14 Dec 2023

Circulor proves end-to-end traceability of SQM’s lithium to Volvo Cars

Ellen Carey, Circulor’s Chief External Affairs Officer, highlights Circulor’s capabilities in tracing materials from source to the final product.

Why is supply chain traceability important?

Increasing global regulation and legislation (for example, the EU’s Battery Regulation), combined with geopolitical uncertainties and the climate crisis, are creating multiple concerns for industry and manufacturing.

Supply chain risks, compliance, and conducting business with more accountability are headline challenges for major industries including mining, automotive, and energy. Manufacturers are now responsible for the activity in their supply chains. For businesses, what happens in their supply chain really matters, and a lack of visibility creates significant risk.

Furthermore, massive economic stimulus for near-shoring and friend-shoring in critical industries, especially the energy transition (for example, the Inflation Reduction Act in the USA), is driving change. Accessing these incentives is predicated on businesses proving activity, greenhouse gas emissions, and recycled content volumes.

In addition to consumers preferring to transact with companies with strong ESG credentials, there are currently more than 600 ESG global reporting requirements, many with different interpretations and requirements, and these are only growing. To meet these reporting requirements, companies need auditable visibility of their supply chains – and this is where Circulor has the answer.

Circulor is an enterprise software solution which uses a proprietary software stack and blockchain technology to track every step of the world’s most complex industrial supply chains. It is the most mature and complete supply chain traceability solution available, with a particular focus on traceability for battery minerals and other materials that make the clean energy transition possible.

Working with SQM and Volvo Cars

Circulor has been working with SQM, the world’s largest lithium producer based in Chile, and Volvo Cars. SQM’s Salar de Atacama mine recently became the world’s first lithium operation to achieve IRMA 75 with IRMA being the most comprehensive, rigorous, and transparent mining standard in the world. The IRMA audit approach evaluates operations across 26 areas, including water management, human rights, greenhouse gas emission, and fair labor, among others.

Using its PROVE platform, which combines Compliance and Material Traceability solutions, Circulor is able to authenticate the lithium as IRMA 75, connecting the IRMA audit report of SQM’s Salar de Atacama operation with the flow of material and assuring its incorporation into specific battery cells and packs in Volvo Cars.

Why this matters

For SQM, connecting its IRMA audit and performance metrics with its flow of materials, SQM’s investment and commitment to sustainable, responsible, and transparent production is differentiated within supply chains and with downstream customers.

For Volvo Cars, which started its supply chain transparency journey five years ago through its partnership with Circulor, it demonstrates that the company is sourcing sustainable, responsible, and transparent lithium, as audited by IRMA.

For Circulor, we are very proud to be involved in a first-ever for the industry and bringing together credible third-party audits with material traceability will change the game in terms of how we evaluate the responsibility and sustainability of our supply chains and products.

Read more about the partnership between Circulor, SQM and Volvo Cars here.

ABOUT CIRCULOR:

Circulor gives organizations full visibility of their supply chains. The London-based company offers the most mature, proven, and complete technology software solution available to track materials with high environmental and human rights impacts as they change state within manufacturing and recycling supply chains. With Circulor, businesses can follow the physical flow of critical materials from extraction to final production, as well as associated ESG characteristics and embedded carbon across Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The tech company was founded in 2017 in the UK, with offices in the US, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, and Australia. The company has been named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, Global Cleantech 100, and won DIGITALEUROPE’s 2022 Future Unicorn Award.

techUK - Committed to Climate Action

Visit our Climate Action Hub to learn more or to register for regular updates.

By 2030, digital technology can cut global emissions by 15%. Cloud computing, 5G, AI and IoT have the potential to support dramatic reductions in carbon emissions in sectors such as transport, agriculture, and manufacturing. techUK is working to foster the right policy framework and leadership so we can all play our part. For more information on how techUK can support you, please visit our Climate Action Hub and click ‘contact us’.