Volkswagen India was honoured with a Certificate of Appreciation at the first International Conference on “Promoting Water Use Efficiency in Urban Sector to Address Climate Change” held at the beginning of October in Delhi. This honour underlines the company’s efforts within its Think Blue. Factory. initiative for sustainable and environment friendly car production.
The conference was organized by CII-Triveni Water Institute in partnership with United States Agency for International Development India. On behalf of the company, Mr. Umesh Benkalkar from Think Blue. Factory. project, Volkswagen India Private Limited, received the certificate during the first International Conference on “Promoting Water Use Efficiency in Urban Sector to Address Climate Change”.
Together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), CII-Triveni Water Institute (CII-TWI) promotes Water Use Efficiency across urban sectors to help prepare the society to address the likely impacts of climate variability and change. Volkswagen India Private Limited with its Pune Plant in Chakan was part of the year long-study conducted in three cities, namely Pune, Jaipur and Faridabad. In this context the CII-TWI conducted water audits and were convinced with the exemplary water management in the Pune Plant, which is part of the Think Blue. Factory. strategy.
Volkswagen Pune Plant in Chakan has undertaken various eco-friendly measures to ensure that the manufacturing processes adopted by the company have minimum impact on the environment. Since 2012, the company has also adopted ‘Think Blue. Factory’, a global campaign of Volkswagen plants that aims to reduce the impact of production by 25% on the environment by 2018. In the first year, Volkswagen Pune Plant has achieved a reduction of 6.4% in specific CO2 emissions and 5.5% in specific energy consumption.
For 2013 one focus in the Think Blue. Factory. initiative is on reducing the consumption of fresh water with scarcity of water being a major concern in Maharashtra. Therefore Volkswagen has adopted various measures such as recycling industrial water and reusing this in the production process in its Pune Plant. Another effective measure is the use of special water faucets, which reduce the consumption of fresh water by 75%.
“Water is a limited resource and since we cannot create water, we have to use it wisely. With our Think Blue. Factory. initiative we follow sustainable and environment-friendly car production and we aim to reduce the impact on the environment by 25% by 2018. This also includes the consumption of water,” said Mr. Mahesh Kodumudi, President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited.