How would you assess the importance of green economic development for Bosch Vietnam’s business activities?

The green economy is an economic model based on sustainable development. Sustainability is already an integral part of our corporate culture, which has made Bosch a successful and high-performing organization for over 136 years, an employer of choice, and a partner of society. There are many examples in Bosch’s history that demonstrate the power of this culture. Combining the creativity of individuals with the innovative strength of many enables the creation of future-proof solutions, for the environment and society, for people today, and for future generations.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and stopping it is a task for society as a whole. We see this not only as an obligation but also as a source of numerous opportunities for Bosch to contribute to climate action with novel technologies and solutions that stand the test of time. Moreover, we want to make a relevant contribution to overcoming global social challenges and are therefore involved in numerous joint initiatives. For instance, the Bosch Group has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact since 2004.

In 2020, Bosch became the world’s first large industrial company to achieve carbon neutrality across all of its sites, of which there are 400. Moreover, as a technology company, we also see it as our strategic imperative to find technological responses to societal and ecological challenges, and our teams of software engineers are writing code that will improve how we manage energy and natural resources.

What are the company’s plans regarding sustainable development?

Sustainability has been defined as a central task within the Bosch Group. The goals are set jointly and tackled by all business sectors together, on the basis of systematic sustainability management. The content, tasks, and related control are anchored in the company’s processes, while clear responsibilities and decision-making channels ensure that our actions are effective.

Our “New Dimensions - Sustainability 2025” target vision describes six fundamental dimensions, each of which is specified and continuously elaborated upon with reference to two focus activities with clearly-defined medium-term targets. Derived from the megatrends affecting our company and the findings of our materiality analysis, the dimensions set the framework for our actions. Our sustainability activities always consider the entire value chain, from materials and goods purchasing or manufacturing operations at Bosch sites to the use phase of products to their end of life.

We are driving the development and application of a broad range of technologies to help us deliver on the slogan “Invented for life”. We continue to be fully committed to the hydrogen economy, for instance, and are investing in solutions ranging from hydrogen-ready boilers to stationary and mobile fuel-cell solutions.

Our advances in these fields will help boost sustainable living as well as sustainable mobility. By combining the Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity with artificial intelligence (AI) - a fusion also known as AIoT - we can smarten up everything from home appliances to entire manufacturing facilities and reduce carbon footprints substantially. Our global forests can benefit from this technology too: an exciting addition to our portfolio is an AI-powered, tree-mounted sensor that identifies wildfires at an extremely early stage and wirelessly notifies authorities, thus helping to save lives, homes, and tons of carbon emissions.

Regarding our operations in Vietnam, all locations of Bosch Vietnam have achieved carbon neutrality since 2020. We are conducting a project on photovoltaic system installation at our plant in southern Dong Nai province, with a capacity of 1,540 KWp, which will be completed very soon and provide more clean power for our operations. We also installed a Bosch Air Quality Monitoring box in our plant, to track and measure all key indicators on air to ensure we are providing a clean, green working environment for our associates.

We also reduce our carbon footprint by implementing a project on the circular economy, such as returnable packaging, developing new packaging from recycled materials for Bosch power tool products, and applying new technology for saving electricity, water, and resources for Bosch Home Appliances products.

What challenges will the company face in “going green”?

The automotive industry is going through fundamental disruption that also presents considerable challenges for Bosch. The following comparison illustrates the implications of technological change in the context of more sustainable mobility: while it takes ten associates to manufacture a diesel injection system, only three are needed to manufacture a gasoline injection system and only one for an electric drive. Challenging economic trends also leave Bosch with no choice but to adjust its workforce. Our objective is to make this transition in as socially-acceptable a manner as possible and consistent with our people strategy.

Since 2020, the Bosch Group, with more than 400 locations worldwide, has been carbon neutral (Scopes 1 and 2) - the first global industrial enterprise to achieve this. As pleased as we were to do so, we do not see it as the end of the road in our climate action efforts. While we continue to improve existing measures, such as further increasing our energy efficiency and minimizing our use of carbon offsets, we are now also actively tackling our Scope 3 emissions.

Here, we are working to reduce emissions generated along our supply chains and during the entire lifecycle of our products by 15 per cent in absolute terms by 2030. Roughly 90 per cent of Scope 3 emissions are produced in the product use phase, partly due to our products’ long service lives.

With its Scope 3 targets, Bosch has deliberately set itself a very ambitious goal as this climate action lever is particularly significant: upstream and downstream emissions. We still have a long way to go and many challenges ahead. But we firmly believe that with our product range, we are making an important contribution in this respect while pursuing a holistic approach at the same time.

What do you think about the support from the Vietnamese Government for businesses to strengthen their green development?

We greatly appreciate the government’s commitment to green development, as demonstrated by the target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 it committed to at COP 26 in November 2021. In order to realize this goal, we recommend the government:

- Develop a transparent and consistent regulatory framework to ensure a favorable environment for green businesses, especially with regard to (renewable) energy.

- Focus on human capital development, which is necessary and attractive for green investments.

- Encourage green technology innovation with incentives and innovative finance.