BMW Group: harnessing green power from the pastures

When it comes to building cars, sustainability is a major consideration for the BMW Group. Electric vehicles, in particular, should meet this standard throughout planning and production, as well as during their use phase.

Every BMW electric vehicle must deliver a better carbon footprint throughout its lifecycle than a comparable vehicle with a conventional drive train – from procurement of raw materials, to supply chain and production, to the use phase and recycling. Through a partnership with the Straus Organic Dairy Farm, the BMW Group is now taking sustainability to the next level: using green power to drive its vehicles and, at the same time, reduce agricultural greenhouse gases.

The Straus Organic Dairy Farm, a family firm founded in Marshall, California in 1994, is committed to producing high-quality, minimally-processed organic milk products. As the first 100% certified organic dairy in the US, its biogas plant traps methane from cow dung and converts it into electricity with an excellent greenhouse gas balance – because methane emissions are 20 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. The energy generated is fed into the public power grid, replacing the need for fossil fuels.

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Dairy Farm, electric BMW and MINIs can be charged using environmentally friendly green electricity. The collaboration will reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, provide drivers of electric vehicles with the cleanest fuel possible. The goal for the years ahead is to meet the energy needs of all electric BMW and MINI vehicles in the US state of California with renewable energies.

“This collaboration is the first of its kind in the auto industry,” said Bernhard Kuhnt, President and CEO, BMW North America. “It is a perfect fit for the BMW Group, which has long valued creative technologies and partnerships that can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”