Group Standards

Our Group Values and Guiding Principles underpin both our corporate culture and cooperation across the Group. Aligning all the company’s processes and activities with these values is a key element in achieving economic success. In this respect, the principle of sustainability is central to what we do.

Group Values

In 2002 we committed ourselves to Group-wide Standards of Sustainable Corporate Management as part of our Model of Sustainable Development. These standards are designed to strike a balance between economic, environmental and social issues.

The Corporate Culture Office helps to ensure that the Guiding Principles are embedded within the Group. It provides employees and management with information on the Values and Guiding Principles, current projects and initiatives via the intranet, and offers local assistance in their implementation.

Binding Environmental Group Principles
As a company we have dedicated ourselves to environmental protection from an early stage. As long ago as 1971 we set up our first organisational unit for environmental protection, which bundles our expertise and responsibilities with the aim of instigating an ongoing improvement in our environmental performance.

In 1995 we became one of the first automotive groups to develop its own in-house Environmental Policy. Today, this policy continues to provide the framework for all the environmental activities of the Group’s brands and companies. In 2002, we derived eleven Environmental Standards from our Environmental Policy and, at the start of 2007, converted them into binding Environmental Group Principles for our production plants.

Milestones in occupational safety policy
Intensive cooperation between the company’s management and employee representatives is of great importance to the Volkswagen Group. In cooperation with the World Works Council and the International Metalworkers’ Federation we have also introduced the Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relationships, paving the way for a set of common worldwide standards for employees.

2004 saw the important area of occupational safety enhanced by the introduction of the comprehensive Occupational Safety Policy across the Volkswagen Group. This policy lays down global guidelines on occupational safety and the safeguarding of employee health. Its declared goal is to maintain – and where possible promote – the health, performance and satisfaction of the employees at all our plants.

Prevention takes priority
The protection and promotion of employee health is about more than just preventing accidents and illness. The goal is to maintain a high level of physical and mental performance and motivation among employees over the long term, and to provide as much support as possible going forwards. The Guiding Principles covering the protection of employee health focus on preventive and long-term measures. These range from a programme of back exercises to cancer prevention and the fight against HIV/AIDS in Brazil and South Africa.

Corruption not taken lightly
The Volkswagen Group is championing the cause of an open and transparent corporate culture. To this end, we responded to the corruption affair of summer 2005 by introducing an Ombudsman System and setting out common standards for all employees with the company directive “Avoiding Conflicts of Interest and Corruption”.