汽车业严防死守的秘密

    长期以来，汽车一直是环保人士眼里破坏环境的恶魔，但现在它正在变得更为环保。最终，汽车巨头们会有足够的商业理由开始生产电动汽车、混合动力车、以及未来将出现的燃料电池汽车。看起来，汽车业可能会给自己树立起一点环保的形象。

    决定环保信誉的因素是哪些？它主要取决于汽车企业减少使用、重复利用及回收各类原材料的能力。目前汽车业在这三个“R”（reduce, reuse, recycle）上其实已经做得很好了，而且它们这么做也已经有很长时间了。比如汽车回收协会（Automotive Recycler's Association）20世纪40年代就成立了。据该协会的一份报告称，美国汽车报废后，零部件有约86%都被回收或重复利用。

    PTC公司是一家帮助客户管理产品生命周期的技术企业。公司首席技术官安德鲁•威特金称：“我不知道还有哪个行业在回收能力上比汽车业做得更好了。”但他又表示，这种回收利用能力并没有让汽车业在环保领域获得什么好名声。为什么呢？为什么汽车企业从来就不大书特书他们的环保回收工作呢？

    汽车企业之所以不在美国大肆宣扬自己的回收利用能力，原因颇多。其中之一就是，使用替代燃料的汽车市场相对来说既新又小。尽管丰田汽车（Toyota）凭借普锐斯（Prius）大获成功，但迄今混合动力车也只占美国年汽车总销量的约3%。

    第二，环保在美国还不算一个真正能打动消费者的卖点。研究咨询公司Business for Social Responsibility咨询服务部门的高级副总裁埃里克•奥尔森表示，丰田在努力运用可持续利用材料来打动人心。比如，丰田汽车的座椅就是用回收材料制成，一些绝缘材料也是用大豆泡沫材料制成。

    奥尔森称：“我开过这类电动车，也看过它使用的材料。但对电动车来说，销量要想从几万辆扩大到上百万辆，光靠车门板上用的大豆泡沫材料肯定不行。”奥尔森表示，在向美国购车人推销时，“对普锐斯来说奏效的一招是丰田努力把这些环保材料包装得很酷，而不是说什么用这些材料是明智的选择。”

    Cars, long the bane of environmentalists, are becoming more earth-friendly. Finally, there is enough of a business case for big car companies to start building electric vehicles, hybrids, and, in the future, fuel cell-powered cars. It looks like the industry might gain some green cred.

    What dictates green credibility? A company's ability to reduce, reuse, and recycle raw materials. The auto industry is actually exceptionally good at these three R's, and it has been for a while. The Automotive Recycler's Association has been around since the 1940s. According to a report from the group, roughly 86% of the material components of U.S. cars are recycled or reused after those cars are off the road.

    "I don't know that there's an industry that's in a better place in terms of recyclability than automotive," says Andrew Wertkin, the chief technology officer at PTC, a technology company that helps clients manage the lifecycles of their products. But the ability to recycle doesn't give the car industry a gold star in the green department, Wertkin says. Why not? Why is auto recycling not a story that the industry tells all the time?

    There are a couple of good reasons car companies are not touting their recycling prowess in the U.S. For one, the market for cars that burn alternative fuels is relatively new and small. For all of Toyota's (TM) success with the Prius, hybrids only make up roughly 3% of the total vehicles sold annually in the U.S.

    Second, in America, green still isn't enough of a selling point to really come into play. Toyota is making impressive efforts on using sustainable materials, says Eric Olson, senior vice president of advisory services at research and consulting firm Business for Social Responsibility. Toyota is using reclaimed materials in seats, for example, and some of the insulation is made out of soy foam.

    "I drive one of these EVs [electric vehicles]," Olson says, "and I do look at that stuff. But for EVs to go from thousands of units to millions of units is not going to be because of soy foam in the door panels." In marketing to U.S. car buyers, Olson says, "the element that does work for the Prius is that they're trying to package it as cool, not even primarily the right thing to do."