Environment

As a global leader in the development, production and distribution of motor vehicles and mobility services, the Volkswagen Group has committed itself to become a leading provider of sustainable mobility and a role model for protecting our environment. We embrace the challenges of climate change and we are committed to the two degree target of the United Nations.

We are keenly aware of our outstanding global responsibility for our environment associated with our world-wide environmental and societal impact of our activities and products. We comply with legal and regulatory requirements as well as company standards and targets.

Our mission and our comittment are outlined in the Group Mission Statement Environment as well as in the Group Environmental Policy Statement

We would like to welcome you to share our values. As a business partner you play an essentiel role in our journey. Support us with your competence and actively contribute to environmental protection as part of our partnership!

Mission and Policy Statement

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

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.

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!

Environmental Compliance at the Brands and Entities

Decarbonisation

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.

Material and Chemical Conformity

Compliance

Due to the many different production sites and sales markets, the Volkswagen Group has to comply with a large number of regulations and laws and aims to continuously improve the level of protection for people and the environment. Examples of such regulations and laws are:

  • General prohibitions / restriction of substances: e.g. the Chinese RoHS regulation which restricts the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and regulates exemptions and approvals.
  • Chemicals regulations: e.g. the REACH regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006, which requires, according to the principle of "No data no market", the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals.
  • Regulation of biocidal products: e.g. the Biocidal Products Regulation (EC) No 528/2012 which classifies biocidal products into, currently 22, product types. Biocidal active substances contained in biocidal products must have been authorised for the relevant product type in order for the biocidal product to be approved.
  • Positive lists: e.g. Article 95 of the Biocidal Products Regulation (EC) No 528/2012, which requires either the supplier of the biocidal active substance, the biocidal product or the manufacturer of the biocidal active substance or the biocidal product to be included in the list referred to in Article 95 of the Biocidal Products Regulation (EC) No 528/2012 for the (active) substance for the relevant product type.
  • Duty to communicate: e.g. Consumer communication obligation according to USA California Proposition 65: the importer/producer of a product may be subject to further reporting and labelling requirements if his product contains substances that must be registered.
  • In order to ensure compliance in all markets, suppliers must also comply with the regulations and laws in the target markets and guarantee that their contractual products comply with the regulatory requirements. In addition, the fulfillment of standards is a mandatory element of supply contracts, so that compliance with all applicable material regulations and restrictions is ensured. The standards include, inter alia, VW 91101 and VW 50156.


IMDS

In order to be able to check compliance with the worldwide applicable material and chemical regulations, the Volkswagen Group requires information regarding all materials of the delivered products. According to VW 91101, it is mandatory for suppliers to provide this information via the systems IMDS or CDX.

Further Information

Please find further information at our website .

In case of questions about IMDS or REACh, please contact us at IMDS@volkswagen.de or REACh@volkswagen.de.