MISSION:ZERO
On the road to consistently sustainable production
The company is in no doubt: Economic success and environmental protection are inextricably linked. The Mission:Zero program therefore focuses on the four action areas of decarbonization, water usage, resource efficiency, and biodiversity. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations act as a guiding principle for the program along with the environmental mission statement of the Volkswagen Group.
In terms of the ecological transformation of Audi’s worldwide sites, production and logistics, this means that Audi is transforming itself from a car manufacturer to a provider of carbon-neutral premium mobility. All Audi sites will become carbon-neutral on balance by 2025. In addition, Audi is focusing on the efficiency of its processes and water cycles at its production sites in the face of growing water scarcity and declining drinking water quality in industrialized regions.
"Sustainable premium mobility is only possible with consistently environmentally friendly production. This is what we are working on with Mission:Zero,"
says Rüdiger Recknagel, Chief Environmental Officer Audi Group and Managing Director Audi Environmental Foundation.
Helping preserve biological diversity
Audi not only strives for effective and efficient use and recycling of raw materials in production, the company also plays its part in countering the increasing consumption of land around the world. Moreover, Audi is conducting biodiversity projects at all of its sites to play its part in helping preserve biological diversity.
The four action areas and their objectives
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1. Decarbonization: Audi sites will become carbon-neutral on balance by 2025.
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2. Water usage: Closed water cycles and wastewater-free production sites.
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3. Resource efficiency: Circular economy and effective and efficient use of raw materials.
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4. Biodiversity: Projects for protecting and preserving biological diversity at all Audi sites.
Environmental management at Audi
Audi analyzes environmental aspects of its worldwide factory network in great depth – after all, reliable figures are essential for documenting progress toward sustainable production. In addition to emissions, Audi looks at other site-based environmental aspects of operational value creation.
Turn to page 72 of the Audi sustainability report to read about the background to the scope of the key figures and the Group-wide accounting method.
Activities along the company’s entire value chain
The Kyoto protocol – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – lists six
greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O), as well as the fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases): hydrogen-containing fluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorinated hydrocarbons (PFC), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆)
Scopes are emissions categories defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Scope 1 covers direct emissions from combustion processes of stationary and mobile systems, emissions from processes, and emissions from volatile gases.
Scope 2 emissions are produced, for example, from energy sources purchased externally and consumed by the company: These are indirect emissions from purchased electricity and district heating/cooling systems, and from purchased steam.
A distinction is made in
Scope 3 between upstream and downstream activities. Upstream activities relate, for example, to emissions generated on the supplier side (from manufacturing the product from raw materials up to the point of delivery to Audi (cradle-to-gate). Business trips and waste produced are also included in this scope category. Downstream activities include, for example, emissions from transporting products sold and those generated by the end customer in the use phase of sold goods.
Audi Sustainability Report 2019
You can read further information concerning MISSION:ZERO in the new Sustainability Report.
