Volvo's Clean Inside Clean Outside Philosophy

Volvo's Clean Inside Clean Outside Philosophy

by Glady Reign

It is common knowledge for car enthusiasts that the Swedish brand Volvo is known for the safety of their vehicles. Since the founding of the company 80 years ago, they have made safety their top priority when creating their products. But aside from developing safety features such as the BLIS, ROPS and WHIPS, the company is also devoting their effort to help protect the environment and at the same time provide comfortable and convenient consumer features. This concern for the environment is part of Volvo Cars' Clean Inside Clean Outside philosophy.

Clean Inside means that the development of fabrics, leathers, and other materials used for the interior of Volvo vehicles should be consumer and environment friendly. The company uses consumer friendly fabrics for the seats, carpets, and even safety belts of their vehicles. The OEKO-Tex 100 Textile standard, according to the company's website, is a benchmark used in the European industry. The said standard calls for the use of fabrics, threads, carpets and safety belts which do not have any amount of hazardous substance on it. This is made sure by checking that the process used in the production of the said materials has limited or no use of harmful substance. This step is made to ensure that the occupants of their vehicles will not risk their health by being exposed to the harmful element which could have been present in the said material if the standard was not upheld.

Another part of Volvo Cars' Clean Inside standard is the "Nose Team". According to the Ford Motor Company owned brand, a "Nose Team" tests the smell of the materials used on the interior of every Volvo auto model. This step is to find out whether the materials will be pleasant or not. The team tests these materials under several conditions. Volvo said that they even test the materials' smell after being heated under the sun. This shows how far the company would go to ensure that they will deliver the best vehicles for their consumers.

Under their Clean Outside program, the company is concerned about making their engines produce as little harmful gas emission as possible. With the use of different exhaust filters which treats the exhaust gases, Volvo Cars have reduced the emission of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon emissions by as much as 99 percent.

Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas which is regarded as the most common type of deadly poisoning in many countries. The gas affects the central nervous system and the heart, two of the most vital organs of the human body. The gas can also affect a fetus inside a pregnant woman. Nitrogen oxides are also toxic and contribute heavily to global warming since it is a greenhouse gas. The reduction of these emissions means that Volvo cars can meet the strict emission standard mandated by different countries. In the European Union, a harsher emission standard has already been approved and in the United States, the state of California is known for the strict emission laws.

One concrete evidence of the Clean Outside program for Volvo is the fact that the new Volvo XC90 has already met California's requirements for the ULEV or Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle classification.

Environment friendly vehicles can only be considered green cars if the manner they were produced did not produce substances or emissions which can damage the environment. Volvo is aware of this fact and it has the distinction of having the world's cleanest factory. The said facility is also part of Volvo's Clean Outside program. The company's paint shop in Torslanda, Sweden is given the distinction of being the cleanest factory since 1991. The said factory produces a limited amount of potentially hazardous materials and the company is still working to cut it down. This complements the flex-fuel vehicles that Volvo is producing which are made with high quality Volvo performance parts.

With Ford having clean factories, it is not a surprise that one of its subsidiaries is also working to make their vehicles and production facilities even cleaner.