--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: A Window of Opportunity image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Window of Opportunity “The whole automotive industry right now is in a huge transition phase: such as decarbonization, electrification, and circular economy. All these topics have one certain thing in common - that they cannot be solved alone,” says Philipp Eder, Project Manager for Circular Economy Procurement Strategy at Audi. For Audi, the future is an attitude and a more sustainable future is at the core of the company’s strategy. This progressive premium brand is working continually to reduce its ecological footprint, with a clear focus on the responsible handling of resources. Audi has a holistic view on sustainability, considering the entire value chain. The vision for the future is a closed circular economy: reduce, reuse, recycle. “Our goal is to use secondary materials everywhere it is technically possible and economically reasonable to do so.” says Phillip Eder, Project Manager for Circular Economy Procurement Strategy. “As of now, for example, old car glazing is not being used to produce new car windows. We want to change that.” The glass recycling pilot project is an intriguing example of how Audi and its partner companies are working to move materials into intelligent cycles. “The pilot project Glass Recycling is a very good example of how we want to introduce loops within our supply chain. Together with our partners, we are recycling unrepairable broken windshields from our dealer network, glass that has already been in the hands of our customers. We can use the cullets and bring it back into an automotive application as a new windshield. It’s very easy to explain but not easy to do” explains Philipp Eder. Using secondary materials is a tough challenge and the process is complex. First, the car glass is crushed through an innovative recycling process. After that, all non-glass contaminants such as adhesive residue are separated out. The glass cullets recovered this way are melted down and processed into new flat glass. This plate glass is then turned into new car windows and windshields. If this pilot project is successful, the glass manufactured this way could potentially be used for the Audi Q4 e-tron models. Recycling damaged glass means that less energy and raw material have to be used overall to produce windows – using processed materials ultimately makes it possible to reduce the demand for primary materials like quartz sand. “We are now in a one-year testing phase and we believe we have found an innovative process which is working and that we can introduce for series production,” says Philipp. Audi considers a vehicle’s entire product life cycle, not just its emissions during use. By the end of 2025, Audi wants to reduce the environmental impact of Group sites by 35% per car produced compared with 2010\. “Sustainability is always about complexity and challenges. I think it’s crucial to have big visions but to start with small steps.”, says Lukas Petersik, Project Manager for Sustainability Risk Management & Capacity Building in Supply Chain, “Nobody will be able to save our planet alone and that’s why for Audi the future is more than simply taking action, it’s an attitude.” [](https://jadserve.postrelease.com/trk?ntv%5Fat=4&ntv%5Fui=e9c24ac7-882a-4309-b8c0-7d0444e03eb7&ntv%5Fa=L%5FcHAUklZAZxkRA&ntv%5Ffl=H8%5FNIX%5FfVs0Ik5QLWe2EYNtJbBFPr4oO8beyIk5NxBb-fQcW-C-KAJRbvpWQt21eAKex%5FPaPFRh3lubkSQtBlDHxFMFm3nGRpIstxGltxb9JJoPoFcANinBMzyaI3wJYvPYS1KCEAX6vlQnc9tI-zfoM%5FZB5CoX6zX2dKVbFcShgB0sqoZVQ5hYdCvBV0TTlyw6C2ZD74JyfcvMn1l-O3OCfOkGELu14uk4GTysEn4--4M0Pk7nZFNiP5Q1koEmOBciZHOHqkfNaaoJPx96lEf6e3yKSvfWD50ervSupq-RDB7Jw2YK6EmteNElLB4tzCgK26%5F7jPu39ip-b5R0T0ROHMvHD9afXWu6gEYxUJEg7jT7SpgemxD6Qg5KD2hI9mH55WzM%5FwH%5FQ5p3bXKWxBfUPgubWVfdcbC-aiZDHNgizbgOblZHDiNsChoqsSOaG7-JSnnQl-iF7CN2oCzVHgWdNXJiVj%5Fj230PK6gMxBbE=&ord=-571959129&ntv%5Fht=4T0MagA) This progressive premium brand is working continually to reduce its ecological footprint, with a clear focus on the responsible handling of resources. [Find Out More](https://jadserve.postrelease.com/trk?ntv%5Fat=4&ntv%5Fui=e9c24ac7-882a-4309-b8c0-7d0444e03eb7&ntv%5Fa=L%5FcHAUklZAZxkRA&ntv%5Ffl=H8%5FNIX%5FfVs0Ik5QLWe2EYNtJbBFPr4oO8beyIk5NxBb-fQcW-C-KAJRbvpWQt21eAKex%5FPaPFRh3lubkSQtBlDHxFMFm3nGRpIstxGltxb9JJoPoFcANinBMzyaI3wJYvPYS1KCEAX6vlQnc9tI-zfoM%5FZB5CoX6zX2dKVbFcShgB0sqoZVQ5hYdCvBV0TTlyw6C2ZD74JyfcvMn1l-O3OCfOkGELu14uk4GTysEn4--4M0Pk7nZFNiP5Q1koEmOBciZHOHqkfNaaoJPx96lEf6e3yKSvfWD50ervSupq-RDB7Jw2YK6EmteNElLB4tzCgK26%5F7jPu39ip-b5R0T0ROHMvHD9afXWu6gEYxUJEg7jT7SpgemxD6Qg5KD2hI9mH55WzM%5FwH%5FQ5p3bXKWxBfUPgubWVfdcbC-aiZDHNgizbgOblZHDiNsChoqsSOaG7-JSnnQl-iF7CN2oCzVHgWdNXJiVj%5Fj230PK6gMxBbE=&ord=-571959129&ntv%5Fht=4T0MagA) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/audi/a-window-of-opportunity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/audi/a-window-of-opportunity/"},"headline":"A Window of Opportunity","datePublished":"2026-07-20T09:47:18.174Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T09:47:11.573Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/audi/a-window-of-opportunity/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/audi/a-window-of-opportunity/","name":"A Window of Opportunity"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"B9A20D8E5294407096A1EA925F8BB25D","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1LZBuW43/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-05-20T10:30:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1LZBuW43.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/branded-content/audi/a-window-of-opportunity/","duration":"PT3M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/branded-content/audi/a-window-of-opportunity/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```