Against this background, Volkswagen has taken a proactive
move towards sustainability in supply (chain) management.
The company initiated an action research project from January
2003 until August 2004 in co-operation with the University of
Oldenburg (scientific part) and different departments of the
entire Volkswagen group (practical part). The project was
mainly driven by the five-person core team (three from Volkswagen,
one each from the environment, human resources, and
purchasing department, and two from the University of Oldenburg).
The major structural backbone of the project was a
series of six internal workshops which brought all company internal
actors together. The process of conducting the project
was of major importance, especially regarding the application
of action research methodology. As this methodology and research
process taken in the project has already been described
elsewhere [56], this paper will cover this only briefly, and
concentrate instead on the outcomes of the project.