Challenges

In light of climate change and advancing globalisation, answers are urgently required to the many questions still remaining about sustainable social development. Industry – and not least the automotive industry – must help to find the necessary solutions. The Volkswagen Group is addressing these challenges systematically and integrating them into its strategic processes. The ongoing analysis of the relevance of the main sustainability topics in relation to the needs of society and to our corporate success provides a point of reference.

Challenges for the Volkswagen Group

While we realise that globalisation puts considerable pressure on companies in the industrialised countries to change, above all we see the numerous opportunities that it offers. With increasing prosperity in the developing world, new markets are opening up for products that will offer people an ever-higher standard of living. Above all the desire for personal mobility represents an important source of potential demand, although with an eye to climate change, this demands a responsible approach.

With our presence in these growth markets, which includes our own local production plants, we are under obligation to conserve natural resources in these countries, to minimise environmental impacts and to be a responsible corporate citizen. The growth in motorisation in emerging and developing nations marked by rural exodus poses environmental, safety and health risks that we must address by developing new technologies and suitable road safety strategies.

At the same time, the Volkswagen Group faces major challenges in the industrialised countries too. Here, the necessary restructuring to increase efficiency and maintain competitiveness must be carried out in a socially responsible way. Demographic change now calls for new human resources concepts. Showing responsibility in our dealings with our employees is a focal point of our sustainability policy. Comprehensive preventive healthcare, training and qualification options, and age- and ability-appropriate workplaces lay the appropriate foundations.