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2 authors:
Renato Orsato
Peter Wells
Cardiff University
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Introduction
Abstract
This paper summarises the contributions made to the special issue on The automobile Industry & Sustainability. Taking a life-cycle perspective, the contributions are allocated into the automotive life-cycle phases of design, manufacture (and supply chain management), use, and disposal or end of life vehicle management. The contributions are also set into the broader context of research into the global automotive industry,
and the economic, social and environmental pressures confronting the industry. In doing so, this introductory paper provides a brief assessment
of the ways in which the papers in the special issue have furthered our understanding of the difficulty in achieving a sustainable automotive
industry, and some of the measures that might be taken as progress towards that difficult goal.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Automotive industry; Sustainability; Whole life-cycle perspective; Design; Manufacture; Use; End-of-life vehicles
1. Introduction
There are few industries as large, diverse and influential
as the automotive industry. Arguably, the largest single
manufacturing sector worldwide, the management practices,
organisational forms, and particularly the response to environmental pressures adopted by this industry are important in
their own right, but also in terms of influencing many other
business sectors. The products of this industry touch our daily
lives not only by providing personal mobility for millions, but
also by bringing a wide array of challenges. The deterioration
of local air quality in urban areas, along with global issues
such as global warming, and the treatment of scrapped vehicles are just a few examples of such challenges. As our introductory paper to this Special Issue argues (Orsato and Wells),
the resolution of environmental issues has to proceed alongside the many economic challenges currently facing the
automotive industry: notably over-capacity; saturated and
fragmenting markets; capital intensity; and persistent problems with achieving adequate profitability.
The papers collected for this Special Issue on The Automobile Industry & Sustainability reflect both the diversity of the
environmental challenges associated with the automotive industry, as well as the diversity of academic treatments of multiple subjects. As editors of the special issue, we felt it was
important to reflect differing theoretical and empirical perspectives, to capture the essence of where the research frontier
0959-6526/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.05.035
was with respect to the industry, without being overly prescriptive or imposing a particular theoretical focus. At the same
time, it was, of course, necessary to filter proposals both for
quality and innovation, and for a broad fit within the theme
of treating the business and technology aspects of sustainability
as they apply to the automotive industry. Equally, it seemed
important to capture the views from scholars in a variety of
geographic locations. The result is a special issue that could
be characterised as multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and
multi-national.
Academia is usually organised into schools of thought,
within which there may be various theories and methodologies
that supposedly constitute meaningful intellectual endeavour.
In this respect, the focus on an industrial sector is unusual
(though previous special issues of Journal of Cleaner Production have also sought to focus on sectors), but increasingly
relevant. Our claim for such relevance arises out of the characteristic of discourses on sustainability, where the call for multidisciplinary analysis is strongest. As this special issue seeks to
demonstrate, what is required is a multiplicity of solutions and
understandings to be brought to bear against the fundamental
issue: how do we achieve a sustainable automobile industry
and how will that contribute to helping our societies become
more sustainable?
The papers are mostly a reflection of an underlying perspective: that sustainable mobility (whatever that may be) cannot be delivered by an industry or productioneconsumption
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benefits in terms of improved fuel-efficiency has recently galvanized interest. On the one hand, within the industry itself,
there is much debate as to whether companies like Toyota,
which has taken the lead on this technology, are justified in absorbing some of the marginal costs of proceeding rather than
passing them on, in full, to their consumers. On the other
hand, consumers and regulators want to know how substantial
the benefits are from hybrid technologies. The contribution
from Haan, Peters and Scholz makes interesting reading in
this context. The authors argue that hybrid powertrains are
considered to be a promising method to raise the overall
fuel-efficiency of passenger cars. The authors investigate two
aspects relevant to the promotion of hybrid vehicles as part
of an energy use reduction strategy. First, are hybrid cars
accompanied by rebound effects, which counteract their
increased fuel-efficiency? Second, do tax rebates indeed lead
to higher sales numbers?
Often, the assumption is that the term consumers means
private individuals buying cars in the market. In reality, that
is not necessarily the case with respect to cars; particularly
in the more established markets such as that in the UK. Indeed,
in these markets the traditional private consumer can actually
be a minority e they tend to buy used cars. Rather, the market
for new cars is dominated by corporate or public sector buyers,
and by various intermediary categories of purchaser for whom
the cost of acquisition and use are not entirely born personally.
As a consequence, the composition of the total fleet of vehicles
in use, which is determined by the characteristics of the stock
of new cars bought each year, is heavily influenced by these
corporate and public sectors.
The contribution from Lane and Potter emphasises the importance of understanding this type of consumer. The authors
studied how the fleet managers of private firms and the public
sector go about their purchasing choices. In fact, the authors
revisit the theme previously addressed by Cousins, GarciaBueno and Palomares Coronado e the dominance of High
Carbon Vehicles on the UK roads (see Section 3). The authors
report the initial findings of two research projects that identify
attitudinal barriers inhibiting the adoption of cleaner vehicles
in the UK. The first, conducted for the Low Carbon Vehicle
Partnership by Ecolane Transport Consultancy, reviews the
evidence of consumer attitudes to low-carbon cars. The study
shows that car buyers have a poor knowledge of cleaner car
technologies, the environmental impacts of road transport
and car ownership costs. The second study, initiated within
the Open Universitys Design Innovation Group, identifies
key hotspot factors that influence consumers adoption of
low-carbon products.
In his contribution on product service systems (PSS) for the
automotive industry, Williams addresses the main feature of
the automotive industry that mitigates against such concepts:
the business model adopted by automakers. The author investigates the actual and potential contributions that PSS can
make in moving beyond incremental technological improvements towards a focus on behavioural changes and system innovation. The identified initiatives are then assessed against
the key evaluative criteria in an effort to reveal their actual
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R.J. Orsato*
Insead Business in Society (IBiS), INSEAD,
Boulevard de Constance,
77305 Fontainebleau Cedex, France
*Corresponding author.
E-mail address: renato.orsato@insead.edu
P. Wells
Centre for Automotive Industry Research & ESRC Centre for
Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and
Society (BRASS), Cardiff Business School,
Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK
E-mail address: wellspe@cardiff.ac.uk
Accepted 28 May 2006
Available online 13 October 2006