Volkswagen Plans to Clean Up Its Manufacturing by 25% by 2018

Making green cars is one thing, but building green cars is just as difficult. Manufactures are moving to reduce waste and recycle energy when producing vehicles. Volkswagen plans to reduce the environmental impact of all of its factories by 25% by 2018 as part of its Think Blue Factory initiative. The initiative based on improving future carbon dioxide emissions, waste volumes, energy consumption in megawatt-hours per vehicle produced and overall water consumption for production are to be significantly reduced.

"Through the growing efficiency and productivity of our plants, the Volkswagen brand is already making a key contribution to the achievements of Group strategic targets for 2018. However, we are going a step further: by 2018, we intend to make production at all our plants 25 percent more environmentally compatible," said Hubert Waltl, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars.

This initiative has already begun at Volkswagen's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that received platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. That means that the factory meets the highest standards in sustainability and environmentally friendly production.