BMW HELPS TO RAISE AWARENESS FOR WORLD OCEANS DAY
With June 8th being World Oceans Day, BMW is proud to raise awareness by teaming up with Oceana and Washed Ashore. Both of these amazing non-profit organizations work tirelessly to protect, preserve, and raise awareness for the depleting state of our oceans. Oceana is a leader in protecting and restoring marine abundance and biodiversity. Washed Ashore is a non-profit organization devoted to reducing ocean plastic by repurposing ocean pollution into art that brightens communities while raising awareness.
Oceana is a non-profit organization that has protected almost 4 million square miles of ocean and has won over 225 victories for the oceans. Some of these victories include but are not limited to: stopping bottom trawling in sensitive habitat areas of sea turtles, to commercial fishing gear, to protecting over 25,000 square miles of deep-sea coral in New England’s Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine. Oceana’s current campaign focus is trying to protect the most endangered large whales on the planet, the North Atlantic Right Whale. The lack of population is worrisome, with less than 80 breeding females and only about 330 whales in existence.
Washed Ashore has gathered over 60,000 lbs of beach debris and repurposed the pollution into art sculptures that inspire change and spread awareness. Washed Ashore’s mission is to “build and exhibit aesthetically powerful art to educate a global audience about plastic pollution in the ocean and waterways…to spark positive changes in consumer habits”.
BMW has partnered with these fabulous great non-profit organizations to raise awareness while highlighting BMW’s own steps toward a brighter future and cleaner ocean. BMW has released the iX, the fully electric SAV, built in a 100% renewable energy plant. Learn more about the iX and i4 in our in-depth blog post here. The iX is made with sustainable materials, olive leaf tanned leather, and floor coverings and mats from recovered fishing nets. BMW has also contractually agreed with all of their battery cell manufacturers to only use green electricity when producing the fifth-generation of battery cells. With this use of green electricity, over 10 million tons of CO2 are saved within a span of 10 years. In the future, BMW will purchase its cobalt directly from non-industrial Australian and Moroccan mines, ensuring 100% transparency regarding the origin of these key raw materials. BMW will also purchase their lithium directly from the mines in Australia.
BMW has also partnered with BASF SE, a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world, GIZ, a German development company, Samsung SDI and Samsung in Electronics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to create a cross-sector initiative. The goal of this initiative is to improve the conditions in the aforementioned integral cobalt mines. GIZ will test out a 3-year-long project to better the living conditions of these small-scale mines and their communities. If this project is a success, the approach will possibly be implemented long term, transferring to other small, non-industrial mines.
BMW is proud to make waves of awareness for World Oceans Day with a power-team of nonprofits. In conjunction with BMW’s own steps towards a greener future, each year of production has a positive intent or impact on the grand scale of bettering our Earth.
You can donate to Oceana here. Donations to Washed Ashore can be found here! Donations will help with education about plastic pollution and with repurposing the foraged refuse. BMW is encouraging customers to visit their preferred dealer to learn more about the BMW iX, and encouraging customers to visit , a two-story exhibit located at the Grove in Southern California.
