RECYCLING
UL VALIDATION OF DIEHARD BATTERIES EXPANDS For more than 50 years, DieHard has been one of the automotive industry’s most recognizable brands. 1 Known for reliability and durability, DieHard also contributes to Advance’s environmental sustainability programs, as evidenced by DieHard’s AGM batteries receiving circular economy validation by UL. During the validation process, UL determined that 94% of the materials in new batteries are from batteries collected at Advance and Carquest retail stores, significantly reducing the environmental impact and resources needed to manufacture new plastics or mine for virgin lead. We believe this level of understanding about the full lifecycle of one of our largest owned brands is a competitive advantage for Advance. RESPONSIBLE BATTERY COALITION Advance continued its participation as a founding member of the Responsible Battery Coalition (RBC), an organization committed to advancing best practices for managing all batteries from production to recycling. Throughout the year, we collaborated with the RBC to support its efforts to drive awareness of the recyclability of lead-acid batteries and incentivize consumers to return used batteries to participating Advance and Carquest stores. In addition, as part of our membership, we supported the following RBC programs: • Battery recovery in some of Alaska’s most remote communities, where the RBC and its partners in the Backhaul Alaska program provided shipping and recycling services at no cost to the program. In 2021, the program recovered over 100,000 pounds of batteries that resulted in $20,558 worth of materials that RBC invested back into the Backhaul program.
• Solid waste cleanup efforts through the RBC’s sponsorship of Living Lands & Waters (LL&W), an organization committed to the protection, preservation and restoration of the natural environment of the nation’s major rivers and watersheds. Since its inception in 1998, LL&W conducted 1,291 river cleanups in 21 states, collecting nearly 13 million pounds of trash, which included vehicles, engines and batteries that were improperly dumped in the nation’s rivers. • A study with the University of Michigan that researched best practices to reduce emissions and optimize battery service life of fleet vehicles found that electric and hybrid fleets are lower in emissions and over time are less expensive to operate than diesel-powered fleets. Additionally, battery charging times and duration had a direct impact on the emissions associated with fleet operations.
1 Advance Auto Parts, DieHard ® Announce Industry-First Auto Battery UL Validation | Business Wire
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2022 ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL REPORT | 44
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