With its membrane bioreactor, Audi Ingolstadt is exploiting a pioneering water treatment method that reduces annual fresh water usage by up to half a million cubic meters. This is because wastewater treated in this way can be returned to the plant as process water. It enables fresh water savings equivalent to the average amount used by some 11,000 German citizens each year. What’s more, around 70 percent of the plant’s energy supply is already carbon neutral.

The paint shop in the Four Rings’ second main plant in Germany reduces solvent emissions by some 50 percent. Wastewater is discharged into the neighboring sewage treatment plant, where the solvents it contains are converted into methane through anaerobic digestion. The methane can subsequently be used as an energy source. As a result, 250 metric tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC) were eliminated in 2017.

In the first quarter of 2017, the Mexican Audi plant succeeded in recycling more than 90 percent of its waste, including metals – in other words, almost 30,000 metric tons. That is equivalent to more than six fully loaded freight trains. Another green project involved planting 100,000 trees in the vicinity of the plant and digging 25,000 pits. These have several functions: They provide the nearby trees with water and, each year, collect up to 375,000 cubic meters of rainwater, which when filtered contributes to naturally remediating the groundwater. In addition, the pits reduce erosion.

More than 60 percent of the Hungarian Audi plant’s heating needs are supplied by a completely carbon-neutral geothermal plant. This system uses 100-degree Celsius water from around 2,400 meters underground. This facility cuts CO₂ emissions by 23,000 metric tons each year – the same quantity as over 3,600 Hungarians generate in the same period. Hungary’s annual CO₂ emissions average 6.3 metric tons per capita.

Since 2016, a combined cooling, heat and power system has generated electricity, heating and cooling energy. The electric power produced using this plant meets around 80 percent of the Bologna Ducati site’s total demand. In the first year alone, this saved more than 2,000 metric tons of CO₂ from being emitted. This reduction is equivalent to the amount generated by a person flying from Munich to Sydney and back around 300 times.

Since 2015, Lamborghini has reduced the amount of toxic waste produced by setting up a new treatment plant for processing washing water. In 2017 alone, waste production at the Sant’Agata Bolognese plant was cut by about 800 metric tons, approximately equivalent to the weight of 400 new Audi A8 cars.