Driving change in the way we address our economic, social, and environmental challenges is high on everyone’s agenda; from achieving net zero, pollution reduction, climate change, and environmental regeneration.

With green issues regularly hitting the headlines, automotive businesses around the world face growing calls to minimize their environmental impact. To ignore this pressure is to risk reputational damage, higher financial costs, and even commercial catastrophe.

To be a successful automotive organization, you need to focus on sustainability to achieve long-term, enduring resilience.

Can standards help your automotive business become sustainable?

Automotive businesses must demonstrate sustainability to be successful – and standards can really help.

Standards advocate best practices, champion sustainability, and boost organizational resilience. They can help you achieve your sustainability goals whatever they may be, for any organization large or small – at the beginning of your sustainability journey or at a point where extra support can help you to achieve objectives and progress onto the next step.

They do this by:

• Leveraging strategic advantage and leadership.

• Enhancing operational effectiveness.

• Managing risk and reputation with compliance.

Living Up to Expectations: Standard BS ISO 14001

For automotive businesses that want to manage their broad environmental impact, standard BS EN ISO 14001 provides a robust framework.

The internationally accepted standard sets out how to put in place an effective environmental management system. Widely adopted by organizations of all sizes since its inception in 1996, it enables you to identify the various ways in which your business impacts the environment; understand the environmental legislation that affects you and seek efficiency savings.

Standard BS EN ISO 14001 helps businesses in the following way:

• Identity and establish the significance of all your environmental impacts.

• Understand which legislation applies to your activities.

• Implement effective operational controls to manage your environmental impacts.

• Improve the efficient use of natural materials.

• Improve waste management.

• Reduce operational costs.

• Sharpen your environmental performance.

• Protect and enhance your reputation.

Save energy and cut costs: Standard BS ISO 50001

Standard BS EN ISO 50001 represents the latest best-practice tool in energy management. It not only helps automotive organizations become more sustainable but also benefits them by attributing direct cost savings, improving corporate reputation, improving compliance, and increasing morale among staff.

The scope of this standard helps organizations gain a deeper understanding of energy consumption in order to drive continual improvement of energy performance. The standard provides a framework to help – whatever your size, sector, or geographical location. It outlines what your business needs to consider in order to develop and implement a robust energy policy, establishing objectives, targets, and action plans to control energy use.

How can the automotive industry achieve a sustainable future?

The pressure on companies to be eco-friendly is not about to go away, while in the future the need to be seen to be green will only rise in commercial importance.

In 2008 the automotive industry began collaborating to support a transformation in internal combustion technology and a reduction in CO2 emissions per kilometre. Developments such as Electric Vehicles (EVs) are helping this. Further sustainability improvements the transport industry can make include:

• Conducting more rigorous lifecycle assessments. • Pursuing low-cost, high-volume manufacturing. • Increasing recycling in supply chains. • Using more sustainable raw materials. • Encouraging legislation to drive the right long-term approaches.

To read more on the topic of EV, Decarbonization, and Net Zero Emissions, click here.

Discover BSI Knowledge

At their core, our standards inform an efficient use of available resources and promote a focus on achieving sustainable supply chain practices - from energy management and material recycling strategies to electric vehicle technologies. Our tailored BSI Knowledge subscription service provides flexibility, access, visibility, and control over the standards and insights your team needs to achieve this objective. Request to learn more.