Bentley’s global focus on sustainability
This year’s Auto Trader New Car Awards saw Bentley take home the Sustainability Initiative award as determined by the expert judges from the Carbon Literacy Project. The judges were hugely impressed with Bentley’s global focus on tackling climate change through the Bentley Environmental Foundation which you find out more about below.
What is The Bentley Environmental Foundation?
The Bentley Environmental Foundation was established in June 2023. Through partnering with globally renowned NGOs and charities, our co-created environmental projects aim to help solve some of the most pressing environmental challenges facing humanity today.
In the spirit of Bentley’s longstanding tradition of innovation and boldness, we wanted to create a unique Foundation. Different to the traditional guise of a Foundation, we wanted to create an impact beyond philanthropy. Climate change cannot be tackled alone, and through this approach, we have created real, lasting impact for the environment through our projects, whilst also engaging and influencing our colleagues, customers and retailers.
How did it come about?
The Foundation was established as part of Bentley’s bold ambitions to become the leader in sustainable luxury mobility through our Beyond100 business strategy, and as part of our Advancing Life Chances strategy focussing on supporting people and planet to thrive. To ensure a lasting impact, we developed a distinctive, innovative approach to modern environmental grant-making alongside the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), experts in corporate giving for 100 years. Our Foundation strategy focusses on three distinct pillars:
• Accelerating Drawdown
• Supporting Changemakers
• Reimagining Sustainable Luxury
Why are you doing it?
Bentley has been providing extraordinary luxury experiences for our customers since 1919, and like many other businesses, we still have much to learn about how we can contribute to a more sustainable future. Above all, we recognise that the automotive industry has an impact on climate change, and through Beyond100, we are changing every aspect of our operations, transforming into a values-led, end-to-end carbon neutral luxury brand over the next decade. Through funding NGOs at the cutting edge of climate solutions, or engaging our colleagues, customers and retailers, the Foundation has already become integral in catalysing environmental change beyond our own business needs.
Despite existing for under a year, the Foundation’s projects already span five continents across eleven countries and has seen incredible results including:
• Planting 200,000 mangrove trees in Kenya and restored 15,000 m² of seagrass in Spain and Portugal
• Two projects will feature in a BBC documentary releasing on World Ocean Day in June
• Funded a scientific expedition leading to The Dominican Republic formally committing to protecting >30 per cent of its waters
• In a VWG collaboration with Audi Environmental Foundation and Ferry Porsche Foundation, in Thailand we are preventing waste entering oceans
• Transitioned the Ray of Hope prize competition for ecopreneurs into an accelerator, scaling support for nature-inspired solutions
• Working alongside renowned climate scientist Dr. Jonathan Foley, influencing billions of philanthropic capital and investments as founding partners of Drawdown’s Capital Coalition
What’s next?
We’ve got big plans for the year ahead including:
• Building our relationships with our partners, working together to scale-up existing projects and create new ones
• Expanding the Foundation ‘family’ by inducting new partners to complement our current cohort
• In regular ‘family’ sessions, encouraging our partners to collaborate and share best practices on sustainability topics
• Further engagement with Bentley retailers, encouraging them to think and act more sustainably
• Creating a theory of change for the Foundation to have the greatest impact possible on the environment"