CC-Projects in China

Since 2019, VWATJ has planted more trees in the landscape. In addition to the hedge, VWATJ also chose to plant Chinese scholar tree, which is a local tree species. It can not only improve the air quality, but also increase the biodiversity of the factory. VWATJ also marked species names on trees to raise environmental awareness among employees.

Facing the continuous COVID-19 controlling situation in China, FAW-Volkswagen responded to needs in Gongzhuling and Foshan, respectively donating 1 million RMB to support the disease controlling. Donation in Gongzhuling helped local industry to continuously function and the workers also received good accommodation under the pressure of epidemic. The donation in Foshan also helped prevent the disease spread in major industry zone in southern China.

The Green Belt aims to support ecological improvement and rural revitalization and will carry out afforestation in 10 ecologically fragile locations in North China over 10 years. Audi China will be responsible for planting around 2.1 million trees in 10 locations in provinces and autonomous regions such as Gansu, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia from 2021 to 2030. Audi China will jointly cooperate with Volkswagen Group China to work closely with the China Green Foundation (CGF), a non-governmental organization for forestry development.

In 2020, China attained a complete victory in poverty alleviation, creating an unprecedented and historical achievement. Based on this, China's 14th Five-Year Plan introduces a series of powerful measures to achieve rural revitalization. Long-term and effective educational support is one such important measure to enable youth from low-income families in underdeveloped areas to master a skill and achieve individual development. In addition, educational aid also helps train local professionals to drive local economic development.

In 2021, Volkswagen Group China is cooperating with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to launch the “Better Life” project. The project provides financial support and access to vocational automotive education opportunities for students with financial difficulties, easing the financial burden of their families and empowering students to realize their dreams of a better life. The first phase of the project will be carried out simultaneously in three provinces – Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Hunan – supporting 1,000 students with financial difficulties to complete a vocational auto repair education at secondary or senior level.

In 2021, Volkswagen Group China cooperates with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to launch the “Better Life” project. Based on the principle of “teaching people how to fish”, the project provides financial support and access to vocational automotive education opportunities for students with financial difficulties, easing the financial burden of their families and empowering students to realize their dreams of a better life. At the same time, Volkswagen Group China is activating its own resources and networks to skills building for students, including online courses provided by the Volkswagen Training Academy and employee volunteers, career mentoring, as well as experiential activities, such as visiting dealers and factories to broaden their horizons.

The five-year project was launched in April 2021 and the first phase of the project has been carried out in Jiangxi, Sichuan and Hunan provinces, supporting 1,000 students to complete a vocational auto repair education at the secondary or senior level.

In 2021, the Group initiated the employee volunteer program #Big Starts Small#, and launched its first activity “Shoes for Love”, arranging for 537 employees to paint and donate shoes and winter clothing to more than 600 underprivileged children living in Yunnan’s remote mountainous regions. The video for this charity event received over 4.75 million views on social media platforms and directed public attention to public welfare topics.

Volkswagen Group China regards “We take on responsibility for the environment and society” as one of the Group Essentials.

By launching the #Big Starts Small# employee volunteer program since 2021, Volkswagen Group China proposes the concept of “Every little helps”, both engaging and inspiring employees to actively participate in charitable initiatives as part of their daily life, starting with small things in the name of public service for the betterment of society.

By the end of 2021, over 1,000 employee volunteer times contributed through the volunteer activities organized under #Big Starts Small# employee volunteer program. The video for these activities received high views on social media platforms and directed public attention to public welfare topics.

China was especially hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, in particular at the start of 2020. Its rapid spread meant that the resources of its hospitals and charitable institutions were stretched to their limits. Porsche China supported the Chinese Red Cross Foundation in that time with a donation of €620,000 (RMB 5 million). It was intended to ensure that healthcare could continue to be provided and also to implement preventive measures to curb a further increase in the number of persons contracting the virus.  

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

There are around 1 million children in China’s rural regions who live apart from their parents or cannot be looked after properly by their parents. So that these children are given protection and care, local Child Welfare Officers are to be selected and trained as part of the program. They will visit the homes of the children, organize activities and ensure the children are supplied with the basic necessities. 10 villages are being helped to recruit and train Child Welfare Officers. The funding given by Porsche China has enabled 2,400 visits to homes to be made and 960 activities to be organized.

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

An online tutorial learning project was launched to counteract the imbalance in educational resources in remote rural areas. The project is aimed at remote rural schools and recruits volunteers from universities, who give at least 90 minutes of online tutoring a week in the 12 weeks they serve. 250 pupils and volunteers are integrated in the project.

