From the first of January next year, the Audi plant in Ingolstadt - where the innovative Q6 e-Tron electric model based on the EPP will be produced - will become 'carbon neutral', i.e. with zero impact on overall CO2 emissions.
After the industrial sites of Brussels in Belgium, which has been carbon neutral since 2018, and Győr in Hungary which has achieved this goal since 2020, the historic Ingolstadt plant will be the third Audi plant to obtain the prestigious sustainability certification.
A 'green' reality that of the Quattro Anelli plants which is flanked, from 2020, by the Audi Böllinger Höfe site of excellence, where the e-Tron GT electric grand tourer is born. As part of the strategic environmental program Mission:Zero, Audi's goal is to achieve carbon neutrality for all its plants worldwide by 2025 through the conversion of the Neckarsulm sites in Germany and San José Chiapa in Mexico.
Gerd Walker, member of the board of Audi AG with responsibility for production and logistics, said: "Sustainability is one of the cornerstones of Audi's industrial strategy," commented: "Sustainability is one of the cornerstones of the brand's carbon neutral evolution."
To achieve this, Audi has implemented four strategic pillars. Firstly, energy efficiency has been improved to avoid the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide. Already in 2022, the measures adopted in Ingolstadt have saved over 35 thousand MWh) of energy while avoiding the emission of 5 thousand tons of CO2. At the same time, Audi has committed itself to producing renewable energy in-house.
To date, photovoltaic modules have been installed at the Ingolstadt plant on an area of 23 thousand square meters with the aim of further implementing the amount of self-produced energy.
As the third pillar of the Audi Mission:Zero programme, other energy from renewable sources is externally available. A solution that has made it possible since 2012 to produce cars in Ingolstadt using exclusively green energy.
Finally, all unavoidable emissions (which are a maximum of 10% of the CO2 emissions from which Audi's decarbonization program started) are offset by purchasing carbon credits that are certified according to the highest quality standards. At the Ingolstadt plant, this strategy includes, for example, emissions related to internal logistics.
However, the initiatives of Audi's Mission:Zero environmental program go beyond decarbonization. They do so by embracing the application of the principles of the circular economy, the protection and conservation of biodiversity.
Audi aims to implement closed cycles of highly energy-intensive raw materials such as water, plastic, aluminum, glass, steel and paper.
Since 2019, the Ingolstadt site has had a modern water supply centre that enables wastewater to be reused. Audi is the first premium manufacturer in the world to join the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), committed to promoting and certifying the responsible use of water resources. The goal is to halve water consumption per vehicle produced by 2035.
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