Mobility and Sustainability.

Since 1958, Volkswagen's Kassel plant has been conditioning old engines and gearboxes; it produces 2.6 million manual gearboxes and automatic transmissions annually. The light metal gearbox housings are manufactured in their own remelting facilities and die casting machines. Exhaust gas systems with catalytic converters, diesel particle filters and mouldings are manufactured here as well. The plant's 13,800 workers also supply the Volkswagen Group's 45 million vehicles on the road worldwide with 330,000 different genuine parts. Since 1998, the Hesse location has been revalidated on a regular basis in compliance with the EU Eco-Audit; for the past five years it has also been an active member of the "Hessian Environmental Alliance".

Water management
A special feature of the Kassel location is its independent drinking water supply. The water is conveyed from wells extending from 5 to approximately 200 metres deep; it is then filtered and made ready for sanitary and production purposes. The resulting sewage is then physically, chemically and biologically purified in the plant's sewage treatment plant before being discharged into the small Bauna body of water. Long-term ecological investigations of this body of water have confirmed the stream's healthy condition. Despite its independent water supply, the Volkswagen plant's Kassel operations conserve resources. Thus, for instance, rain water is fed into the cooling circuit. Water requirements for cooling machinery comprise up to 15 percent of the plant's total requirements. This means that considerable quantities of valuable drinking water can be saved.

Environment Weeks
The Kassel plant presents an Environment Week every two years. On this occasion, not only the plant's employees but also city and community representatives, associations and environmental authorities all have an opportunity to gain a closer acquaintance with the plant's product- and production-related environmental activities. Here, in addition to established environmental measures, Volkswagen can also present new conservation technologies. Such technologies may include a new foundry-sewage purification plant or the new mould hardening process for auto body parts. These technologies are explained during Environment Week. For instance, the mould hardening process used for the manufacturing process requires more energy than the conventional method used. However, in terms of a car's life cycle, consumption is lower when one considers the reduced weight of the pertinent parts and the associated fuel consumption.