Fredrika Klarén doesn’t pull her punches.
As the head of sustainability for Polestar, Klarén’s job is to push boundaries in the automotive business, occasionally pushing people out of their comfort zone.
That includes the global mining industry, which she says is “notorious for corruption”.
“I think it’s the most corrupt industry in the world … with human rights violations, child rights violations, and so on,” she says.
“It’s so important that we have a chain of custody that is immutable, that no one can tamper with and that’s where blockchain comes in.”
Blockchain is a shared ledger that records transactions and tracks assets in a business network.
Polestar’s environmental expert says Australian mining companies need to embrace digital evidence that proves raw material used for electric car batteries comes from socially responsible mines where child labour is not used.
And the electric vehicle executive says Australia has the potential to cement its place as a leader for sustainably sourced materials needed to make complex batteries.
Australia is the third highest producer of cobalt and has the second largest reserves of the precious metal, which is needed for the production of the lithium ion batteries used in many electric cars.
The Democratic Republic of Congo produces the vast majority of the world’s cobalt, but has been plagued by human rights issues, including the use of child labour in mines.
“I know that you’re doing so much in the mining sector, in Australia in terms of environmental stewardship, and also social issues,” Klarén says.
“You can really be a provider of ethically sourced [material] … [though] you still need to prove that it comes from Australia.”
While she had praise for our mining industry, Klaren was less impressed with the progress of the country’s transition to electric vehicles.
Visiting Australia on a working holiday, she said she had not bought petrol for a decade, but that it was “very telling that I had to do that in Australia”.
Polestar aims to sell cars with net zero emissions by 2030, promising to include every element of the car and its production and transport in that figure.
It hopes to do so without buying carbon offset credits, a notion Klarén dismisses as “a greenwashing monster”.
“If you plant trees it’s going to take decades before they capture the CO2,” she says.
“We don’t have time.”
The forthright executive says hybrid cars have no future at Polestar as “you’re still putting gasoline in the car”.
And while folks with “all kinds of sizes of wallets” can choose green cars, Klarén says wealthy people have a particularly responsibility to shun petrol, diesel and hybrid machines.
“People with money needs to finance this change,” she says.
“They need to be early adopters, they need to invest in this so that it can be scaled and delivered to many people.
“I see it more of a responsibility than a privilege.”
But the Polestar executive concedes that “shaming is never a good tool”, particularly when trying to motivate customers to spend serious money on a new car.
“I want to empower and enthuse them,” she says.
“It’s so important that we move away from sustainable solutions being ‘less’, ‘boring’, a huge step back for consumers.
“That’s why I’m excited to work at a performance car company. We get to do things within that scope that are innovative, exciting and very needed.”
