Mobility and Sustainability.

The Taubaté plant, located in the Paraíba Valley industrial region, has 4,800 employees who produce 210,000 Gol and Parati models. The plant introduced an environmental management system in 2001 and was certified in accordance with ISO 14001 in April 2002.

Water management
In view of the increasingly scarce water resources in overcrowded areas of Brazil, the plant carries out high-level water processing. The location places a top priority on economical use of drinking water; over the past five years, it has implemented a number of measures for more efficient use of water. A new water processing system has had a very positive effect; it employs technology similar to that used in comparable systems in Europe and in the USA. With this system, the plant's consumption of drinking water has been reduced by nearly half, from a monthly average of 100 million litres to 55 million litres. The plant uses the most up-to-date filtration process available when reusing water. Sand filtration is used to remove any floating particles which remain in the water. The final step - ultra-filtration - is capable of removing particles no larger than a molecule from the water.

Biodegradable oil
Starting in 2005, the Taubaté location has used biodegradable oil to lubricate the compressed air system in the production plants. The vegetable oil is obtained from such sources as maize, soy, rapeseed, cotton and sunflowers. This replaces conventional mineral oil, harmful to water. Moreover, in the "Body Shop" area, biodegradable oil is used for over 800 machines, including 128 robots. Other potential applications for vegetable oil are currently undergoing development and testing. This pioneering project is one-of-a-kind, even in a country such as Brazil, where vehicles often run on vegetable-based fuels such as ethanol made of sugar cane or bio-diesel from soy.

Employee initiative to fight hunger
Twelve years ago, Taubaté employees began a "No To Hunger, Yes To Life" campaign to fight hunger and poverty in Brazil. Employees have a certain percentage deducted from their salaries each month, and also collect aluminium cans to be sold as salvage. The proceeds are used to purchase baskets filled with groceries for impoverished families. So far, Volkswagen employees have been able to provide over 30,000 families in the city and surrounding areas with these baskets. And even more, 100 young people from poor families have received financial assistance for training costs to give them a good start in their careers. This initiative is an on-going project.