No, a VDF just proves that, given a certain input, you spent a certain amount of time to compute the unique (!) VDF output. As said, this computation must be carried out sequentially. Of course, it can still be sped up by creating an ASIC (the same technology used for Bitcoin miners nowadays). However, there is not point in running multiple ASICs (like a Bitcoin mining farm) because the computation cannot be parallelized and the output is unique. Thus, running one ASIC has exactly the same effect as running thousands ASICs and there is no energy waste.
If you go by the usual, energy-wasting meaning of "proof of work" that is also the one relevant to the discussion (i.e., Bitcoin-style PoW which is described in the article), then no.