Volkswagen is continuing to expand its global activities in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility
In a new publication, the company shows how it advocates ecological and social sustainability around the world. In a co-authored preface, Chairperson of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG Professor Martin Winterkorn and Chairperson of the General and Group Works Council Bernd Osterloh write about how concerted sustainability management has “long since developed into a driving force for improved competitiveness and technical and socio-ecological innovations. We interpret corporate responsibility as the ability to harmonise our business with the long-term objectives of the (global) community.”
Winterkorn and Osterloh continue by asserting that responsibility towards humankind and the environment is perceived “far beyond the German domestic market”. Indeed, this responsibility is viewed “in its own right”, “in all brands and regions of the Volkswagen community” and in a “manner coordinated with relevant local requirements and resources”.
The company’s commitment to the environment runs the gamut from reforestation campaigns, the recharge of groundwater at the Mexican volcano Popocatépetl and the restoration of the German marshes to the improvement of species conservation and climate protection and waste collection campaigns in the mangrove swamps of Morrocoy National Park in Venezuela.
Practical assistance is also provided by supporting the training of Israeli and Arab youths to become motor vehicle technicians, the football and education project “A Chance to Play” (a Group Works Council initiative which benefits children and youths in need in South Africa), and the employees of Volkswagen Argentina, who build benches and tables from offcuts of wood and subsequently donate them to primary schools and kindergartens.
In terms of products, the scope of CSR activities ranges from research into alternative battery technologies at the Electronics Research Laboratory in California and Audi’s “Urban Future” mobility initiative to a unique wind-diesel power station developed by MAN which supplies an entire island in the Caribbean with renewable energy.
