912,000

PLANTED TREES

IT COVERS AN

AREA OF

190

HECTARES,

ORIGINAL

SOLUTIONS

THE NEW FURNACE HAS

IMPROVED ERGONOMICS IN

THE FOUNDRY

WHICH

EQUALS

290

ONE DECIDUOUS

TREE PRODUCES

365

FOOTBALL

FIELDS

LITRES OF OXYGEN

PER YEAR

WHICH IS

620.5

ONE

HECTARE OF FOREST

ANNUALLY TURNS

KILOGRAMMES

15

TONNES OF CO2 INTO

OXYGEN

Source: ŠKODA AUTO

and National Museum

of Agriculture

I

n the PKG/1 – Foundry department, the

alloy is prepared in shaft-melting furnaces. Here, they melt aluminium ingots

and returnable material from the technological flow of the Foundry, as well

as non-conforming parts of the cylinder

blocks produced mainly during the production start-up on the casting machines, i.e. at the time when the parameters

of the entire process are configured. The

semi-finished blocks comprise casted-in

cast iron cylinder liners, which must be

removed from the melt before it can be

reused. They are separated manually by

the furnace operators, who use “digging

tools” to pull the liners out of the melting

chamber. It is physically strenuous work,

and, in terms of ergonomics, shaft furnaces are not ideal for this activity.

Since October this year, a new low-capacity melting furnace used to process

cylinder blocks has been in operation at

the Foundry. It is a special unit with a suitable technical solution that has helped

to improve ergonomic conditions by reducing the physical load on the furnace

operators. The furnace is equipped with a

mechanism that allows for double tilting

of the entire unit. The first position facilitates the pulling of the cylinder liners out

of the melting chamber (see photo above), and the second position is used to

pour the alloy into the transfer pan (see

photo below). RED

RETURNING

LUNGS TO NATURE

AFTER 13 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, ‘ONE TREE

PLANTED FOR EVERY CAR SOLD’ PROGRAMME

CLOSES IN ON 1 MILLION

A

t the time when the bark

beetle is ravaging Czech forests, the carmaker has managed to return greenery to nature in more than 50 places a year. The

ŠKODA Trees grant programme,

which was established in 2007, will

exceed 912,000 planted trees by

the end of December. Its success

can also be ascribed to the fact that

this year alone, 54 entities (mainly

from the Central Bohemia and Hradec Králové regions) requested contributions. However, the seedlings

were not only headed to the vicinity of ŠKODA AUTO plants. Among

the most important was aid to the oldest Czech national park, KRNAP, as

well as other regions, such as South

Moravia and the Šumava Protected

Area. Thanks to the grants, historic

alleys of trees and windbreaks are returning to the landscape; landfills, public areas and industrial environments

are reforested; and greenery is being

restored post-disaster. The fact that

it is one of the carmaker’s main socially responsible activities satisfies a

large number of employees who are

actively involved in planting, even in

their spare time. In addition, their family members, secondary vocational

school students, dealers and customers are also lending a hand. This

year, a number of departments have

included planting among their team

events under the Role Model Programme 2.0. RED

TREES ARE WIZARDS

THAT SOOTHE, LOWER

TEMPERATURE, RELIEVE

HEAT AND ABSORB CARBON

DIOXIDE

One example

for all

The PFS-P – Programme

Management team significantly

contributed to the desired

1 million planted trees. At

the beginning of November,

it planted more than 1,000

seedlings of oaks and pines in

record time under the Role Model

Programme 2.0. They did this

on an area of 0.75 hectares in

the vicinity of Ledec near Mladá

Boleslav. Within the framework

of the ŠKODA Trees programme,

ŠKODA employees have created

a continuous wort area from

which a new and healthy mixed

forest will eventually emerge.

9