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

There are some minorities who still live in accordance with very ancient traditions in the mountain regions in the west of Hunan province. At the same time they preserve this rich and diverse cultural and art heritage. This project aims to help even more people and groups in the mountain regions in earning a livelihood and in preserving their special culture. More than 5,000 people can benefit from it.

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

Schoolchildren from socioeconomically disadvantaged families have only limited opportunities to receive sport, art and music lessons. This program has been developed to satisfy the hobbies and interests of these children and enrich their out-of-school activities. The funding means that 116 schools with a high share of affected children are able to offer free art, music and sport activities, benefiting around 7,800 pupils.  

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

In order to get to know the situation as regards art education in rural areas, the shortage of art teachers and the antiquated teaching methods and concepts, the Guangdong Lingnan Education Charity Foundation developed “Children Paint the Future,” a program that provides every child in rural areas with a paint box, interlinks the resources for art education in the cities and conducts a raft of activities to foster art in rural areas, including teaching. The program is being implemented at eight rural schools, with 1,600 pupils and 50 teachers benefiting from it.  

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

Studies have shown that 74% of children in rural areas read fewer than ten books a year, while 20% of children in rural areas do not read a single book because their families are poor. Reading corners and campaigns are intended to offer these schoolchildren a better environment and so encourage and motivate them to read. That has a positive impact on reading skills and language development and so helps give those affected a good foundation to succeed in life. The program is being implemented at 15 rural schools, where more than 4,000 children are helped to enhance their reading skills.

Porsche China launched the “Dealer CSR Fund” in 2018 and has maintained it every year since then. The fund aims to support local projects throughout China. These are proposed by Porsche dealers and implemented together with trusted organizations.

In China there are more than 250,000 children who are not orphans, but whose situation hardly differs from that of genuine orphans, since their parents are not able to care for them.

As part of this project, 50 affected children aged 6 to 16 are provided with assistance in the form of various support programs, such as psychological counseling, monthly activities, care packages, fostering of reading skills and much more.  

1. Organization of seminars on national and company strategies and policies regarding biodiversity.
   
2. Involvement of training on biodiversity topics in the employee training program.
   

In July, He Nan province experienced severe rain and flood disaster which cause casualty and great property losses. Facing the emergency, FAW-Volkswagen donated 25 million yuan to help Henan's disaster relief and flood prevention work. At the same time, FAW-VW organized 89 employees from five major bases across the country to form a maintenance commando to Henan, and repaired more than 3,000 customer cars in 20 days.

On 20 July, 2021, Henan and Anhui Provinces encountered extraordinary heavy rainstorm. SAIC VOLKSWAGEN donated 10 Teramonts for the relief and rehabilitation after disaster. Additionally, SAIC VOLKSWAGEN's dealers in Henan Province provided a series of service to comfort the local public, such as shelters, meals, 24 hours emergency rescue and detecting vehicles for free etc.

The lawn brick was laid to improve the water permeability of the ground, and the hollow part in the middle was vegetated, which can not only increase the green area, but also beautify the environment. Building green forest belts and planting trees with wide canopy between parking spaces can not only reduce the radiant heat of atmosphere and ground, but also bring more fresh air, and finally achieve the visual effect of "parking under trees, grass under cars and trees on cars". The total reconstruction area is 600 square meters.

Facing electrification and CO₂ neutrality of auto industry, FAW-Volkswagen organically integrated environmental protection with automobile technology innovation, and cooperate with Tsinghua University and China Environmental Protection Foundation to continuously carry out 2nd FAW-Volkswagen Auto Eco-friendly Innovation Project since March 2021. For this time, the project focused on the six major areas and twenty six major topics, which condensed the industry’s top wisdom and called on all sectors of society to jointly help the "seeds" of scientific and technological innovation thrive, and jointly promote harmonious symbiosis of the people, vehicles, society and environment.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of China Children's and Adolescents Foundation, the establishment of "Spring Bud dream Choir" was announced on International Girls' Day on October 11, to support rural and urban schools to set up campus radio stations, to gather loving and public welfare forces, and to broaden their horizons and spread beautiful voices for children.

On April 1, 2021, “Green Belt” was officially launched in Wuwei, Gansu Province. The afforestation site is located in the new eco-immigration area of Gulang County, Wuwei. By planting 850,000 locally suitable plants such as white elm, elaeagnus angustifolia, caragana microphylla and scoparium, along the Ganwu railway line, an ecological barrier spanning around 26 kilometers will be created for the local eco-immigration area to prevent the spread of desertification to the immigration area, protect the production and living facilities of local residents, protect the local ecology, and aid in rural vitalization.

Over the next ten years, the Group, in close cooperation with the China Green Foundation, will plant trees in 10 ecologically fragile areas stretching across the north of China

In 2021, Volkswagen Group China, together with Volkswagen brand, Audi and ŠKODA, kicked off its “Green Belt” afforestation project with an aim of promoting the sustainable development of the ecological environment in China.

Over the next ten years from 2021 to 2030, VGC, in close cooperation with the China Green Foundation, will plant 8.5 mio. locally suitable trees in 10 ecologically fragile areas stretching across the north of China. The total afforestation area will cover more than 40 mio. square meters, roughly twice the size of Volkswagen Group’s industrial footprint in China.

On April 1, 2021, Green Belt was officially kicked off in the new eco-immigration area of Gulang county, Wuwei, Gansu Province, where it lived with over 62,000 low-income people. By the end of Sep 2021, over 850,000 suitable plants such as ulmus pumila, narrow-leaved oleaster, caragana microphylla and hedysarum scoparium, were planted along the local railway line, forming an ecological barrier spanning around 26 km for the local eco-immigration area. The total afforestation area reached 4 mio. square meters which significantly improved the local ecology by turning barren lands into forest, preventing the local ecology from further desertification and protecting local living and farming facilities from sandstorms.

The Green Belt focused not only on afforestation but also extended to catering to local people and community needs. The company also donated sports gears to local primary school and first aid kits trainings to local village clinics. A first aid training was organized to village doctors as multipliers, who will later train more villagers to improve the local health care situation.

In October 2021, a group of VW brand ID. car key opinion customers paid an eco-tour to Green Belt afforestation site and were amazed by the ecological and social values created by the Green Belt. Many customers have promoted the Green Belt on social media and advocate more care to the ecology and environment.

Insects are an important part of the ecological chain. Many insects, such as various bees, aphid flies and beetles, can help plants pollinate. Therefore, maintaining insect diversity can help maintain the balance of the ecosystem.

Human cities have squeezed the living space of insects. In IMB garden, we can still find that due to the limitation of natural conditions with a lack of sufficiently diverse insect habitat. The lack of insect species will affect the operation of garden ecological chain.

In winter, we invited everyone to participate in the construction of insect Hotel, providing habitat for different insects and making up for the images of biological life during our activities in the park as well as helping insects survive and reproduce, which further protects the integrity of the ecological chain in the park.

The aim of this project is to support knowledge transfer contributing to the future development of China and the nation's automotive industry, and to support the development of future concepts and sustainability solutions for Chinese society.

Together with the external project partner, Tsing Hua University, VWG established the Volkswagen faculty Chair in Sustainability under the Schwarzman Scholars program. Fields of research include sustainable business management, environmental economics and supply chain management. Students work on sustainability-related topics from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The Volkswagen-FAW Platform Co., Ltd. will build a new factory in Hefei. In design of landscape of the new factory, only local trees will be considered. The purpose is to protect the local ecological system and improve biodiversity.

Nearly 100 local trees have been planted in the site area of Sitech Shanghai, which often attracts different kinds of birds. Because birds can't find a suitable place to nest or overwinter, Sitech Shanghai starts the project this year to provide nesting aids for them.

Organize a special green action. Professional teachers lead staff volunteers to conduct a biological night view in the garden of IMB, observing the operation mode of the ecosystem of the surrounding working environment, and experienced the importance of protecting biodiversity through the teacher's explanation. Employees have more thoughts on the existing environment.

In 2020, ŠKODA China continued to support children with Autism by providing ice experience activities for more than 80 children from different cities and provinces of China.

As preparation of subsequent biodiversity projects and communications, the site will research on the biological species at the site ground and create an overview.

SVW will cooperate with China Women's Development Foundation to donate 4,000,000CNY to support community works in Shanghai's Jiading/Anting districts. The program will roll out in the fields of community development, poverty alleviation, and children's education. In terms of poverty alleviation, the program will help to reconstruct old room and create dedicated space for children's studying, to provide full year accompany service so as to assure children's healthy growth and enhance overall educational level of their families. In terms of building harmonious communities, the corporate will conduct lectures and organize family-day activities under subjects of traffic safety, public health, education and environmental protection in 10 to 15 communities nearby head office and plants.

FAW-VW Audi sponsors China's national teams of speed skating, short track speed skating, snowboard half pipe, freestyle skiing aerial. The cooperation is extended till the end of 2022.

In 2020, ŠKODA continued to carry out various social and cultural activities. Activities included the exhibitions of the history of ŠKODA as an outstanding brand of Czech Republic, and supporting the exhibition of the history of the Czech Crown.

ŠKODA also continued strengthening the image of the Czech Republic in various cultural activities and exhibitions.

In June, SVW invited executive director of the marine ecology Professional Committee of the Chinese society of Environmental Sciences, to give an impressive lecture entitled harm of marine garbage to biodiversity. It shows the serious threat of plastic waste to marine life and touches the hearts of every employee present.

