World Water Day: Volkswagen cuts water consumption by over 17% at Pune plant

As we celebrate the World Water Day today, an automotive manufacturer in India is optimising its processes to reduce the consumption of water and is working towards better conservation of resources with set goals of cutting wastage.

Under its ‘Think Blue Factory’ programme that aims at achieving sustainability through environment-friendly manufacturing, Volkswagen India has been able to reduce the specific consumption of water by 17.6% since the implementation of this initiative in 2012. Process optimisations and recycling of water consumed for various processes in the plant have been the contributors in reducing the water consumption.

Since 2012, Volkswagen India has been able to reduce the overall impact on environment due to manufacturing processes by 20.6%. 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 25% in the defined areas of energy consumption, CO2 emissions, water consumption, waste generation and VOC emissions.   

Volkswagen's Pune plant achieved 27.5% reduction in specific energy consumption and 26.1% reduction in specific CO2 emissions by the end of 2015. The maximum reduction in these areas has come out of the heat recovery system installed in paint shop. This system has resulted in savings of around 80% 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.

Right from the beginning, reduction in Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions has been an area of challenge for Volkswagen’s 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 11.7%, the first remarkable success has been recorded by Volkswagen’s Pune plant in this particular area of focus under the ‘Think Blue Factory’ programme.

Dr Andreas Lauermann, president and managing director, Volkswagen India 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 measures undertaken by our teams working on ‘Think Blue. Factory’ programme ensure that we fulfil our self-defined targets.”

“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.”

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