Environment

For all our products and mobility solutions we aspire to minimize environmental impacts along the entire lifecycle – from raw material extraction until end-of-life - in order to keep ecosystems intact and to create positive impacts on society. Compliance with environmental regulations, standards and voluntary commitments is a basic prerequisite of our actions. Learn more about our Mission Statement Environment at: volkswagenag.com/en/sustainability/environment/mission-statement.html

• Mission Statement Environment

Based on the Mission Statement Environment, the Group Environmental Policy Statement sets out our commitment to become an environmental role model outlined in a preamble and five central principles:

• leadership conduct,
• compliance with legal and regulatory requirements,
• environmental protection,
• collaboration with stakeholders,
• continual improvement.

Hereby, we set a clear scope of action and outline our position on environmental protection. The implementation of the policy occurs through internal organisational policies and regulations.

• Group Environmental Policy Statement
• Environmental Policy Statement of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft

As our partner we kindly ask you to implement the principles and actions from our mission and policy in your own company and support us in becoming an environmental role model!

The brands and entities of the Volkswagen Group develop their own individual environmental policies, which are in line with the framework set by the Group. Please find further information following these links:

Due to the shift towards electrific mobility, the emissions we cause move away from the use phase to the production and supply chain. Therefore, we focus specifically on decarbonising our supply chain.

In order to encourage measures for reducing greenhouse gas among suppliers, we identify the greatest sources of emissions along the supply chain on the basis of our vehicles’ life cycle assessment data. Building on a hotspot analysis, joint roadmaps were developed in numerous workshops with suppliers from relevant industries in order to coordinate and pursue objectives and measures for CO2 reduction.

The biggest driver of emissions in the supply chain for electric mobility is the HV battery cell. We have therefore made the use of renewable energies for the production of our HV battery cells a contractual requirement. Together with our strategic HV battery cell suppliers, we work on reducing CO2 emissions in their production as well as in sub-components. Furthermore, due to the energy-intense production, all larger aluminum parts are a special focus of our work. With measures like the use of green energy in aluminum production or the use of recycled secondary material, the CO2 emissions of the primary material is minimized. Additionally, a closed-loop system is in place in multiple European sites, which collects scrapped sheet metal and leads it back to aluminum suppliers.

Further material such as steel, plastics and natural rubber are part of our Group-wide decarbonization roadmap, which entails all implemented and planned measures. It furthermore incorporates the brands and multiple departments of Volkswagen Group, which coordinate an efficient implementation of outlined measures. The impact of the measures of reducing CO2 emissions is considered in the "Decarbonization Index" (DKI), which serves as key performance indicator in our strategy "Together 2025", outlining the goal to becoming a leading provider of sustainable mobility worldwide.

• Further information on the Group decarbonisation programme