Why Sustainability matters to your business in 2022

There is no question that climate change is one of, if not the greatest challenge facing humanity right now.

But does this affect the automotive industry?

This is a question we looked to answer in a recent webinar hosted by John O’Hanlon, CEO, Waylands Automotive and featuring sustainability experts and advocates from our industry.

Kicking off the session John O’Hanlon makes it clear that sustainability is of paramount importance to the automotive sector. Not only because of the overarching need to cut carbon but also because its matters to consumers, so much so that a recent survey by EY showed sustainability was the number one consumer value. “Our customers and our staff care about doing the right thing by the environment” John states.

Training for a brighter future

Dave Coleman, Managing Director of the Carbon Literacy Project highlights that 25% of the UK’s emissions come from road transport. He believes that this means you can view our industry in two ways, as either a significant problem that needs solving or, as he subscribes to, a massive opportunity for a single industry to make a huge difference to emissions. That’s where the Carbon Literacy Project comes in. Dave explains that the Trust was setup to help educate all levels of the supply chain on climate change to help effect change throughout an industry.

To do this, the Trust works with organisations to deploy a peer-to-peer education programme within their organisation. This approach is taken but people naturally trust their peers who also have more of an influence than having experts or professional trainers deliver the programme.

Over the course of a day, participants are educated on the realities of climate change and at the end of the training asked to submit to commitments on how they will reduce their own impact on the climate, on both an individual level and within their organisation.

We have been working with the Trust to develop a programme bespoke to the automotive industry, which is now available, free of charge, to any organisation within our sector.

One retail group has taken part in this programme was Sinclair Group.

Cutting carbon for your community and customers

Sustainability is a priority for Sinclair group explains Clive Williams, Group Sustainability Manager. For Sinclair group it starts at the top with all the managing board being Carbon Literacy certified to effect change from the top. But they have also focussed on each team with at least one person in each team being a certified trainer.

It is through a desire to do good for their people, customers and community that has led Sinclair group to focus on sustainability. This focus began by evaluating their current carbon output which they found to be almost 1,500 tons of carbon per year.

Clive’s focus has been on bringing this figure down through larger initiatives, such as transitioning their vehicle fleet to electric and hybrid right down to smaller initiatives, like using energy efficient lightbulbs that make a real difference to their carbon output.

But beyond this, Clive has been working Sinclair Group’s suppliers and partners to help them reduce their own carbon footprint and ultimately spread the initiative throughout their network, creating a wide-reaching impact.

All these initiatives are leading to a drastic reduction in Sinclair Groups direct and indirect emissions and are helping to position the Group as a sustainable brand to consumers.

Helping consumers make the right choice

But the fight against climate change shouldn’t just focus on reducing the emissions of businesses in the automotive sector. Paddy O’Connell, Head of Operations at the NFDA (National Franchised Dealers Association) highlights the role the industry needs to play in helping consumers make more environmentally friendly decisions when it comes to their vehicles, specifically helping to drive electric vehicle adoption.

Retailers are the main point of contact for consumers on their car buying journey so it falls to them to educate them on the benefits of electric vehicles and to allay any misgivings they may have by educating them on electric vehicle ownership.

To help with this the NFDA have set up the Electric Vehicle Approved scheme which recognises those retailers’ demonstrating excellence in the electric vehicle sector. You can find out more about the scheme by clicking here.

Individual changes for a big impact

Harry Pennington, Account Director at Auto Trader shared how the implementing the toolkit has led to Auto Trader’s sustainability journey now being led by employees, with an employee lead sustainability guild now guiding the organisations sustainability initiatives.

But he also speaks of the importance of the individual changes we can all make. Harry explains that, through going through carbon literacy training, he was able to measure his carbon output and take steps to reduce it, so much so that he has now halved his carbon footprint through simple changes, such as how he commutes and what he eats.

It’s these changes, big and small, that will ultimately help us to combat climate change, providing a better future for humanity and out industry.

Click here to watch the webinar in full.

You can register for a free carbon literacy open training session on the 8th/9th March by clicking here.