Benefits for Society
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a relatively new term for the responsibility a company assumes for society, its employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. For Autoliv, CSR is not new; it is what our business has always been about, because saving lives and reducing traffic injuries is our business mission.
Several studies have shown that automotive safety systems such as seatbelts and airbags are very cost-efficient for societies. One of the most thorough studies was made in 2000 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) based on data from the United States.
According to this study ("The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000"), seatbelts that year saved nearly 12,000 lives in the U.S. alone. In addition, they prevented approximately 325,000 injuries – varying in severity from minor to critical (i.e. from AIS 1 to AIS 5 in the generally accepted "Abbreviated Injury Scale"). Consequently, seatbelts make a very significant contribution to reducing human suffering.
In addition, seatbelts saved billions of dollars in medical costs, productivity, insurance payments, legal costs, etc. NHTSA estimates these direct cost savings to be nearly $1 million for each life saved, while the cost savings from injuries vary from $5,941 for each minor injury to more than $1 million for each critical injury that is avoided (see table). These direct savings add up to almost $50 billion.
Since Autoliv in 2000 accounted for 20% of the U.S. seatbelt market, the Company's contribution to these savings was approximately $10 billion, which should be compared with the Company's sales of seatbelts in the U.S., which were $260 million in 2000. This would indicate that the cost savings to the U.S. society could be nearly 40 times as much as the society's cost for our seatbelts.
This calculation does not include the cost for installing belts in vehicles (which does not involve us as a supplier). In addition, the calculation only reflects direct savings such as reduced medical costs but does not include savings from eliminated pain and suffering of injuries and fatalities. Since NHTSA estimates these "quality of life savings" to amount to nearly $2.4 million per life saved, there is enough margin to cover the installation costs and to draw the conclusion that the cost advantages for societies from Autoliv's seatbelts are substantial.
Generally, the savings impact of each additional safety system is less, because seatbelts – i.e. the primary mode of protection – have already eliminated the most pressing needs.
As to frontal airbags, NHTSA estimates (in "Lives Saved by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Other Vehicle Safety Technologies, 1960-2002"), that these airbags reduced fatalities by 12% in 2002 and serious to critical injuries (i.e. AIS 3-5) by 15%.
As to side airbags, NHTSA has recently proposed new regulations for side impact tests. In its proposal, NHTSA estimates the net benefit (i.e. savings minus costs) to society to range between $200 million and $1.5 billion annually. The wide range reflects the difficulties in foreseeing which safety product, or products, will be used to meet the test criteria and how many vehicles will already have them by September 2011, when the proposed law is intended to apply to all new vehicles.
Estimated Savings for the U.S. Society from Seatbelt Usage
 AIS1)Cost/injuryNo. of injuries preventedSavings in millions
Minor1$5,941N/AN/A
Moderate2$62,020233,365$14,470
Serious3$178,35867,387$12,020
Severe4$337,30119,006$6,402
Critical5$1,077,5675,065$5,458
Fatal6$957,78711,889$11,387
Total  335,712$49,737
1) Abbreviated injury scale.
Source: "The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000" from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Autoliv.
Environment - A Competitive Tool
Environment
Our environmental management goes beyond the legal requirements, since recyclable and environmentally friendly products are a competitive tool in the automotive industry.
Our environmental management is based on analysis of the entire lifecycle of our products. This is important since the environmental impact from using a product or producing its raw materials could be much greater than the impact from the product's manufacturing and assembling process. For Autoliv's products this is typically the case.
Most of our products are produced from steel and other metals, or plastics and other oil-based materials. The products are installed in vehicles where their weight will affect the fuel consumption and emissions during the long life of the vehicle. Our products could also affect the environment when the vehicle is scrapped, if due attention is not paid to the material selection.
As a result, we focus on all phases of a product's life, and not only on the manufacturing phase that, in our case, is the phase that has the least environmental impact. In effect, the environmental effects from most of our plants are so low that they can be compared with the effects from service companies (see graph).
Before manufacturing
The most important contribution we can make to the environment is to redesign and develop environmentally friendly safety systems of low weight. Our latest passenger airbag has 40% less weight than the previous product generation. Our latest buckle pretensioner has 70% less weight than the first generation. These two examples alone save 20,000 tons annually (mainly steel) and lead to a corresponding environmental improvement in our supply chain.
We will drive this trend on by continuously making our products smaller and lighter.
We also work closely with our suppliers in several other respects and encourage them to implement an international environmental management standard, preferably ISO 14001. We also require them to adhere to our environmental policy.
Internal improvements
It is our policy that every Autoliv facility be certified according to ISO 14001. At the end of 2005, certified plants accounted for almost 100% of our revenues (see graph). The few remaining plants are essentially new manufacturing facilities that have not yet been certified.
Our plants monitor relevant environmental factors, such as energy consumption, water consumption and freight (see graph).
Since the environmental impact from our manufacturing process is low, we focus on reducing freight and packaging materials, where we have the highest savings potentials.
After delivery
We actively support our customers in their environmental programs. We are, for instance, represented in the Ford Supplier Sustainability Forum together with ten other leading Ford suppliers who have a track record of being at the forefront of environmental management.
The most significant contribution we can make to our customers' environmental targets is to continue to reduce the weight of our products, thereby reducing vehicles' energy consumption and emission. This will help meet the vehicle industry's new commitment that carbon dioxide emissions in Europe should be reduced by 30% in new vehicles.
The European directive End of Life of Vehicle (ELV) requires that 85% of the material in all new vehicle models should be recoverable by 2006 and 95% should be recoverable by 2015.
Although the ELV does not specify recovering levels for individual car components (such as airbags) but only states the recovery levels for the whole vehicle, we will make sure that our products will contribute to meeting these standards.
The EU-directive also bans the use of hazardous substances such as lead. Currently, some of our igniters for airbags contain lead (less than one-hundredth of a gram). These igniters will be phased out within the required time limit.
IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE
From the levels recorded in 2000, a typical Autoliv plant has reduced its energy and water consumption in relation to sales to 70% and 60%, respectively. Transportation has become more than 25% more efficient than in 2000.
soon at 100%
At the end of 2005, 85% of Autoliv's facilities had been certified to ISO 14001, an international environmental management standard. These facilities account for almost 100% of consolidated sales.
"green" as A BANK
In relation to sales, the carbon dioxide emission from a typical Autoliv assembly plant is seven to ten times less than from most manufacturing plants in engineering companies. In fact, the emission levels are comparable to the emissions of a bank or other service company. The comparison is based on an index that Folksam, a Swedish insurance company, has developed.