Sustainability strategy and integration for GKN Automotive

The story

Simply Sustainable has worked with GKN Automotive since early 2021, providing expertise to help build sustainability into the core of its business. Whilst GKN Automotive has a long history of embedding sustainability into its business, we have been able to provide focus and create a strategy that accelerates the company’s purpose of driving a cleaner, more sustainable world.

GKN Automotive wanted to ensure its approach was future-proofed. Our highly experienced sustainability experts and qualified consultants began working on a robust, deep insight of the sector, customers, suppliers and employees, exploring GKN Automotive’s dynamic needs, now and in the future. We conducted a risks and opportunities assessment of sustainability topics as well as a materiality assessment to highlight the top priority focus areas.

Working closely with the team at GKN Automotive, we pride ourselves on building strong working relationships and always being a joy to work with, these priority topics were further evaluated in the context of the business, the automotive manufacturing industry, the global landscape of the company and further external drivers. This analysis informed the development of the strategy, with a framework of KPIs, targets and action plans to achieve the strategy. The strategy was mapped to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), demonstrating how GKN Automotive contributes to the goals by its delivering strategy.

With the strategy in place, it was important to ensure key employees are informed, engaged and inspired about what this means for them. We developed and delivered a series of training sessions to senior leaders in key roles responsible for communicating the strategy to stakeholders. This training equipped employees with a fundamental understanding of sustainability, knowledge about the Sustainability Strategy and the ability to effectively communicate the sustainability work GKN Automotive is delivering.

Simply Sustainable continues to support the successful implementation of the strategy. This has included support with governance processes (including attending Executive Committee meetings), developing a Responsible Sourcing Policy, reviewing internal policies and conducting in-depth research. To showcase the achievements of the strategy, we are delighted to be assisting GKN Automotive in producing its first standalone Sustainability Report.

To find out how Simply Sustainable can help you develop your ESG and sustainability strategy request a call-back from one of our team of experts.