GOTHENBURG, Sweden – Polestar, the electric performance car brand, is spearheading a movement for transparency throughout the automotive industry to accelerate the shift to a climate-neutral future. In April 2021, the company announced plans for a climate neutral car by 2030—Polestar now communicates an important step on its transparency journey, announcing a new partnership with blockchain provider Circulor.
Polestar already works with Circulor on the traceability of cobalt in the batteries for the Polestar 2 electric performance fastback. With this new partnership, Polestar and Circulor have set a progressive scope and ambition that aims to entail a range of raw materials, focusing on those with identified risks in either environmental and/or human rights, such as nickel, mica, manganese, graphite and lithium, amongst others.
Transparency is a key driver for climate action, and the aim with CO2e tracking is to see the embedded emissions that have been created as part of the production process, per facility as well as those inherited from suppliers through the supply chain. The greenhouse gas tracking solution offered by Circulor enables a more accurate CO2e footprint than using generic emissions data from databases.
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“Caring about ethics and the environment is key to Polestar. This unprecedented level of traceability means that Polestar can promote sustainable and ethical practices in its supply chain, and provide better transparency for consumers,” says Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath.
“We are delighted to be a strategic partner of Polestar and play a key role in enabling supply chain transparency for Polestar, its suppliers and its customers. Our platform’s ability to dynamically track and attribute CO2e across the supply chain will help enable Polestar’s moonshot goal to create a climate-neutral car by 2030,” says Douglas Johnson-Poensgen, Circulor CEO.
Circulor supports businesses in achieving more sustainable supply chains and works with blockchain technology to trace materials. A blockchain is a digital ledger containing a list of records linked to each other via cryptography. A ‘digital twin’ for the raw material being traced is created and the material is then tracked through the supply chain, creating a digital thread that follows and records the various industrial processes and transformations it undergoes.
This means that the source and the methods by which the raw materials are extracted, processed and transported, can be better regulated, helping to ensure that the materials used in battery production come from the expected mines or recycling facilities. Blockchain technology is already applied to Polestar 2, to support the traceability of cobalt in its batteries.
Polestar is on a mission to drive the shift to sustainable mobility. Supply chain transparency is one big step on the journey. Consumers will be able to follow the journey thanks to Polestar’s Product Sustainability Declaration, which discloses carbon footprint and traced risk materials through labeling on the company website and in Polestar Spaces, setting a unique transparency precedent for the industry.
