{"id":8274,"date":"2016-11-03T18:04:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T22:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/why-is-volkswagen-investing-1bn-in-renewable-energy\/"},"modified":"2016-11-03T18:04:15","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T22:04:15","slug":"why-is-volkswagen-investing-1bn-in-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/why-is-volkswagen-investing-1bn-in-renewable-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Volkswagen investing 1Bn in renewable energy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Volkswagen currently doing to tackle climate change risks?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the key consequences of climate change is an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires. Resources such as water become scarcer and pricier thus causing volatility in<\/strong>\u00a0input availability and input prices<\/strong>\u00a0for manufacturers and service providers that require those resources for the flow of business. Also, to tackle climate change, regulations are put in place to limit the usage of fossil fuels and other heavy carbon fuels thus increasing the cost of energy usage and even sometimes restricting the usage of certain type of fuels<\/strong> which could disrupt the operations of businesses.<\/p>\n

One of these businesses is Volkswagen<\/strong>, and an input price volatility risk it faces is rising fossil fuel prices<\/strong> which are highly used across its production facilities. Regulations that limit the usage of fossil fuels or impose a minimum requirement of clean energy risk to be stipulated as well. To mitigate those risks, Volkswagen is heavily investing in renewable energy (~1 Bn) and is targeting to power its production factories solely using on-site production.<\/p>\n

With awareness on climate change and its detrimental consequences increasing continually, consumers are more and more demanding from companies and thus more and more selective about their products and the source of their products. Major changes in demand<\/strong> are witnessed in several industries including the car industry where consumers are asking\/expected to ask for more sustainable cars. In response to that, Volkswagen plans to spend $11.2 billion to create more than 30 electric car models by 2025, develop autonomous vehicles and move into the ride-hailing business.<\/p>\n

Other climate change risks Volkswagen should be mitigating:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides the risk of rising fossil fuel prices, Volkswagen should assess the availability risk of all other inputs necessary to build its cars<\/strong>. Any input that is mainly sourced from a single location should be flagged and questions should be raised around how prone the geographical area is to natural disasters thus impacting availability of the resource and what should be done to minimize risk and avoid interruption of production schedules. By using the help of climate modelers Volkswagen should thus forecast impact of climate change in all the geographies that play a major role in its supply chain and unveil which parts of the business are vulnerable and put in place preemptive strategies.<\/p>\n

Also, beyond input availability and input price variance risks, Volkswagen should assess the potential risk of complete disruption of operations in its manufacturing plants due to natural disaster potentially destroying complete factories<\/strong>. Although historically none of the location where Volkswagen factories are located have been hit by such a disaster this does not discount it from happening in the future specially if emissions and hence climate change are not controlled. Its factories whether in China, India or Germany could be hit by natural disasters leading to major losses. The recommended solution is to develop in-house natural disaster prediction software or outsource it and based on results build appropriate preemptive strategies.<\/p>\n

Finally, a major risk that Volkswagen is especially prone to (given the emission scandal: Volkswagen was caught in taking fraudulent measures to manipulate in its favor emission tests done on its cars) Is reputation risk<\/strong>. With climate change and its effect being one of the main concerns of all people around the world today, all eyes are open on sustainability. Volkswagen should put down a strategy that aims to fix its reputation, and even heighten the reputation of the firm on this front in order to maximize market share in a world of \u201csustainability caring\u201d consumers.<\/p>\n

Word count: 601<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/span><\/p>\n

Los Angeles Times: \u201cAfter emissions cheating scandal, Volkswagen steers toward electric vehicles\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian: \u201cVolkswagen’s lost opportunity will change the car industry\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinsey&Company: \u201cHow companies can adapt to climate change?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How climate change, related regulations and changes in consumer behaviors\/demands are creating all sort of new risks on manufacturers such as Volkswagen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1095,1372,185,302],"class_list":["post-8274","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","hentry","category-car-maker","category-manufacuring","category-renewable-energy","category-volkswagen"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/climate-change-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\nWhy is Volkswagen investing 1Bn in renewable energy? - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/why-is-volkswagen-investing-1bn-in-renewable-energy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why is Volkswagen investing 1Bn in renewable energy? 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