CAFE

The 2008 Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes have been released, and the Automobiles crown goes to Miss Germany: BMW. The report is labyrinthine and multi-partite, so I’ll try to break down the auto section to give GoodGreenCars readers an idea of what makes BMW so sustainable.

The review is produced annually by Dow Jones Indexes and SAM, a sustainability investment specialist. They analyze corporate economic (i.e., risk management), environmental (climate change mitigation), and social performance (labor practices) in 57 industries. BMW scored well enough in all three categories to be the leader in the Automobiles sector.

SAM and the DSJI aren’t in it for the love — they’re in it for the money. And the money says that investors are demanding sustainable practices from industries.

But this is not an endorsement of BMW vehicles as particularly green. The popular 3-series gets about 21 mpg combined and emits a middle-of-the-road 8-9 tons of CO2 annually, while the company’s MINI lineup is rated at 29 mpg and 6.3 tons of CO2 annually. At the other end of the spectrum, the top-of-the-line M6 gets 13 mpg and releases 14.1 tons of CO2 annually (it also starts at $101,000).

BMW has complained loudly about how difficult it will be for it to meet the new CAFE standards in the U.S., and has paid millions in fines for CAFE violations in the past few years. So while their manufacturing processes may be sustainable enough for the Dow Jones, they’re a little lacking where the rubber meets the road.

The government released its latest fuel economy numbers, and one company was clearly at the head of the class. Telsa Motors, builders of the all-electric Roadster, rated a corporation-wide fuel economy of 244 mpg. The federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard is currently 27.5, so Tesla left that figure in the dust.

2008 models across the board, though, only rated 26.8. In 2007, the overall rating was 26.6, so that’s not a big improvement.

Analysts say the feds need to figure out a more fair way of comparing alternative-fuel vehicles to their conventional, gasoline-powered counterparts. The numbers are pretty revealing as they are, though. Handicapping EVs and other vehicles running on more efficient fuels to make the combustion engine look better seems misleading.

Tesla isn’t worried, obviously. They plan on selling their surplus CAFE credits as soon as they’re allowed to trade them with lower-scoring auto manufactuers.

In other Tesla news, the production line is cranking out Roadsters, after a fashion. There are 27 being assembled as of July 12, with a goal of 100 a month being produced by December of this year. The company has also opened its second store, this one in the San Francisco Bay area, with another four to come in the near future.

Image courtesy of Tesla (and the car is a different color! Not red!).