In Coimbatore, 500 kilometers away, 25 employees at the ZF Wind Power plant spontaneously made a decision: we have to help! So, as ZF employees, they cooperated with the authorities and collected food, vegetables, hygiene articles, and clothing for about 200 families affected by the flood disaster in the devastated city of Chennai.

The flood was the catalyst for a group of now 94 volunteers to come together in 2016. "Until then, help tended to come from individuals, in typical silos. Now we joined forces as a team to achieve more" says plant manager Mr. Deepak Pohekar. Because protecting nature and the environment is a major concern of the team members, they call themselves the "ZF Go Green Team". The team with its mentor Umakanth Papatla wants to make its contribution to a better world in various local and even nationwide actions, also called campaigns. In their campaigns, the ZF Go Green Team cooperates, for example, with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, the traffic police, educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The group, which has now grown to 156 team members, comes from various departments at the ZF plant in Coimbatore. A special feature is that many of them bring their family members along to the campaigns, which increases the impact. Basically, campaigns run inside the plant premises or outside of them for the benefit of society.

Within the plant and on the 66 acres factory site, technically oriented campaigns have taken place so far, as well as campaigns focusing on nature conservation. Technical initiatives include energy-saving measures such as switching to LED lighting, optimized air conditioning, and the use of a reusable packaging system instead of traditional wooden boxes. This 2019 measure alone saves 69 tons of wood waste annually and correspondingly stops cutting of trees for such purpose. Also based on an initiative of the ZF Go Green Team is the introduction of a process that removes oil from the grinding sludge produced in grinding process. About half of the oil is reclaimed and reused in the process, the leftover sludge instead of ending up in the hazardous waste the team found a way to use the same in the cement industry as fuel.

An amazing conservation campaign is the "Mini Forest Project." Here, in 2017, the Go Green team planted saplings they had grown themselves from seed on the edge of the plant premises. This is a contribution to reforestation in this water-scarce region. "We failed with it at the beginning until we learned how to go about it with external expert help," Sasikala Sam recalls with a smile. She works in the Department for Sustainability and Occupational Safety. She is a founding member of the Go Green team as well. With the efforts the team have made considerable progress in converting a barren land into a green oasis. A total of 9200+ trees have been planted on the site to date. In addition, the green activists have created a large pond for rainwater, which they use to irrigate their mini forest during the dry season. The pond and the diversity of trees have resulted in more than 40 species of birds making their home on the ZF site today.

By the way, the manure for the saplings is also naturally produced at the plant. For this purpose, ZF has purchased a mobile composting machine in which kitchen waste from the canteen for the 1000 plus employees is mixed with garden waste. Within two weeks, the organic mixture matures into the best manure. The easy-to-operate Indian-made composting machine produces up to three tons of compost per month. Enough for interested colleagues to take the manure home for their own gardens.

The Go Green team is still involved in several campaigns outside ZF walls. Sponsored by the company, the ZF Go Green Team is involved in four campaigns. The largest of these is the "One Million Trees Campaign," which aims to plant one million trees to reforest the country. Team has succeeded in planting 300000 saplings with 80+ projects. Home Composting is another project that benefits the community and the environment. Composting is done in a simple composter, which is actually a simplified aerated plastic can with a lid. Volunteers of the ZF Go Green team explain how it works. This also contributes to reducing the amount of waste. Another campaign aims to increase biodiversity by protecting the sparrow, which is becoming less common in India. To date, ZF employees from Coimbatore and their families have built and distributed more than 5,000 nesting boxes made of wood waste.

ZF Go green team also worked towards “Save Elephant campaign”. In this initiative the team worked with Forest Department in Walayar forest area to provide water inside the reserve forest for Elephants and wild animals. During the summer periods the water bodies gets dried up and animals face a great challenge in finding the water. In the process they also venture into the human habilitation. This project not only provides water for wild animals but also avoids man-animal conflicts.

These are just a few examples of the activities of the ZF Go Green team. In the last six years these initiatives are getting attention from the company and the society. With this the team is further motivated to continue green activities and hope the group encourages other companies in the same direction. The success of this initiative is the proof that together we can do more. ZF’s "Team beats Silo" is true.