The world’s largest provider of sustainability ratings has awarded MAN a gold medal for the first time. This puts the commercial vehicle manufacturer among the top five percent of companies assessed in the “manufacture of motor vehicles” segment.
Since its foundation in 2007, the independent rating agency EcoVadis has built up an international network of more than 100,000 rated companies. For this purpose, experts analyse how well they have integrated the principles of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their business activities and management systems – specifically according to industry, country and company size. MAN has been participating in the assessments since 2014.
The aim of EcoVadis is to produce reliable and globally recognised sustainability assessments. This enables companies to document their own efforts and include their assessment when selecting suppliers. Increasingly, such assessments are the prerequisite for even being considered for new purchases.
MAN far above the industry average
MAN achieved 72 out of 100 points in the overall evaluation, while the industry average in the “manufacture of motor vehicles” segment is 45 points. The high score secures MAN a place among the top five percent of all 104 companies assessed, as 97 percent of them scored worse. This is why EcoVadis has awarded the commercial vehicle manufacturer a gold medal for the first time, following a bronze medal in 2021.
EcoVadis evaluates companies in four areas. MAN achieved the highest score in the area of “Environment” (80 points), followed by “Labour and Hu-man Rights” (70 points), “Sustainable Procurement” (70 points) and “Ethics” (60 points). The basis for the assessments was the current Sustainability Report 2021, which is based on the fundamentally revised sustainability strategy.
MAN’s transparent and comprehensive reporting and progress tracking on all relevant sustainability aspects (e.g. the audited sustainability report in accordance with the GRI standard), the commitment to sustainability goals via published information and measures already implemented (e.g. the SBTi goals) as well as the guidelines and policies anchored in the company on the four assessment areas (e.g. the MAN environmental policy) were particularly highlighted in the assessment.
New MAN sustainability strategy bears fruit
Sustainability is anchored at the core of MAN’s new corporate strategy. “This is now bearing fruit, as our leap forward in the EcoVadis assessment shows,” says MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp. “For us, this is an incentive to further increase our efforts in all areas considered – because sustainability is not an outcome, but a continuous process. And even in a difficult market environment, we regard sustainable action as a prerequisite for being able to com-pete in the future.”
In particular, the interdisciplinary cooperation of all MAN divisions made the success in the EcoVadis assessment possible. The company intends to continue along this path in the future: After the detailed evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses named by the experts, MAN will further optimise its measures in the area of sustainability.