The Automotive Partnership Drive Sustainability Releases 2023 Progress Report

Discover the steps forward made by the 16 leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in promoting sustainable raw materials, enhancing workforce well-being, achieving carbon neutrality, and establishing a circular value-chain, in alignment with the partnership’s ambitious 2030 strategy.
Download the report.

Five years after the launch of the Drive Sustainability’s 2030 Strategy, the automotive partnership of 16 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) is steadfastly advancing the implementation, standardisation and harmonisation of supply chain approaches throughout the industry, including joint activities and tools. The 2023 Progress Report outlines the achievements of platform partners - BMW Group, Ford, Volvo Group, Geely, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler Truck, Scania, Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars – and supporters - Great Wall Motor, Ferrari, Volta Trucks, Polestar – in advancing:

The extraction of sustainable raw materials
Workforce wellbeing
Carbon neutrality
Circular value chain

The document also details the efforts made to tackle challenges such as changes in regulation, lack of agreement, multiplicity of protocols/certifications, and other barriers.

Sustainable Raw Materials

Being conscious that responsible sourcing of raw materials is not only about meeting legal requirements but also contributing to a more sustainable, equitable, and ethical global supply chain, Drive Sustainability developed the Common Standard Recognition Framework, a set of criteria to assess the level of maturity of ESG standards in responsible sourcing. Furthermore, partners launched Raw Materials Outlook, a platform dedicated to centralising information about raw materials providing insights on the production and the ESG risks and impacts of 18 raw materials. Partners also actively engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of Congo – in the framework of the project Extractives for Sustainability – in Indonesia – for a pilot on workers’ rights in the Nickel production - as well as automotive suppliers member of DrivePlus.

Workforce wellbeing

Drive Sustainability partners agreed the roll out and promotion of common standardised Business and Human Rights Due Diligence and grievance mechanism in Tier-1 and beyond in the supply chain.

Carbon neutrality

Partners reached common understanding of the landscape of methodologies and tools for carbon measuring and reporting. Currently, they are working toward bridging regional differences in terms of measuring carbon emissions while monitoring policy developments that affect the industry.

To tie all these efforts together, Drive Sustainability have implemented a standardized Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) 5.0 in 2022. The tool has been used to date to evaluate the sustainability performance of 55, 373 suppliers in more than 126 countries and territories on key areas like social and environmental sustainability, health and safety, business ethics and compliance, supplier management.