A holistic approach

"In procurement, sustainability is important. That is why Audi's procurement organisation has firmly implemented the topic of sustainability in its strategy and activities. My team is tasked with bringing about positive results for people and the environment," says Dr Klewitz, who joined Audi Procurement in 2016 and now works with a team of experts to develop and implement programmes, measures and initiatives for more sustainable supply chains. At Audi, this involves more than 14,000 partner companies of various sizes in more than 60 countries.

Their work is based on three pillars. The main focus is on people – Audi defines clear standards for working conditions for suppliers. Another pillar is innovation. Technological achievements such as AI help to better track activities and measures in the supply chains. Environment forms the third pillar. "Audi already launched a carbon programme in the supply chain in 2018 for closed-loop systems, more recycled content and greater use of green energy. My team and I also set up a sustainability rating that is binding for all partners. This involves standards such as occupational safety or environmental protection measures. A positive sustainability rating is a prerequisite for companies to receive orders from Audi," says Dr Klewitz.

And this is also where the tasks for Dr Klewitz's team arise: "We focus on a transparent communication of the requirements and also on empowering the suppliers. To this end, we rely on collaboration formats, but also on training courses, which are bundled and can be viewed in our S-Rating Info Hub, for example.

Particularly in procurement, Audi has set itself ambitious goals to improve its sustainability performance and decarbonisation effect. Dr Klewitz sees the greatest savings potential in this area: "The supply chain is burdened with carbon emissions from electromobility due to the immanent, energy  and material-intensive battery production. It’s our priority to counteract in terms of the decarbonisation index and to effectively reduce emissions. We focus on identifying primary materials that can be replaced by secondary materials. The use of secondary aluminium, for example, saves up to 95 percent of energy as opposed to primary aluminium. But this is only one possibility. We also focus on recycling materials and reducing resources used in the production."

The use of an electric vehicle such as the Audi Q4 e-tron represents the other half of carbon emissions over its life cycle and is therefore just as relevant as the supply chain. Malte Vömel shows that the Group and Audi have recognised the importance of energy procurement, storage and provision: "The Ionity charging network already provides electricity from renewable energies within the public network of fast charging stations. The Volkswagen Group subsidiary Elli offers options for purchasing electricity from renewable energies for charging at home. However, green electricity is not available for all charging processes. To this end, Audi is cooperating with energy producers to promote the expansion of renewable energies. As part of these collaborations, new wind and solar farms are being built across Europe with the objective of feeding more than five terawatt hours into the grid by 2025."