‘Green initiatives at our Pune plant are in line with those defined by Volkswagen AG globally.”

Mahesh Kodumudi, VW India’s MD, on the many eco-friendly measures implemented at the Chakan plant.

When did the green initiatives under Think Blue. Factory.begin at Volkswagen’s Chakan plant? And how were the five defined areas chosen?
The Think Blue.Factory.initiatives have been undertaken at the Volkswagen Pune Plant in Chakan since 2012. The five key areas have been defined by Volkswagen AG globally and they are now being followed by 27 plants of Volkswagen around the world. The Pune Plant is in line with these standard key areas.

Among the various initiatives undertaken, was there an order of priority or did all run concurrently? For example, is specific waste generation more of a priority than say specific water consumption?
All the key areas are being looked at simultaneously and there is no particular priority given to any one of the key areas. However, Volkswagen globally announces a special focus on any one area each year. Based on that, 2013 was declared as the Year of Waste Management while 2014 has been declared as Year of Water Management. Based on this, the plant may focus more on that key area in that particular year.

Since Think Blue.Factory.is a global initiative, are there some aspects of the programme that are unique to Volkswagen in India?
Though Think Blue. Factory.is a global initiative, the actions taken by each plant could be independent. For example, Volkswagen's Pune plant has the complete freedom to come up with whichever initiatives it feels are best suited for its operations and activities. However, all the plants share the practices they have adopted with other plants and the other plants have the freedom to use the best practices for their benefit.
Through the exchange of knowledge and experiences, it is ensured that all the plants are benefitted with the activities that are undertaken by others.

Specifically to VOC, when will the findings of the pilot projects be implemented and what have the findings been?
At the Chakan plant, we are a running a lot of pilot projects and investigations to understand which of them would give maximum results for the environment and in addition, with the maximum return on investments. At present, we are still in the evaluation process.

Since these initiatives are ongoing at the plant, what kind of organisational steps were taken to monitor the initiative? Were special groups set up and specific training imparted?
Initiatives under the Think Blue.Factory.apply to virtually all functional departments of the company. Within each department, small teams were set up that would focus on these activities. A Think Blue.Factory. Ambassador was appointed in each team who would take lead in these activities and would be the one-point contact within that team. These ambassadors are also responsible to report their progress to everyone else.

Will this Think Blue.Factory.initiative also be conducted at the Skoda plant in Aurangabad?
Although the Think Blue. Factory.initiatives were specifically taken up by the Volkswagen Brand, they can be applied at any production factory and in particular at car production factories.
We would of course be sharing our findings and actions with the Aurangabad Plant, and whatever is applicable would be implemented. In fact, Skoda Aurangabad has its own set of initiatives which they have been actively implementing
and we also continue to learn a lot from their programme.