Stakeholder management
An honest assessment and an external perspective are essential for the continuous development of Audi’s sustainability strategy.
With the aid of various stakeholder management tools, Audi seeks to gain a precise understanding of the interests and needs of its stakeholders1 – thus enabling the company to align its decisions even more closely with their expectations.
Stakeholder management at Audi
Ongoing dialogue is helpful in defining key sustainability issues and enhancing sustainability management.
Audi therefore actively involves its stakeholders in central issues. To this end, the company makes use of various dialogue formats, one-to-one discussions and other means of communication.
Materiality analysis: What do stakeholders expect from Audi?
Audi actively involves its stakeholders 1 in central issues by means of a materiality analysis. This kind of dialogue provides important impetus for the company’s strategic planning. The analysis was first carried out in 2012, and in 2021, Audi further refined and updated it. Drawing on internal and external sources, the company identified 16 relevant sustainability topics and then had them evaluated.
The materiality analysis helps the Group identify important sustainability topics: Customers, suppliers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and analysts regularly assess the relevance of the different action areas.
As a strategic tool, the materiality analysis creates transparency and allows us to make targeted adjustments to our corporate management. It also helps us gain an even better understanding of the interplay between business success and sustainable commitment, and thus dovetail them more closely.
Targeted dialogue
In addition, Audi uses different dialogue formats and one-to-one discussions to find out what motivates stakeholders. The company tries to find the right format for stakeholders depending on the topics addressed. Multi-stakeholder events, such as the Audi Dialog, or involvement in initiatives allow the company to engage directly with its stakeholders on core issues.
Important change of perspective
What type of feedback does Audi hope to get from the dialogue formats? What will help move the company forward? What is the “outside-in perspective” on issues? What suggestions do the experts have? Audi wants to learn, examine perspectives, gather suggestions and build trust.
Festival for green technologies
In 2021, Audi – as one of the founding partners – made its second appearance at the GREENTECH FESTIVAL in Berlin. The goal is for the GREENTECH FESTIVAL to become a world-renowned platform for the most pressing issues of the day. Running from June 16 to 18, 2021, the GREENTECH FESTIVAL was an opportunity for the company to demonstrate that its products, processes and materials are all geared toward climate protection and sustainability – thanks to a combination of innovation, technology and digitalization. Here visitors learned how Audi is promoting the expansion of renewable energies, how plastics can be used in a resource-efficient manner and what significance artificial intelligence in the supply chain has for the company’s sustainability strategy. At the Audi booth, Audi experts welcomed visitors for discussions on all aspects of sustainable mobility.
After Berlin, the GREENTECH FESTIVAL took place again in London at the beginning of November – the first time it has been held on an international stage. The London program focused primarily on aspects of green finance, the energy sector and the transformation toward a social and sustainable society, with Audi hosting discussions on electric mobility, charging infrastructure and innovative charging concepts.
Knowledge – well conveyed
The idea is to stimulate truly open discussions: The Audi lecture series provide a platform for Audi employees and managers to exchange ideas and network with experts from the worlds of business and science. Lectures by outside speakers and commentaries by Audi experts provide starting points for open discussions between all participants. Since 2013, more than 3,000 employees in total have attended lectures.
The “Responsibility Perspective” lecture series is a good example of how effective this contact between Audi and its stakeholders is. It is a forum for discussing issues related to sustainability and compliance – both of which are highly relevant to Audi’s future viability.
Almost
3,000
participants
since 2013
More than
25
lectures
in the last seven years
Participation in external initiatives and federations
Audi discusses ecological, economic and social issues in partnership with stakeholders through a variety of initiatives, federations and work groups. The company’s involvement in the Global Battery Alliance and the Aluminium St ewardship Initiative, for example, illustrates how far-reaching and effective this commitment is.
Audi subscribes to the values of the Global Battery Alliance of the World Economic Forum. The alliance consisting of public and private-sector partners from along the entire battery supply chain strives to ensure that both social and environmental sustainability aspects are taken into account in the value chain for the raw material used in batteries. To this end, the Global Battery Alliance is working on issues such as the conditions for mining raw materials, sustainable recycling concepts in the spirit of a circular economy, and innovations that promote battery sustainability. Audi has been a member of the cooperation platform since 2017.
Meanwhile Audi’s membership in the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) dates all the way back to 2013. The ASI came about as a result of various stakeholders in the aluminum industry joining forces. The aim behind the initiative was to create greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminum sector and to promote the responsible extraction, processing and use of aluminum. Audi was the first automotive OEM in the world to attain an ASI Performance Certification and ASI Chain of Custody Certification. In 2017, the company launched an aluminum closed loop at its Neckarsulm site, with the Press Shop in Ingolstadt following suit in 2020. The Audi site in Győr also introduced this process in 2021. As a result, a net2 total of 165,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide were avoided in 2020 alone.
In March 2022, Audi rejoined the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest initiative for sustainable corporate governance. Our membership in one of the most active platforms for dialogue between industry, civil society and politics forms an important pillar of our stakeholder management.
Cross-sector exchange
The following list of memberships and activities exemplifies the company’s dialogue with industry, politics, science and society. However, it contains only a small sample of the wide range of initiatives we are involved in – many of which also reflect the interests of the company’s stakeholders. The list is structured on the basis of the five chapters of the Audi Report 2021 to illustrate the connections to the topics reported on:
