Download Conserving Biological Diversity

Volkswagen Sustainability Report 2015
Conserving Biological Diversity
Biological diversity is the very foundation of human existence. Biodiversity – in other words, the
diversity of species, the genetic diversity within species, and the diversity of ecosystems –
ensures healthy food, clean water, fertile soils, and a balanced climate.
Alongside, and connected to, climate change, the dramatic loss of biodiversity is one of the
greatest challenges facing us today. It has prompted the United Nations to declare this the "UN
Decade on Biodiversity".
Every company's real net output is reliant on the services provided by nature, whether directly or
indirectly. What is more, every company has an impact on nature and ecosystems, which may be
beneficial or detrimental. When biodiversity is lost, the quality of the services provided for free by
the natural ecosystems also deteriorates.
The Challenges Faced by the Automotive Industry
The effects on biodiversity and the dependencies on ecosystem services are not immediately
obvious to most companies. In the manufacturing industry in particular, which of course includes
the automotive sector, most companies have an indirect influence on biodiversity, and calculating
their exposure is therefore a complex process, which requires an in-depth analysis of the entire
value chain, from the extraction of raw materials, to production and use, through to the disposal of
products. Only then is their true environmental impact revealed.
For example, mining mineral raw materials, including rare earth elements, often goes hand in
hand with severe intrusions into the landscape, especially in countries with species-rich
ecosystems and low environmental standards. The use of natural resources is another challenge
for automotive manufacturing. The industrial-scale cattle farms which supply the leather for
steering wheels and seats are just as detrimental to biodiversity as natural rubber plantations and
the associated degradation of forest ecosystems.
Although the links between climate change and species extinction are complex, many of the
adverse effects on biodiversity undoubtedly occur while a car is in active use. This use phase
accounts for around 80% of a vehicle’s CO 2 emissions. What is more, the construction of roads
and transport infrastructure dissects the habitats of migratory species.
The automotive industry depends on a number of ecosystem services, including renewable raw
materials such as natural fibers, which Volkswagen uses in its vehicle manufacturing, as well as
biomass as a feedstock. Of course, they also include Nature's regulatory services, such as water
used in production processes and the role of forests, peatlands and oceans as CO 2 sinks for car
emissions.
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Voluntary Commitment to Biodiversity Management
The Volkswagen Group's principal contribution to preserving biodiversity undoubtedly lies in
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing material and resource efficiency. We also
make a vital contribution to conserving natural resources by ensuring that soil and water - the
lifeblood of biodiversity - are protected by high environmental standards and eco-management
practices at our production locations.
Back in 2007, Volkswagen went one step further, and recognized biodiversity conservation as a
separate corporate activity. We began by including biodiversity as an explicit corporate objective
in our mission statement. "As a global industrial company with a duty to lead by example, the
Volkswagen Group recognizes its responsibility toward species protection". We have also pledged
to address matters concerning species protection at all of our locations in equal measure. "We
respect the intent and purpose of protected biotopes. Designated nature conservation sites and
national parks may not be used commercially."
As a founder member of the 'Biodiversity in Good Company e.V.' initiative, Volkswagen has
additionally pledged to introduce a biodiversity management system and to support the targets of
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In this context, Volkswagen undertakes to
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Analyze the effects of its own business activities on biodiversity,
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Incorporate biodiversity protection into its environmental management system,
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Designate environmental management responsibilities,
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Set targets,
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Inform suppliers,
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Cooperate with environmental organizations, and
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Publish information on the Company's biodiversity performance. (Link to document)
However, for a Group with over one hundred production locations around the globe and highly
complex supply chains, incorporating these commitments will inevitably take time. Integrating
biodiversity into corporate sustainability management is in any case extremely challenging, given
the lack of reliable, practicable control variables and performance indicators.
With this in mind, Volkswagen's first step was to appoint a Biodiversity Officer and anchor the
protection of biodiversity as a general eco-management principle. Mindful of the need to minimize
its own impacts on biodiversity, furthermore, when building or extending existing production
locations, the company always gives preference to brownfield sites so that no additional land
sealing is required.
In 2008, we also began undertaking site analyses to identify and evaluate the ecological risks
associated with production, including an assessment of any adjacent land with a high biodiversity
value. 32 European sites have now been assessed. The studies, conducted in collaboration with
the insurance industry, are gradually being updated and rolled out to new Group brands, such as
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MAN and Porsche. The potential impacts on biodiversity are taken into account when selecting
new production locations.
Finally, in accordance with the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Company
has established the geographical proximity of its production locations to protected areas (as
defined in the Habitats Directive). In the reporting year 2014, once again, there were no known
cases of Volkswagen's activities endangering the natural habitats of species on the Red List of the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
Volkswagen also used its online supplier platform to invite German-based suppliers to a
conference by the 'Biodiversity in Good Company e.V.' initiative, as part of its obligation to inform
business partners. This popular event in Hamburg was attended by large numbers of Volkswagen
partners.
Volkswagen also actively supports expert dialogs and scientific studies aimed at developing useful
management tools, such as the task force on 'Management Indicators', a joint project by the
enterprise initiative Biodiversity in Good Company e.V. and econsense, the sustainable
development forum of German business. Volkswagen is also on the steering committee of the
Impact of Product Systems on Biodiversity research project, lead managed by the Fraunhofer
Institute for Building Physics and backed by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN),
the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the
Federal Environment Agency (UBA).
Involvement in Learning and Dialog Platforms, Cooperation with Environmental Groups
Volkswagen actively helps bring all the relevant players from industry, politics, civil society and
academia together, to raise awareness of the need to protect biodiversity and intensify knowledge
of this subject.
The international enterprise initiative 'Biodiversity in Good Company e.V.', which we co-founded,
is a key vehicle in this regard. It has close links with the Federal Environment Ministry and also
coordinates the "Enterprise Biological Diversity" platform on the Ministry's behalf. In 2014,
Volkswagen was once again proud to serve on the organization's Executive Board, helping to
steer its many different initiatives at national, European and international level (Global Partnership
for Business and Biodiversity).
As a member of Biodiversity in Good Company e.V., in October 2014 Volkswagen was also
represented at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in
Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Volkswagen is a member of the German Association of the Automotive Industry's (VDA) recently
established Biodiversity task force. In Germany, we have also continued our partnership with the
German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Germany's largest environmental
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organization in terms of both size and membership. Numerous Volkswagen locations around the
globe also have a long tradition of working closely with environmental and conservation groups.
Voluntary Projects to Protect Biodiversity
Volkswagen reinforces this commitment with a wide range of voluntary projects and programs to
protect biological diversity, usually in the proximity of its locations and in partnership with the
relevant government bodies, research institutions and non-governmental organizations. Key
priorities include supporting research into biodiversity, nature and species conservation,
particularly the conservation of moorlands and wetlands, reforestation or (more innovatively)
forest conversion, and promoting and interlinking biotopes ("Volkswagen Connects Habitats").
Wherever possible, these are combined with environmental education programs for schoolchildren
and young people, including long-term projects at Volkswagen do Brasil and the Volkswagen
Group in China. Reforestation and renaturation projects in particular benefit both biodiversity and
the climate ("ecosystem-based climate protection"). Volkswagen is always mindful of positive
employment effects and other potential benefits (such as flood prevention, erosion protection,
groundwater recharge) when deciding which projects to support.
Research Funding
Volkswagen de México is a strong supporter of biodiversity research, and each year it awards
generous prizes to environmental scientists and biodiversity projects in conservation areas
under the heading "Por amor al planeta" (For Love of the Planet). "Por amor al planeta" is the
largest biodiversity research funding program in Mexico.
A new initiative is also underway at our Urumqi location in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.
Since 2014, Volkswagen has worked with a number of universities to support biodiversity
research along the River Tarim, the only source of water in this arid region. Summer floods
transform the adjoining riparian forest into a wetland biotope, home to a number of rare plant
species.
In October 2014, Volkswagen sponsored a conference on wolf mortality monitoring at the
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), reinforcing our commitment to the
reintroduction of wolves in Germany.
Protecting Ecosystem Services
For many years, Volkswagen has compensated for water consumption at its factory in Puebla,
Mexico, with generous reforestation projects in the nearby Iztaccíhuatl-Popocatépetl national
park. Since 2008, the project, supported by Volkswagen suppliers as well as the Mexican
conservation agency, has planted around 490,000 alpine conifers on an area of 750 hectares.
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The planting helps to reduce soil erosion, and very importantly, replenish the region's
groundwater reserves. In a similar project south of the Sierra de Lobos, nearly 160,000 trees
were planted by Volkswagen do México in the Silao region; and Audi México also collaborated
with the Puebla authorities to plant more than 100,000 trees on a 100 hectare site in the San
José Chiapa region. The location currently under construction there will also incorporate a
175,000 cubic meter reservoir.
Nature and Species Conservation, Biotope Cross-Linking
The nature and species conservation project "Think Blue. Nature." was launched in 2014 in the
four million hectare CESMO (Corredor Ecologico Sierra Madre Oriental) biodiversity corridor in
the eastern Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico, home to around 650 endangered species.
Volkswagen is the project's largest private sponsor and has donated around €260,000 towards
planting 100,000 trees and cleaning up some 100 kilometers of river. In collaboration with the
Mexican Environment Ministry and the German international development agency GIZ, there is
also a program to train 300 young people as environmental ambassadors and spread the word
about environmental and conservation issues among 10,000 of their peers.
Volkswagen supports the Wilderness Foundation's "Forever Wild Rhino Protection Initiative" in
Africa with the loan of six Amarok commercial vehicles, used in the fight against poaching in a
number of reserves in the Eastern Cape and South Africa.
In Germany, Volkswagen is involved in a range of conservation projects, with a particular focus
on moorland renaturation. Volkswagen Financial Services has pledged €1.6 million (until 2016)
to NABU's German Moorland Conservation Fund, benefiting 13 rehydration projects between
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and Bavaria, three of which were launched in 2014 alone. The
same year, these moorland protection activities were awarded official status under the "United
Nations Decade on Biodiversity". Volkswagen has also commissioned a feasibility study to
assess moorland protection opportunities outside of Germany, and co-sponsored a major
NABU moorlands protection conference in Berlin. In 2014, participants in the Volkswagen "Pro
Ehrenamt" volunteering initiative gave up their free time on five occasions to clear moorland
and plant cotton sedge at the Große Moor site near Gifhorn (Wolfsburg).
As a NABU sponsoring partner, Volkswagen also contributed to the renaturation of the Lower
Havel, Central Europe's largest and most significant inland wetland, where over one thousand
fauna and flora species are threatened with extinction. Other West German Volkswagen
locations organized a collection of used cell phones to raise money for the Havel project.
Volkswagen joined forces with the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the
Hankensbüttel Otter Center on a project to connect habitats in the Allertal region, pledging to
donate €35,000 per year for six years.
We also loaned Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) a vehicle to assist with the
establishment of landscape corridors for wild cats.
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In 2014, Volkswagen and NABU continued their collaboration on the joint 'Welcome Wolf'
initiative to help re-establish this wild animal in Germany – stocks of which had been wiped out
– and raise acceptance. Volkswagen contributes in a multitude of ways, such as joint event
planning, publishing educational materials, and supplying a project vehicle.
In the grounds of the Volkswagen factory in Emden, a colony of bees on the verge of extinction
(Apis millifica) has been successfully established, growing from 5,000 to 40,000 bees in just a
short space of time. Plans are underway to plant a further 1,000 fruit trees to ensure a plentiful
supply of food for the bees.
At the Wolfsburg location, the proceeds raised from a collection of second-hand shoes were
presented to local nature conservation projects.
Since 2007, ŠKODA has donated a tree for each vehicle sold in the Czech Republic, and by
2015, around 500,000 trees had already been planted.
Environmental Foundations
In 2014, the Audi Environmental Foundation, established in 2009, sponsored the 'nature
classroom' at Breitengüßbach Environment Center. Over a four-year period (2012-2015), a
former military site is to be developed into an innovative environmental education program on
species conservation, and will demonstrate how a cultivated landscape can support a diverse,
species-rich environment without excluding humans. The Foundation was also a major
contributor to the Steigerwald Information Center, which opened its doors in September 2014.
Covering more than a thousand square meters, interactive stations provide visitors with a
wealth of information about forest habitats. The Audi Foundation has pledged to support the
Center until 2017, initially with a donation of €100,000. In December 2014, the Audi
Environmental Foundation launched another conservation project to convert disused
transformer stations into "beacons of biodiversity".
Replacement and Compensatory Measures
Replacement and compensatory measures are a legal requirement, rather than a voluntary
commitment. However, by combining several measures, it is possible to amplify their effect.
Following the renaturation of a section of the River Aller and the introduction of a grazing project
in Ilkerbruch, Volkswagen has now implemented its third major renaturation project at Wolfsburg,
designed to improve the conditions for fauna and flora in the Nordsteimker Bach valley. A grazing
project is also still ongoing as a compensatory measure at the Porsche location in Leipzig. Twenty
wild horses and aurochs help to maintain the area's high conservation value and keep the site
clear. Environmental experts monitoring the project found that the year-round extensive grazing
project has met or even exceeded its nature conservation targets in terms of protecting the
numbers of target species.
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