Volkswagen Group
Environmental Conference

fors.earth accompanied the group-wide environmental conference of the Volkswagen Group

CLIENT VOLKSWAGEN GROUP

Challenge

The first meeting of all Volkswagen Group sustainability and environmental managers since the diesel crisis focused primarily on closely connecting all managers to demonstrate the potential of the brand network and to present the Group Environmental Program as the basis for Group-wide decarbonisation along the entire life cycle.

Solution

In the "market square" in the foyer, representatives of the different brands could network and exchange best practices at booths structured along the product life cycle. External impulses were integrated through stakeholder voices in the form of a video and impulses from Georg Kell (Speaker of the Volkswagen Sustainability Advisory Board) and Prof. Johan Rockström (Head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research). The high level commitment was demonstrated through the active contributions of CEO Mathias Müller and Chairman of the Works Council Bernd Osterloh as well as representatives of the top management of all brands worldwide.

Impact

An important result of the Group Environmental Conference was that the Volkswagen Group will begin to measure and reduce its environmental impacts and along the entire life cycle of its products and mobility concepts, with a special focus on decarbonization.

Volkswagen Group Environmental Conference 2017 – Procedure and Details

The Volkswagen Group Environmental Conference took place on September 27/28, 2017 at the Mobile Life Campus in Wolfsburg. This meeting of environmental experts and managers of the Volkswagen brands pursued two main objectives: the close networking of all those responsible for sustainability and the environment to demonstrate the potential that lies within the brand network, and the presentation of the Group Environmental Program as the basis for Group-wide decarbonisation along the entire life cycle.

fors.earth spent several months working with internal experts on the content, concept and implementation of the conference. Frank Sprenger, Managing Director of fors.earth, facilitated the two-day event. One of the main focus areas, which was developed in advance and also played a decisive role in the structure of the conference, was the analysis and reduction of environmental impacts along the entire life cycle of products and mobility services of all brands within the group.

The environmental impacts of products are to be considered from the delivery of raw materials, through production and use, to the recycling of individual materials. This concept is particularly important with regard to sustainable mobility concepts, which are increasingly oriented towards the usage phase.

Speakers at the conference included Georg Kell, founding director of the UN Global Compact and spokesperson for the Sustainability Advisory Board founded by Volkswagen. But it was not only his presence that demonstrated the relevance of environmental issues. Matthias Müller, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, and Bernd Osterloh, Chairman of the Works Council of Volkswagen AG, also emphasized the high importance of the topic for the Volkswagen Group in their speeches.

A special highlight of the two-day conference was the keynote speech by Prof. Johan Rockström, Director of the Stockholm Resilience Center and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Rockström spoke about the Planetary Boundaries, a concept that shows us the ecological limits of our planet.

Various initiatives of the brands, structured along the life cycle, were presented and discussed in a “market square” setting in the foyer. This was the foundation for making better use of synergies within the Group in the future and promoting networking between the brand representatives.

The direction is clear. Now it is time to roll out the implementation and achieve the ambitious goals. We are excited about the role Volkswagen will play in the transformation of the mobility industry and look forward to continuing to accompany Volkswagen in the future.