A glance at the population figures gives an idea of the economic upswing the brand with the Four Rings has provided in the region. As of 2023, Audi employed some 40,000 people in Ingolstadt – that is more than the entire population of the city at the end of the 1950s. Ute Röding: “Of course, not everyone lives within the walls of the city, many live in the region, in Munich or other major cities. But we are still talking about 40,000 people dedicated to promoting their own environment and shaping the future – through their work, but also outside normal working hours and outside the plant premises.” Which CC commitment merits special recognition? Ute Röding doesn’t think twice: “The international Audi Social Day in summer 2023! Under the motto “We live responsibility,” more than 1,000 Audi employees provided support to nursery schools, care homes, refugees and people with disabilities.”
Care of the environment is an important priority at the Audi Group’s largest production sites. Rüdiger Recknagel explains, “There are countless projects. A particularly good example is the refurbishment of a former refinery site. In co-operation with the City of Ingolstadt, we renovated and revitalized the site using cutting-edge technology, without sealing any more space. As much as 15 hectares of land were renaturalized and returned to nature.” The environmental project is one of the largest of its kind in Germany and unique to date in Bavaria. The incampus technology park is being constructed on the site, which in turn focuses on the technologies of the future as well as on security and sustainability.
170 kilometers further west, in Neckarsulm, the Mission:Zero environmental program is focusing on sustainable use of water. “It is of course not surprising in a city that gets its name from the two rivers in the region that water is an important issue for the people,” explains Rüdiger Recknagel. “The goal is to halve the ecologically weighted water consumption at Audi production locations globally by 2035 compared with the base year of 2019. Our plan in Neckarsulm is to develop a closed water cycle for process water with the support of the sewage treatment plant adjacent to the plant. The facility in question is currently under construction.”