Volkswagen Pune Plant recorded promising
results in 2015 under its ‘Think Blue. Factory.’ programme that aims at
achieving sustainability through environment-friendly manufacturing. Since
adopting the programme in 2012 at the Pune Plant, Volkswagen India has been
able to reduce the overall impact on environment due to manufacturing processes
by 20.6pc.
The Pune Plant is one of the
27 Volkswagen automotive manufacturing facilities worldwide that follow the
‘Think Blue. Factory.’ and which have a combined target of reduction of 25pc in
the defined areas of ‘Energy Consumption’, ‘CO2 Emissions’, ‘Water
Consumption’, ‘Waste Generation’ and ‘VOC Emissions’.
Volkswagen Pune Plant has
achieved 27.5pc reduction in specific ‘Energy Consumption’ and 26.1% reduction
in specific ‘CO2Emissions’ by the end of 2015. Maximum reduction in these areas
has come out of the heat recovery system installed in Paint Shop. This system
has resulted in 80% saving in natural gas requirement for hot water generation
which ultimately contributed reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The
other activities included additional LEDs replacing normal tube lights in shop
areas, optimisation of air handling units and roof extractor operation. Even
the operations of some of the utility equipment have been optimised to achieve
reduction in energy consumption and thus CO2 emissions.
The specific consumption of
water at the Volkswagen Pune Plant has been reduced by 17.6 pc since the
implementation of ‘Think Blue. Factory.’ programme. Process optimisations and
recycling of water consumed for various processes in the plant have been the
contributors in reducing the water consumption.
‘VOC Emissions’: First remarkable success
Right from the beginning,
reduction in ‘VOC Emissions’ has been an area of challenge for Volkswagen Pune
Plant. In 2015, the painting processes in the Paint Shop were optimised and the
content of automation was increased which resulted in reduction of ‘Waste
Generation’ and ultimately ‘VOC Emissions’. With a reduction in specific ‘VOC Emissions’
by 11.7pc, the first remarkable success has been recorded by Volkswagen Pune
Plant in this particular area of focus under the ‘Think Blue. Factory.’
programme.
Dr. Andreas Lauermann,
President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited said,
“Volkswagen Pune Plant has been working consistently towards achieving
environment-friendly manufacturing from 2012 and has already recorded an
impressive 20.6 % reduction overall through five defined areas of focus.
Volkswagen is committed towards sustainability and the measure undertaken by
our teams working on ‘Think Blue. Factory’ programme ensure that we fulfil our
self-defined targets.” He further added, “We do not stop here. We are
investigating and implementing more and more measures that contribute to
environment-friendly manufacturing and protect our resources for the future. We
also have a knowledge-sharing platform wherein we and our global colleagues
share all the implementations which are studied and applied as per relevance
for the local plants. Through this, we are ensuring that the best practices
travel worldwide and contribute on a bigger scale in the respective plants.”
Source: Volkswagen India