Environmental threats and their impacts on the automotive industry

This paper discusses possible scenarios of environmental threats and the way they can impact on the automobile industry. This industrial sector is usually associated with high rates of raw material consumption and pollution during the production process, added to which road vehicles are consistently targets of criticism because of their emissions, involvement in accidents, the cause of noise and so on. This paper presents a reverse perspective of this
subject, i.e., how can environmental threats affect some of the largest manufacturing enterprises of the World? We conceptualise environmental threat as any aspect of the natural environment that might negatively affect an organisation for running its operations, including the implication of those aspects. Hence, economic and social consequences that are derived
from environmental threats are also considered. To put it in other words, the discussion of each environmental threat could explore implications in terms of regulation, technology, culture and economy. The methodology used in this the paper is scenario building. Based on various institutional reports and scientific papers, scenarios were built for evaluation of possible threats for the automotive industry. So far, we could raise the following assumptions regarding the environmental threats: (1) pressure for reduction of plant emissions, (2) raw
material shortage, (3) energy and oil security, (4) engine emissions control, (5) traffic control, and (6) need for product recovery. The set of criteria was adapted from a suggestion of ISO 14004 for environmental impact assessment. Thus, to assess these possible threats, 3 criteria were used: timescale, likelihood and severity of the environmental threat. The results show that energy and oil security, engine emissions control and need for product recovery should
be prioritised. The limitation of this work is first its theoretical background, and second, its generic approach that does not consider how different contexts could modify the strength of each threat for a specific company. It is proposed to supplement this analysis with a survey based empirical study to help organisations prevent future damage to their business and stimulate proactive behaviour of society towards higher levels of sustainability.