GKN Automotive Publishes First Sustainability Report

London, UK, 12 June 2023 - GKN Automotive, the global leader in drive systems, has published its first standalone sustainability report, Innovating for Change, representing a crucial milestone in measuring the company’s progress against its targets.

GKN Automotive launched its sustainability strategy in 2021, introducing a new framework for the company to coordinate existing sustainability activities under four strategic pillars: Our People, Climate Action, Responsible Sourcing and Our Impact. These focus areas clarify the company’s approach to developing the next generation of talent, decarbonising its products and operations, working with suppliers to uphold ESG standards, and delivering a positive impact on the communities it operates in. Underpinning this is a strong focus on operating the business ethically, safely and securely.¹

As part of this strategy, GKN Automotive set key targets under each pillar aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example: ensuring 33% female membership of the executive team by 2030, ensuring 75% of electricity consumed is from certified renewables by 2030, and ensuring that, by 2025, 50% of annual expenditure contributes towards the decarbonisation of the automotive sector.

GKN Automotive’s Innovating for Change report publishes the company’s progress against all targets to date. Some of the 2022 highlights include:

• 86% of Research & Development budget was spent on decarbonisation
• 99% of all waste was diverted from landfill
• Up to 30GWh reduction in energy consumption via initiatives, achieved, in part, by the implementation of energy monitoring systems, heat recovery systems and photovoltaic cells
• 0.1% accident frequency rate
• Zero conflict minerals knowingly sourced
• Over £770,000 donated to charitable causes globally
• New supplier assessment tool introduced to ensure even greater transparency throughout our supply chain

The report also announces GKN Automotive’s net zero target of 2045, which has been submitted to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for validation this year. To achieve this, the company will focus on four key areas:

1. Increasing energy efficiency across its global plants
2. Increasing its sourcing of on-site and off-site renewable electricity
3. Increasing its engagement with suppliers on sustainability
4. Continuing to invest in technologies that contribute to the decarbonisation of the industry

Dr. Clare Wyatt, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer at GKN Automotive, comments: “The automotive industry plays an essential role in decarbonising the road transport sector and enabling the global transition to net zero through replacing vehicles that run on fossil fuels with battery powered electric vehicles. Our role in GKN Automotive is to manage that transition and in doing so, to drive a cleaner, more sustainable world.

“I’m immensely proud of the determination and focus shown by our employees to ensure our work in sustainability is carried out comprehensively, and I feel honoured to share the results of our efforts in this report. We are in a great position to be at the forefront of change in our industry, and we will continue to integrate sustainability throughout the business, turning our strategy into action.”

Markus Bannert, CEO of GKN Automotive, comments: “I’m proud of the work underway, and I’m absolutely clear we have more to learn and much more to do. We will continue to work in partnership with all of our stakeholders, our employees, our communities, our customers, our suppliers and our new shareholder Dowlais Group plc to ensure GKN Automotive continues to be a world-leading, sustainable business that responsibly and ethically drives a cleaner, more sustainable world.”

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The reporting period covers GKN Automotive’s Financial Year 2022, from 1 January to 31 December 2022. GRI reporting principles have been used to describe the approach and performance related to the company’s management of material sustainability topics.

¹ Read more about the full strategy here

ABOUT GKN AUTOMOTIVE

GKN Automotive is a world-leading global automotive technology company at the forefront of innovation. Its origins date back to 1759 and for the last 70 years it has been putting key technologies into series production. It is the trusted partner for most of the world’s automotive companies, specialising in developing, building, and supplying market-leading drive systems and advanced ePowertrain technologies. It is the global leader in sideshafts, with eight out of ten of the world’s best-selling cars outside China using its sideshaft technology. GKN Automotive’s first eDrive system was fitted to a production car over 20 years ago; today, over two million electrified vehicles worldwide are powered by this technology.

For further information, please contact:

GKN Automotive
Corrie Raine
External Communications Manager
Email: corrie.raine@gknautomotive.com