MAHLE – Ziyu Zheng – 2024

Summary

During the fellowship at MAHLE Investment (China) Co. Ltd., Ziyu Zheng developed an energy-saving and carbon-reduction manual and estimated the carbon footprint of automotive aluminum pistons, providing actionable strategies to help the company achieve its sustainability goals.

Goals

The main goals were to create a comprehensive manual for energy-saving and carbon reduction to standardize practices across MAHLE’s facilities and to accurately estimate the carbon footprint of automotive aluminum pistons to identify key areas for emission reduction. These efforts were aligned with MAHLE’s targets to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 49% and Scope 3 emissions by 28% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

Solutions

Zheng structured the manual to include six chapters covering water conservation, production energy efficiency, building energy efficiency, green transportation, carbon emissions management, and public participation, while also developing training materials to facilitate its implementation. For the carbon footprint estimation, Zheng modeled emissions across different stages of piston production, from raw material sourcing to manufacturing processes. Zheng also created an Excel tool for future carbon accounting of other aluminum pistons.

Potential Impact

The manual will standardize energy-saving practices across MAHLE’s operations and is expected to help improve energy efficiency by 2% annually. The carbon footprint estimation revealed that with improved material recovery rates, emissions could be reduced by 8.6%, highlighting opportunities for sourcing optimization and process improvements. This work contributes to MAHLE’s commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality, equipping the company with clear strategies and tools to reduce its environmental footprint.