Bentley achieves carbon-neutral certification at solar-powered Crewe plant

Bentley Motors' corporate headquarters and main manufacturing facility in Crewe has achieved carbon-neutral certification, with a solar-powered carport, green energy contracts and carbon offsets used to decarbonise the plant.


Bentley achieves carbon-neutral certification at solar-powered Crewe plant

Bentley Motors installed a solar carport at the site

The facility and headquarters in Crewe were certified by Carbon Trust to PAS 2060 carbon neutral standard in early October. The facility is powered by renewable electricity sourced from onsite solar arrays or through purchased green energy contracts.

Gold Standard carbon credits have been purchased to offset unavoidable emissions that occur during the manufacturing process.

Bentley Motors’ chief executive Adrian Hallmark said: “We want to lead the way in delivering sustainable luxury mobility by offering our customers products and services that reflect their own values. We take a responsible approach to the environmental, social and economic impact of our business.”

Earlier this year, Bentley Motors installed a solar carport at the site, consisting of 10,000 solar modules. The array has a 2.7MW capacity covering 1,378 parking spaces. The Crewe site also has 20,815 roof-mounted solar modules installed, creating a total energy capacity of 7.7MW – enough to power 1,750 households.

The Crewe site’s carbon-neutral certification builds into the overall decarbonisation plan of Bentley Motors’ parent company Volkswagen (VW).

The German carmaker has committed to launching at least 70 electric vehicles (EV) models by 2028, as part of its ambition to become ‘climate-neutral’ by 2050.

As it strives to achieve zero-carbon status, VW will source more renewable energy for its manufacturing plants and showrooms, while implementing other low-carbon technologies across its value chain in a bid to halve supply chain emissions by 2025.

It will then introduce an internal carbon price or carbon “tax”, with individual facilities and business departments charged for using non-renewable electricity or heat and for travelling using non-electric road vehicles or by passenger plane. Money raised in this way will be used to pay for external carbon credits, offsetting the carbon equivalent of emissions from these activities.

The Carbon Trust’s head of certification John Newton added: “The Carbon Trust is pleased to certify Bentley’s headquarters and main plant to PAS 2060, demonstrating its climate neutrality. The initiatives that Bentley has undertaken to achieve this certification demonstrate the company’s commitment to becoming more sustainable.”

Low-carbon manufacturing

More companies are now setting carbon-neutral targets for their manufacturing facilities.

Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler has committed to making all cars across the brand’s portfolio carbon-neutral within the next two decades. The commitment will cover the manufacture, use and end-of-life stage for all branded cars initially, with Daimler also committing to work with suppliers in order to spur the creation of carbon-neutral supply chains in the future. 

Audi has also set a similar commitment to ‘climate-neutrality’ – which it defines as having carbon-neutral manufacturing status across all plants by 2030. 

Outside of the automotive industry, cigarette giant Philip Morris International (PMI), last week, announced its intention to make all of its factories carbon neutral by 2030, after its Klaipeda factory in Lithuania reached the status.

Danish brewer Carlsberg’s strategy includes commitments to zero carbon emissions at its breweries and a 30% reduction in its full value chain carbon footprint by 2030.


edie’s net-zero manufacturing report

As the movement towards net-zero carbon takes hold across the commercial sector, this fresh insight report looks at how manufacturing companies are driving forward their own goals.

This insight report on manufacturing is the second in the series investigating how various sectors are radically reducing carbon while enabling and empowering its the supply chain to do the same.

Download the report here.

Matt Mace

Comments (1)

  1. Jonas Van hove says:

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