At precisely 8:30pm last Saturday, ŠKODA AUTO switched off its lights for 60 minutes in numerous areas at its three locations in the Czech Republic as part of the global environmental initiative run by the WWF. The organisers of the initiative aim to raise awareness of environmentally friendly energy management and climate change. In addition to the company’s headquarters in Mladá Boleslav, the service centre based in Kosmonosy, the customer centre and the plants in Kvasiny and Vrchlabí also took part in what is known as ‘Earth Hour’.
ŠKODA AUTO groups a variety of activities under the umbrella of its ‘GreenFuture’ Strategy. This consists of three elements: ‘GreenProduct’ deals with the development of vehicles that are as efficient as they are eco-friendly – in terms of fuel consumption as well as the materials used and their recyclability. With ‘GreenRetail’, the brand is promoting eco-friendly operations in their dealerships and workshops. ‘GreenFactory’ brings together all of the activities that help conserve resources during production. With regards to vehicle production, key performance indicators such as energy and water consumption or the amount of waste produced per vehicle are precisely monitored and optimised. The same applies to CO2 emissions and volatile organic compounds (VOC) which are formed when painting the car body for example.
Furthermore, together with its employees, ŠKODA AUTO is involved in numerous other projects dedicated to reforestation and the preservation of biodiversity in forests. In addition, ŠKODA AUTO introduced the ‘one car, one tree’ initiative as far back as 2007. With this project, a tree is planted for each newly registered ŠKODA in the Czech Republic. A large number of ŠKODA employees volunteer to help with this initiative and, in doing so, contribute to the long-term conservation of biodiversity and to climate protection. Trainees, apprentices and students from the ŠKODA Vocational School of Mechanical Engineering are also involved in the tree planting campaign and the surroundings of the school are literally blooming.