Discussions were also organized in the follow-up. Improve SVW employees' attention to environmental protection in an all-round way.

Since 2019, VWATJ planned to plant trees in the landscape. Except the original hedges, VWATJ also chose Chinese scholar-tree as additional local species. The biodiversity of the site has been increased by planting these local species. VWATJ also hanged their species’ name on the tree which increased the employee’s consciousness.

VWPT is located on the migration paths of a number of migratory birds, such as egrets. Migratory birds once abounded in the area, but numbers have declined substantially in recent years. To protect the local environment and biodiversity by turning the site into a suitable habitat for migratory birds, VWPT has created a bio-wetland in the grounds of the production facility.

In 2021,VWPT has planted a variety of trees on the site, including red maple, tea olive, cherry plum, Japanese cherry and others, as part of an initiative to attain Eco-factory status.

One piece of greensward needed to be renewed. Instead of buying new greensward, the site planted trees on the ground of the old greensward.

To ensure that the planted trees were local species, and also to engage the employees for biodiversity topic, the site encouraged the employees to bring saplings from home and plant the saplings by themselves.

Now there already stand trees on this area. This project will continue next year. More and more local species trees, planted by employees, will stand here in the future.

Guided by the new CSR strategy (2021 – 2025), Volkswagen Group China and Volkswagen brand opened a new chapter for the youth football program in 2021, with a special focus on youth development, grassroots football, and football culture and spirit.

On 9 Dec. 2021, the World Football Day, Volkswagen Group China, Volkswagen brand and China Sports Foundation jointly launched the Volkswagen Youth Football Online Camp, a new WeChat mini program and the first online education platform focusing on youth football in China's public welfare field. The move sees Volkswagen takes its prestigious Volkswagen Youth Football Camp online, ensuring that valuable training ideas and programs are accessible to the youth no matter their location.

The new mini program’s courses make full use of Volkswagen’s and its partners’ extensive resources, with 43 sessions for the youth and 37 classes targeted at trainers, even including invaluable expertise from professional trainers from the VfL Wolfsburg and the Chinese Football Association. All the online courses are open to public and will keep updating on a regular basis.

By making this important upgrading, Volkswagen aims to support youth development through football and promote the core elements of football spirits among young generations, such as team work and perseverance.

In 2021, Volkswagen Group China launched a five-year youth education charity project, “Youth Summit”. With the support of the China Education Development Foundation, a practice platform, exclusively for university students, is being built around “future mobility”. By promoting topics related to future mobility, university students are encouraged to participate in practical activities, and demonstrate young people’s vision for future mobility. In addition, the project will feature tailored training and mentoring programs, according to the development needs of university students.

In 2021, focusing on the theme of “Creating Low Carbon Mobility”, “Youth Summit” initiated the collection of cases among 100+ colleges and universities across China involving five major topics: Battery Reuse & Recycling for New Energy Vehicles, Key Drive Technologies, Renewable Energy Adaptation and Allocation, Low Carbon Mobility Solutions, and Future Mobility in 2030. After selection, 10 project teams will present their work at the “Youth Summit” in December and exchange their ideas with industry experts.

In 2021, Volkswagen Group China, cooperated with the China Education Development Foundation, launched diversified educational programs through the “Youth Summit” project. The project aims to empower young people through programs that enhance their overall competitiveness, cultivate innovative talents, and meet the demand for talent in future mobility. By promoting topics related to future mobility, university students are encouraged to participate in practical activities and provided with tailored training and mentoring programs, to demonstrate young people’s vision for future mobility, with employee volunteers engaged as the mentors.

In June, 2021, focusing on the theme of “Creating Low Carbon Mobility”, “Youth Summit” initiated the collection of cases among 100+ colleges and universities across the country. Top 10 proposals for 2021 had been selected in December from 55 universities, and over 8,000 students participated in 30+ training courses during the 2021 project.

The Youth Environment Ambassador Action & Education Program (YEAAEP) has been part of Volkswagen Group China's program since 2016. Around 1.5 million people have been reached through social media, more than 50,000 students have been actively involved in student projects and 1500 students have been named “youth environment ambassador”. Special teaching materials for environmental education (following the concept of content language integrated learning) have been developed, given to more than 150 schools and can be downloaded for free on our website.

In 2021, to promote the YEAAEP to a wider range of people in China, “Actionbounds” - an app for playing digitally interactive scavenger hunts to lead the learner on a path of discovery - is produced about environmental topics connected to the YEAAEP materials and the SDGs. By the end of 2021, the app is ready for launching, with the German version were pretested and the translations for the Chinese version were implemented, tested and optimized.