Rankings and Awards

The importance we attach to the challenge of sustainability is borne out by independent ratings. These ratings provide a regular evaluation of a company’s sustainability performance. Over recent years we have achieved leading positions in several ratings and also collected numerous awards, all of which provides an incentive for us to continue to meet our social responsibilities going forwards.

The Rankings
In September 2007 Volkswagen has qualified for the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSWI). In particular Volkswagen’s activities with regard to efficient diesel technology, drivetrain and fuel strategy, supplier management and social management were given a positive assessment.
 
Volkswagen joined the ranks of leading car makers, rising to second place in the “Motor Vehicles and Parts” sector of the Pacific Sustainability Index rankings in 2006.
 
Added to which, we are also listed in various FTSE4Good Index Series indices (FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index, FTSE4Good Global Index, FTSE4Good Europe Index), the Ethibel Excellence Europe and Ethibel Excellence Global indices and the ASPI (Advanced Sustainable Performance Index).
 

Awards
Car Environment Certificate: In April 2007 Volkswagen was awarded the Öko-Trend Institute’s coveted Car Environment Certificate for the Golf 1.4 TSI. It was a distinction we had previously been awarded on September 1, 2006 for the Polo BlueMotion.

J.D. Power Study: According to the J.D. Power Alternative Powertrain Study, the Golf, Jetta and New Beetle are among the lowest-emission petrol-engined passenger cars.

European Business Award for the Environment: We won the European Business Award for the Environment in the “Environmentally-friendly Processes and Procedures” category for the Volkswagen-SiCon process.

Cars and the Environment ranking: Which cars ease the load on the environment, and which have an excessive impact? The German Association for Transport and the Environment (VCD) assessed more than 350 cars in its environmental table for 2006. The leading German product, the VW Polo Blue Motion, was rated 7th. Its extremely economical diesel engine is fitted with a diesel particulate filter.

Good Company Ranking: The Good Company Ranking 2005 – compiled by “Manager Magazin” and the auditing firm Deloitte – evaluated the social performance in Europe of 80 major European companies. Back then we were ranked 17th. In 2007, however, we could manage only 47th. While we again scored highly in the Environment and Financial Performance sections, we cannot be content with our results in the Human Capital and Social Commitment categories.

imug assessment: implementation in our Sustainability Report 2007/2008
We are engaged in an ongoing effort to make our reporting more transparent and efficient. To this end, the Volkswagen Group passes each report to an external institute to be assessed. We have taken the institute’s criticism of our Group Sustainability Report 2005/2006 on board and applied its feedback in our latest printed report wherever we felt it would be useful.

For example, we have made “Sustainability as a Value Driver” one of the focal areas of the report, set out our activities in China in a Special Report and reserved ample space for the presentation of our Powertrain and Fuel Strategy.

As far as the layout is concerned, here too we have tried to meet the high standards we set ourselves in the detailed presentation of our activities, and to leave room for aesthetic visualisation. However, in order to enable our readers to access individual topics quickly, we have also included an index.

We have retained our “Challenges”, “Strategy” and “Activities” chapter split. While we realise that this leads to duplication of content in some areas, we see our strategic approach to future challenges as a cornerstone of our business, and this is reflected in our activities.

We have significantly expanded the Key Indicators section and added a review of social indicators. The GRI has checked the report and confirmed that it qualifies for Application Level A+.