The National Energy Globe Awards Honour a Volkswagen

The National Energy Globe Awards honour a country's best environmental projects The award for the best environmental programme in Germany goes to “Think Blue. Factory.”

WOLFSBURG, GERMANY -- July 14, 2014: The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand has won the National Energy Globe Award Germany for its holistic environmental programme “Think Blue. Factory.” Earning particular recognition was its eco-friendly use of resources in production. With the Austrian Energy Globe Foundation as its patron, the award allows outstanding projects from all over the world with a focus on conserving resources, energy efficiency and using renewable energies to be honoured every year. The award was presented by the Austrian ambassador Dr. Ralph Scheide in Berlin.

“Being awarded the National Energy Globe Award Germany is both an endorsement and an incentive for us to organise vehicle production at Volkswagen in an even more environmentally friendly way,” said Peter Bosch, Head of Strategy, Processes and Structures for Production and Logistics at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand at the awards ceremony in the Austrian embassy in Berlin.

“Think Blue. Factory.” is Volkswagen’s environmental programme, designed to help it to become a leader in ecological sustainability in production by 2018. A key objective is to restructure the plants to make them 25 percent more friendly to the environment compared to 2010 – in terms of energy and water consumption, CO2 and solvent emissions, as well as waste. And Volkswagen is making substantial progress: half of these objectives have already been implemented.

Friedrich-Wilhelm Gundlach, Head of Strategy and Competence Development of the Components management area, explains: “The success of 'Think Blue. Factory’ owes a lot to the commitment of our employees in particular. Numerous ideas and experiences from the production locations are being consistently developed and refined, in particular thanks to the systematic exchange of information among each other. This allows us to turn our knowledge into a tool.”

The National Energy Globe Award Germany joins a multitude of national and international awards honouring “Think Blue. Factory.” and is the 24th distinction received since 2010. These have included awards as significant as the “Green Tec Award”, the “Lean & Green Efficiency Award” and the “Green Controlling Prize”.

The Energy Globe Award has been presented to environmental projects at regional, national and international level every year since 1999. Patron is the Energy Globe Foundation, which distinguishes the projects in cooperation with its partners in the respective countries. Innovative projects and initiatives from more than 160 countries compete for the awards every year.

“Think Blue. Factory." is part of “Think Blue.” – the holistic approach of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand to ecological sustainability.