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Auto Supplier ESG Report Topics: Themes, Insights and Opportunities

During our recent study of ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting habits of the top 25 North American automotive suppliers (according to Automotive News’ Top Suppliers Listing), we uncovered some 200 topics which we categorized into 12 larger buckets.

Here’s the category breakdown.

• 29.5% related to Environment / Energy
• 16.5% related to Product / Supply Chain
• 12% related to Business / Growth
• 10.5% related to Employee Health / Safety
• 8.5% related to Recruitment – HR
• 6.5% related to Community
• 4.5% related to Diversity / Equality
• 3% related to Customer / Supplier
• 3% related to Data Security
• 3% related to Education
• 2% related to Compliance
• 1% related to Leadership / Governance

Taking a closer look at these topics, we discovered that most auto supplier ESG reports focused on these top five categories:

• 76% covered Environment/Energy
• 68% covered Product / Supply Chain
• 64% covered Business / Growth
• 56% covered Employee Health / Safety
• 52% covered Recruitment / HR

While not covering these seven key topics:

• 60% did not cover Community
• 64% did not cover Diversity & Equality
• 76% did not cover Data Security
• 76% did not cover Education
• 76 did not cover Customer / Supplier
• 84% did not cover Compliance
• 92% did not cover Leadership / Corporate Governance

Clearly, there are many opportunities for ESG reporting improvement for suppliers:

1. Supplier ESG reports seem to be more about E (Environmental) and less about S (Social) and G (Governance). In this current era of distrust, the more focus suppliers can put on transparency, social and governance topics, the greater the benefit will be.

2. There’s a gap in coverage of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion efforts, with almost two-thirds of reports neglecting this topic. This is another ESG reporting area that can help a supplier with investors,  automaker customers, employees and recruits.

3. There’s an opportunity to use ESG reports as a recruiting tool. Many of today’s employees want to work for companies they can believe in, for companies who are good corporate citizens and are working to make the world a better place. Auto suppliers ESG reports are an ideal platform to showcase the initiatives to attract next-generation talent.

If you’d like to learn more about automotive supplier ESG reporting or obtain insights on how your company’s next ESG communications can be enhanced, let us know.

And if you have a specific question, you can ask us here: bianchipr@bianchipr.com.

You might also be interested in:

• The ABCs of ESG: Defining Top ESG Reporting Terms
• Five Key Insights from the Top Automotive Suppliers’ ESG Reports
• Three Reasons ESG Communications Are Crucial for Automotive & Vehicle Technology Suppliers