Audi 2014 Annual Report Download - page 190

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
AUDI IN SOCIETY
190 >>
AUDI IN SOCIETY
We regard social involvement as an important part of our
corporate responsibility. We are convinced that the Company’s
long-term success and therefore its future viability depend on
society. As a major employer, we therefore seek to steadily
improve the quality of life at our locations and lend our partic-
ular support to regional initiatives.
In accordance with the support guideline of the Audi Group,
key areas are education, technology, social involvement and
worldwide disaster relief.
Together with the relevant managers at the locations, we have
also compiled global principles for social involvement at Audi
Group locations to accompany the support guidelines; these
were approved by the Board of Management in August 2014.
They serve as a guide for the Group locations worldwide and
are an aid to selecting purposeful regional development
measures that therefore demonstrate corporate social
responsibility.
/ EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC COOPERATION
Our Company specifically supports initiatives to provide educa-
tion and further training for children, young people and adults,
especially in the so-called MINT subject areas (mathematics,
information technology, natural sciences and technology). The
Audi Training Department works in close collaboration with
teachers and students in the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm
regions.
The Ingolstadt special-profile school opened at the start of
the current school year. Together with the State of Bavaria,
the city of Ingolstadt and the Roland Berger Foundation, Audi
is supporting this model project that is unique in Germany.
Under the motto of “No talent wasted,” it provides children
and young people from difficult backgrounds with a pathway
to achieving a high school diploma, with the security of an
individual scholarship and support program.
We are steadily broadening the training options in and around
our locations through our many university partnerships, and at
the same time increasing our long-term ability to innovate. This
close collaboration deepens the knowledge transfer between
research and industry. We are currently working with 31
research establishments worldwide. These partnerships also
serve Audi’s goals of attracting highly qualified young people to
the Company. More than 140 doctoral candidates are currently
pursuing their doctorates in academic projects funded by Audi.
Since 2014, the Company has partnered with the “Stifterverband
für die Deutsche Wissenschaft” (Association for the Promotion
of Science and Humanities in Germany) to support a new chair
of “Operations Management and Process Innovation” at the
German Graduate School of Management and Law in Heilbronn,
in addition to the five endowed chairs previously established.
Audi supports other knowledge transfer projects as well as
university research projects. Under the motto “Experiencing
Science,” we offer members of the general public the oppor-
tunity to attend various specialist lectures as part of the
“Audi Colloquium” series of events. A total audience of more
than 2,400 attended the various events in this series in the
past fiscal year.
/ SOCIAL MATTERS AND SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT
Social matters and social involvement are a priority for the
Audi Group and its employees.
In the past fiscal year, around 1,000 employees participated in
100 social projects connected to the Company on the “Audi
Volunteer Days” held at the Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm and GyƉr
(Hungary) locations. Many departments also supported social
causes in the form of “team campaigns” held over the course
of the year.
Since the “Audi Volunteers” initiative was launched in 2012,
around 2,950 employees have given practical assistance to
good causes and carried out some 22,300 hours of charitable
work in approximately 325 social projects. These projects have
attracted donations totaling almost EUR 200,000 by way of
financial support.
Last year, over 99 percent of employees contributed to the
Christmas fundraising campaign, organized by the Works Coun-
cil since 1977. The amount raised by the employees, which is
then supplemented by additional contributions from the Com-
pany, reached the record sum of EUR 910,000. As every year, the
money raised goes towards regional social and charitable causes
at the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm locations.
Many of our employees also signed up to the “spare cents”
campaign, where employees donate the cents remaining after
the decimal point on their monthly payslip. In 2014, a total of
EUR 250,000 was raised in this way for the projects run by
“terre des hommes” benefiting street children.