BMW Steyr plant wins sustainability award.

Steyr.Shaping the future and making our mark. On 31 May of this year, when the winners of the TRIGOS Austria 2012 Awards were announced, the BMW Steyr plant emerged as a clear winner. In what was a hotly contested, high-calibre field of 200 submissions, the BMW Group’s biggest engine plant impressed the judging panel with its host of different sustainability measures and innovative demographic project, “Today for tomorrow” – taking first place in the “Workplace” category.

Plant director Gerhard Wölfel took the opportunity to thank his employees at the TRIGOS gala award ceremony in Vienna: “A huge success for the whole team, an added impetus for us to keep working every day on all aspects of sustainability and shape the future with a strong sense of responsibility.”

In evaluating all the submissions, the judging panel placed particular emphasis on the holistic implementation of economic, environmental and social sustainability – in all areas of business activity.

The BMW Steyr plant stood out for its holistic understanding of sustainable business management. The TRIGOS jury described the “Today for tomorrow” scheme, the aim of which is to support every single employee with their personal health and performance capability and actively manage demographic change, as an extremely forward-thinking programme. “Individual health offers, ergonomics, ideal workstation design through to innovative rotation and workload mix models for operational processes” are cited by Gerhard Wölfel as some of the key components of this scheme.

“Sustainability is not a goal, but a journey. We have to walk the talk – consistently, permanently and comprehensively” says Wölfel. It is the only way to set the right parameters for a competitive plant and for pro-active social responsibility both today and tomorrow. The goal is to achieve sustainable success – in both senses of the word.