Looking back to the future. 15 years of certified environmental ...

15 years of successful
environmental certification
at Volkswagen.
Solid foundations for our innovative capabilities.
We’ve defined our goal: We aim to be the world’s leading
automaker in terms of both economy and ecology. In other
words we don’t want to just manufacture more cars than our
competitors; we want them to be innovative cars that are efficient
to run and to make. With this in mind, it is important to
ensure that in future we develop each model in such a way
that, in its entirety, it presents better environmental properties
than its predecessor over the full vehicle life cycle. This may be
an ambitious goal but there is no alternative. Because only if
we make ecology and sustainability an integral part of our
approach will we master the challenges of our day and age:
scarce natural resources and climate change, plus traffic
gridlock and air pollution in the ever-growing megacities.
The Volkswagen Group addresses these challenges through
its Strategy 18. At the Volkswagen brand we have taken up
the baton with our Mach 18 plus initiative, which is designed
to pre pare the ground for the electric vehicles of the future.
At the same time we are also channelling our innovative
capabilities into present-day solutions such as BlueMotion
Technologies, TDI, TSI and DSG, which build a bridge to the
personal mo bility of the future. To make sure our technological
bridges stand firm in the future, they need solid foundations –
which is exactly what the Technical Development department’s
en vironmental management system provides. That system has
been certified for 15 years now, which not only sets us apart
from the competition but also takes us a big step down the
road to wards our goal of being a leading automaker in every
respect.
Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg
Consistently pursuing and reaching our goals.
Every new Volkswagen is more environmentally compatible
than its predecessor – across the full automotive life cycle.
This is the ambitious target set by the Board of Management
– a target that we consistently attain.
As Environmental Management Officer for our products, my
goal is to ensure that environmental considerations are integrated
into the development process at the earliest possible
stage. The environmental management system of the Technical
Development department is a great help in that respect, with
its comparative Life Cycle Assessments, materials controlling
and materials documentation that provide us with valuable
information about the environmental impacts of materials and
components. In addition, our environmental sponsors accompany
each vehicle project from the pre-planning stage to the
start of production. They make sure that environmental aspects
are taken into account when decisions are made. In other
words, it is through the environmental management system
that the environmental goals derived from the Volkswagen
Group’s Environmental Principles find their way into our cars.
The findings of regular external audits confirm that this approach
is strategically planned and rigorously observed. In
particular, 15 years of successful certification by the TÜV
NORD inspectorate in line with the environmental standard
EN ISO 14001 (and since 2009 with DIN ISO/TR 14062 as
well) provide impressive proof of the quality and consistency
of our environmental management.
And the great thing about it is, be it at the filling station or in
our Environmental Commendations, the customer benefits
directly from the work we invest in every new Volkswagen.
Günter Damme
Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg,
Member of the Board
of Management of the
Volkswagen Brand
responsible for
Development
Günter Damme
Head of Environment,
Volkswagen Group
and Environmental
Management Officer,
Volkswagen Brand
Foreword
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