Our day-to-day business is aligned with the goals of sustainability which are embedded in our organization’s DNA. Our overarching principle is to provide the widest possible audience with clean and affordable transportation solutions.
Even though the concept of affordability appears purely financial, we view it through the lens of sustainability. Affordability fuels adoption, facilitating the replacement of high-carbon vehicles with their lower-carbon equivalents on a global scale. We are committed to enhancing the integrity of our internal actions for the benefit of our employees, stakeholders, and the global community.
In 2022, we advanced our initiatives and targets set in 2020 and 2021, which include:
There’s very little in today’s world that can be achieved individually. Most of the great accomplishments are born out of teamwork. Fighting climate change is a global challenge. That is why at Westport Fuel Systems, we focus on meaningful collaborations. In 2022, we continued our search for cost-effective near-zero greenhouse gas emissions and solutions by pursuing our hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine project. In October 2022, together with our partner Scania AB, we announced impressive results of the H2 HPDI fuel system for heavy-duty transport, producing significant brake thermal efficiency improvements and demonstrating an affordable pathway to employ a zero-carbon fuel using existing engine architecture, manufacturing infrastructure, and supply chain. We also started new projects, one of which is our collaboration with Johnson Matthey, a global leader in sustainable technologies, to develop an emissions aftertreatment system for H2 HPDI with the goal of reducing emissions from H2 HPDI combustion. Moreover, we entered into a partnership with the City of Changzhou, China, to build the new hydrogen innovation center and manufacturing facility in the Changzhou Hydrogen Valley.
Strong ESG practices continue to be the fabric of our business and are embedded in our decision-making process.
Sustainability is at the core of our technology strategy, product portfolio, and operations.
In 2022, we placed great emphasis on developing our governance system by defining a new ESG organizational structure for the company and describing in detail the roles and responsibilities at each of the three levels of our “ESG pyramid” i.e., top management, cross-functional ESG team, and location representatives. A strong organizational foundation is fundamental to efficiently managing ESG issues knowing where we stand supports setting achievable targets.
Thanks to our 2022 initiatives, we are at the advanced stage of implementing, while building and improving our existing data collection mechanisms, training modules, procedures, and policies.
2022 we started analyzing a way to spread our ESG values to our suppliers and ensure they maintain ethical and ESG standards. At the end of 2022, we conducted a survey among our suppliers requesting them to review our sustainability commitment and confirm whether they have implemented appropriate policies. On the environmental side, we are also in the process of examining the carbon footprint of our supply chain (scope 3) in a cradle-to-grave approach. We will continue these processes in 2023.
The year 2022 was punctuated with global obstacles that still challenge our progress towards ESG goals. One notable hurdle was the conflict in Ukraine. This regrettable event not only impacted our clients and business associates but also caused a significant shift in the global economy.
However, no matter how great the challenges, at Westport, we believe that as an organization we are able to face them and continue to advance our ESG goals and values. In 2022, we saw our ability to mobilize internal resources to help Ukrainians by organizing internal charity events. We continue to educate, promote, and publicly advocate in favor of our alternative solutions, which we hope will raise awareness among citizens, investors, and lawmakers.
Listening to global markets, there is now an undeniably louder voice highlighting the need for a diverse portfolio of options, recognizing there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach to decarbonize transportation. Given the variety of technologies and fuels we have today, with an expected increase in that variety in the future, we believe gaseous fuels and our fuel system solutions will occupy a significant and expanding position in that diverse future.
Sustainable low-carbon transport solutions must be affordable – cost matters. This is why we have created a solution using hydrogen, a zero-carbon fuel, that utilises the same base internal combustion engine used around the world today, driving cleaner performance that does not comprimise efficiency. This continues to be our strategy going forward.
Westport ESG strategy was approved by the Board in early 2021 and is focused on taking concrete steps to ensure that the way the organization does business has positive impacts throughout the value chain. Since this strategy was adopted, Westport has already seen progress, including:
starting the Scope3 emissions calculation
our products reduced CO2 emissions of 1,498,438 tons of CO2
7% decrease in Scope 2 indirect emissions
54.5% increase in energy consumption from solar panels
reduced emissions by 4.8% in Poland and 12.6% in Italy
over 89% of total waste from the reported operating sites is recycled
71% of our +900 suppliers are local
"Label of Excellence" in gender equality by the Piedmont region for the Italian facility
32% global workforce are female
4% voluntary turnover rate
17% management are female
150% increase in Lost Time Injuries
89% non- employee directors are independent
100% targeted employees trained in Code of Conduct, including anti- bribery
44% female representation at the Board level
further structuring of the ESG governance pyramid
4 years say-on- pay advisory
100% suppliers delivered with a ESG survey