided that it is efficiently managed. Its main impacts - energy and water consumption, waste production, etc. - nevertheless increase with the size of the production site, owing to volume production requirements. In response to these issues, the Group has long had a policy of continuous improvement. Rolled out worldwide, the policy places considerable emphasis on employee involvement. It implements the best technologies available at an acceptable economic cost.

Managing the environment day by day
Looking beyond national and local regulations, PSA Peugeot Citroën is committed to an active environmental protection policy. The Group implements an environmental management system (EMS), based on the ISO 14001 standard, applied at Group sites worldwide, all of which have been certified since end-2007. Alongside a central department devoted to the industrial environment, each site has an environmental manager with his/her own dedicated department. In this way, almost 500 people contribute to the Group's environmental management policy every day.

Cutting atmospheric emissions
In the automotive industry, the most significant atmospheric emissions are linked to the use of solvents in the paint shops, which produce volatile organic compounds (VOC).
To limit these emissions, the Group has taken action in several areas:

• improvements in the paintshop : new equipment to apply paint more efficiently and thus cut the quantities of paint (and solvents) required, use of low-solvent paints, recycling of used solvents;
• implementation of clean technologies (water-based paints, powder primers);
• air treatment by incinerating VOC.

Concerning other pollutants, PSA Peugeot Citroën replaces high-sulphur fuel by low-sulphur fuel and then by natural gas, whenever possible. These efforts brought about a spectacular drop in NO2 and SO2 emissions between 1995 and 2008 (- 43% and- 99% respectively).

Cutting energy consumption and GHG emissions
Although energy consumption is not the main issue in vehicle production, some production processes (casting, paint ovens, etc.) do require considerable amounts of energy. A number of initiatives have improved the Group's energy profile in recent years, e.g.: implementing a plan to manage energy consumption and modernise combustion facilities, replacing fuel-oil by natural gas and putting in place a cogeneration system. As a result of this action plan, greenhouse gas emissions (primarily CO2) per vehicle produced fell by around 40% between 1995 and 2008.

Saving water
Water needs to be preserved for two reasons : first, because it is rare, particularly in some regions, and second, because its sensitivity to toxic effluents can lead to serious environmental damage. PSA Peugeot Citroën sites are innovating in water consumption and water treatment. he aim is to achieve convincing results in two priority areas: limiting the quantity of water withdrawn and improving the quality of emissions to the natural environment. Water consumption is closely monitored. The Group meters all usage, promotes the most economical operating processes and implements recycling systems. This policy has made it possible to cut water consumption per vehicle produced by a factor of more than 2.5 since 1995. At the same time, all sites are either connected to the public sewage system or have their own full treatment plant inhouse.

Reducing and recovering waste
As well as seeking to make its cars extensively recyclable at end-of-life, the Group introduced a policy more than ten years ago to cut industrial waste and promote its recycling and recovery. Since 1995, the quantity of waste produced per vehicle, excluding metal waste, has fallen by around one-quarter. The recovery rate is around 82%. Virtually all metal waste (sheet metal, shavings, etc.) is recovered and reused in the iron and steel industry or in the Group's own foundries. Taking into account this metal waste, PSA Peugeot Citroën has a stable overall industrial waste recovery rate of 94%.

Find out more about PSA Peugeot Citroën and Sustainable Development