Sustainable Raw Materials for the German Automobile Sector Extraction of metallic raw materials entails environmental and social challenges. Germany only has few raw material deposits, so that German automotive companies depend on imports to cover their demands. This leads to a variety of social and ecological challenges. Civil society and political decision makers have been urging transnational corporations to take responsibility and tackle these challenges along the entire value chains of their products. This project explores how German automotive companies can do so. Raw material demand of the German automotive sector Value chains in the automotive sector are complex. Companies deal with several thousand suppliers and adapt constantly to new technological innovations, which in turn impact the supply chain. German automotive companies depend to a high level on metallic raw materials in order to produce the high numbers of automobiles (in 2013, that number was 5 million). Estimates show that the automotive sector in Germany uses about 30 percent of aluminium, about 15 percent of lead, 13 of steel and 12 of total copper imported to Germany. Within the framework of the project “Sustainable Extraction of Raw Materials and Raw Material Efficiency through Sustainable Consumption in the Automobile Sector“, the CSCP in collaboration with its project partners Südwind Institute e.V. and Global Nature Fund (GNF) identified social and environmental challenges related to different metals used by automotive companies in Germany and, together with stakeholders from the sector, discussed possible measures for improvements. The objective of the project was to encourage the automotive sector to increase their performance concerning environmental and social aspects of raw material extraction and inform and sensitise the end consumers to the impacts of mining and extraction in the countries of origin. The output of the project is the study “Sustainable Raw Materials for the German Automotive Sector: Challenges and Solutions”, which describes major challenges and possible measures for the automotive companies to tackle these challenges, which can be downloaded below. Central findings of the study were discussed in the framework of a multi-stakeholder event bringing together relevant actors from the German automotive sector, such as companies, civil society and representatives from political institutions. Challenges related to raw material extraction and possible solutions The study found social and environmental challenges related to the extraction of metallic raw materials used in cars. In the environmental dimension, water and energy use, emissions into water and air or the loss of biodiversity are major problems related to the extraction of metallic raw materials. In the social dimension, working conditions, insufficient health and safety conditions, low payments or land grabbing are associated with resource extraction. The study also outlines already existing best practices and initiatives, which might help to lower negative impacts in the environmental and/or social dimension and improve sustainability performance of the sector. This also includes initiatives from other sectors such as the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) or the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). Their experience might be transferrable to the automotive sector. Several fields of action were identified where the German automotive sector shows potential to improve its sustainability performance related to its metallic metals procurement: Accept responsibility for the entire value chain, Increase transparency Foster cooperation for sustainability Design even more environmental friendly designs Invest and promote more resource efficient mobility concepts. The project has shown that, although value chains are highly complex in the automotive sector, there are leverage points and existing practices German automotive companies could take up to further reduce environmental and social risks related to their value chains and make their operations more sustainable. Project partners were Südwind Institute e.V. and Global Nature Fund (GNF). The project was funded by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA).