corporate insights
corporate insights
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Our vision of CO2 neutrality
across our global operations
starts with our Austrian
headquarters
PUSHING FORWARD ENERGY
REDUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
Climate change and environmental impact have been, and will contin-
ue to be, the biggest drivers of change within the automotive industry. It
is something we take very seriously at AVL, as we work with our partners
and customers to achieve climate-neutral mobility. But it is also something
that we have always been and of course still are passionate about at AVL,
and we’re taking steps to reduce our own environmental impact across our
business, starting with our head office in Graz, Austria.
GLOBAL PATHWAY TOWARDS A GREENER AND MORE
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Making AVL climate-neutral is not a single task, but a series of activities with
the aim of continuously optimizing, improving and monitoring our CO2
footprint. Our employees are the changemakers, innovators and pioneers
towards sustainability – not only with their work but also, for example, on
their way to work. As a company, we encourage people to cycle to work
and we subsidize the increased use of public transportation. Furthermore,
more than half of our internal carpool is either electric or hybrid. We charge
these vehicles on-site using renewable power, and when they are out on the
road, we use the 100 % renewable Shell Recharge network.
We are already using 100 % renewable electricity at our headquarters in
Graz, and heat produced by our own solar thermal plant, measuring more
than 3,300 m², is fed into our internal heating network. The system offers
an energy generation capacity of 2,424 kW, and boasts a cooling capacity
of 650 kW using the high temperatures of summer for process cooling
via an absorption chiller. This makes it one of Europe’s largest process
cooling systems.
Built in collaboration with SOL-
ID Solar Energy Systems and
solar.nahwaerme.at, the plant can
save 320 tons of CO2 every year
and offers a practical example of
how any industry can reduce CO2
emissions. We have also installed a
waste heat recovery infrastructure
throughout our Graz facility to
supply our internal heating system.
HOW WE ENSURE THAT OUR
ACTIVITIES MEET OUR GOALS
The basis for our sustainable actions
is the ISO 14001 certificate, which
the headquarters has held since 2002
and we are working to roll it out at
all locations worldwide. Further-
more, we have been part of the
ECOPROFIT® initiative of the city
AVL’s Executive Vice President, Jens Poggenburg,
has been elected as the AVL board’s new representative
of suppliers at the prostep ivip Association. The associa-
tion brings together members from a variety of industries
to tackle the big issues around digitalization. Founded in
1993 with a focus on the STEP data format, then expanded to integrated virtual
product creation, the association has now strategically realigned itself towards
digital transformation.
“Since there is a huge overlap in the strategy of prostep ivip with the mid- and
long-term objectives of AVL, I am happy to contribute as a board member of
the association to its future success,” says Poggenburg. “We are all facing the
same challenge: How to ensure seamless collaboration in cross-organizational
networks. Digitized processes, well-defined interfaces, appropriate skills, and
global interaction are essential success factors which I would like to move
forward. I am very optimistic to create relevant impact for the member group
of suppliers in the association.”
AVL has been an active member of the association since 2008. ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Leading in Digital
Transformation
F I N D O U T M O R E : www.prostep.org
AVL’s Jens Poggenburg
joins influential industry
body to shape the future
of digitalization
of Graz for decades, which aims
to conserve natural resources and
reduce waste and emissions.
We already have global energy
and CO2 measurement and mon-
itoring practices in place. For this
purpose, we have developed our
own in-house energy monitoring
tool that provides the energy con-
sumption and CO2 emissions data
of AVL globally to determine the
most efficient measures to achieve
our environmental targets, taking
into account local conditions.
Together we move towards our
vision of carbon neutrality at our
head office and across our global
business – creating a more sustain-
able world for future generations.
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Extended board of the prostep ivip Association with Jens Poggenburg, second from right.
© prostep ivip Association