Audi explores meaningful change in new sustainability-centered series

February 22, 2022

Audi employee Markus Zettl meets with Godje and Pauline Mahn to discuss upcycling. Image credit: Audi

German automaker Audi is contemplating how collaboration leads to meaningful change in a new video series.

#ChangeThroughExchange plucks Audi employees out of their daily routines and inserts them into conversation with leaders in sustainability. The series takes monumental topics like client change and adds a human spin, proving that global challenges are closer to being overcome when people work together.

Leading through conversation
#ChangeThroughExchange is an immensely intimate series, with each video installment centered around one Audi employee engaged in meaningful conversation with someone who has devoted their life’s work to sustainability strides.

In the first episode, “How to build a sustainable society,” Audi procurement employee Nico Habich connects with visionary, dreamer and environmental advocate Ben Hadamovsky.

Mr. Hadamovsky discusses how he thinks he can be doing even more in regards to his sustainable practices.

The film starts with intimate views into the men’s separate lives — Mr. Habich bundled up on a jog and Mr. Hadamovsky moving around his own home. In endearing splicing, viewers watch one-shot where Mr. Habich pours himself cereal before cutting to the next shot of Mr. Hadamovsky doing the same in his own home.

The two ultimately meet at the Tempelhof ecovillage to discuss how sometimes the freedom of living individually can ostensibly clash with a global responsibility to live more sustainably.

As the men traverse the ecovillage, walk through other spacious places and ultimately sit down to share coffee, the intimate feel of the entire series is established.

By the end of every installment in the series, both the Audi employee and sustainability expert feel like friends to the viewer. This feeling empowers others to contemplate how they too can connect with others in making positive changes for the world by starting with a simple conversation.

The second episode, “Recycling, reusing and rethinking” further establishes the communal theme. The installment follows Audi technical development employee Markus Zettl on his exploration into the world of upcycling and his collaboration with the family responsible for the Godje Mahn Manufaktur.

In the second installment, Mr. Zettl even gets to try his hand at sewing.

The episode begins with a similar setup to the first, showing both the Audi employee and those connected with the manufactory engaged in their personal habits — Mr. Zettl working outside his home, Pauline Mahn, manufactory partner typing on a computer in her home. The shot then cuts to Godje Mahn, the owner of Godje Mahn manufactory, Pauline’s mother and tailor, working with a sewing machine.

Establishing personal backgrounds of those featured and a build-up to their meeting, this episode follows the first as all involved ask meaningful questions about sustainability practices.

Godje and Mr. Zettl meet and walk through the forest, exchanging joyful sentiments about their appreciation for nature and beyond. Later, she welcomes him into her workspace and allows him to sew, warning him to watch his fingers as any good friend would.

Ultimately, Mr. Zettl meets with both mother and daughter to discuss their purposes and goals in upcycling.

“It’s really about turning things that are no longer of any value to anyone to fill them once again with new life,” Pauline says.

The video concludes with the sense that the entire series emanates, a sense that a group of people has come together to engage in meaningful conversation, and that they are changed — no matter how faintly — to ponder their role in creating a more sustainable world.

These meaningful conversations have left both Audi employees and those dedicated to environmental betterment feeling a kinship, embarking on a future where they continue asking themselves important questions while pondering how to connect with others in making the world more sustainable.

Showcasing sustainability
Audi has often used its own vehicles to illustrate its sustainability approach, crafting emotive short films of consumers driving disparate Audi vehicles as the automaker lists its plans and efforts.

Last November, Audi centered its sustainability philosophy in two campaign films.

Since the debut of the all-electric e-Tron in 2019, the automaker has increasingly aligned itself with sustainability. In two vignettes, Audi highlighted its efforts to promote electric mobility (see story).

In another extensive effort touching on sustainability, Audi visited a Scottish archipelago.

Located 10 miles beyond the northern edge of the British mainland, Orkney is attracting attention due to its enlightened approach to renewable energy. In a short film, Audi sharedthe energy practices in Orkney and how this could help support the automaker’s vehicles (see story).

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Audi explores meaningful change in new sustainability-centered series

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