Bernhard Gehlert, Bosch Automotive Blaj: “Electrification is a great way of reducing emissions by using green energy”

“For Bosch it’s very important to support the Green Deal with a target of net zero emissions by 2050. It’s important for us because the management made a very bold decision to be carbon neutral. Since 2020, we have 400 locations worldwide with a carbon-neutral footprint. That’s a very bold step from an economic perspective, but also an expensive one. This shows our commitment towards stopping climate change and on meeting the Paris Agreement goals,“ Bernhard Gehlert, Senior Vice President, Commercial Director, Bosch Automotive Blaj said during Sustainability Forum 2022 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“There are still things to do. We have to invest in technologies which enable us to reduce consumption and also generate green electricity on our premises. This might not be sufficient to be carbon neutral. We have to rethink the entire supply chain. We have to think more about the impact of our products while they are used by our customers. Therefore, it’s very important that we monitor the whole supply chain and by 2030 we want to reduce carbon emissions throughout our whole value chain, from purchasing to sales by further 15 percent. That’s a great effort, and it’s a necessary contribution to support this goal.

The UE is a role-model for the whole world on how this transition can be managed. It takes a lot of effort to encourage everyone to stick to the rules and regulations which will be in place. I think this is a great opportunity for the rest of the world to follow this approach and implement maybe similar activities.

Talking about products, electrification is the fastest way to reduce carbon emissions during the lifetime of the products. Electrification is a great way of reducing emissions by using green energy.

We also believe hydrogen is a complementary technology to electrification. Both together could be one of the solutions for the future to make our products more sustainable.

Hydrogen is a new technology and that means it will take some time for products to come to the market. Research is ongoing and the design of future products is in the making. This requires huge investments and a clear strategy.

The power of technology helps to keep current living standards and have a plurality of different solutions. We need different solutions and a competition between them so that time will tell which one is the best.

Therefore, we don’t want to put all efforts in one technology. We must cover a certain range of technologies where we believe they have the biggest potential to solve the biggest problems the humanity is facing.

In Romania we have production locations and development centres. We already implemented a lot of measures to reduce energy consumption because energy consumption is expensive. It’s a surprise to see how much potential companies have to reduce consumption.“

Full recording of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5TZ1M3tQnY