Our Approach to Sustainability
Our values drive our approachAt EnerSys, sustainability, reliability, and resilience are core to our values and embodied in our daily operations. Our products address global challenges such as climate change, decarbonization, efficient goods distribution, grid reliability, telecommunications, and innovation. Our batteries and energy storage solutions contribute to a resilient, low-carbon future. |
OUR POLICIES GUIDE OUR ACTIONS
Our sustainability policies underscore our unwavering dedication to excellence in managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, encompassing not only our internal operations but also extending throughout our supply chain. These standards apply to every employee, contractor, operating unit, vendor and supplier within the organization, and the Board and senior executive team oversee compliance. Our policies serve as the compass for shaping our strategy and programs, ensuring a perpetual cycle of monitoring and enhancing our performance. Our policies undergo thorough annual reviews conducted by subject matter experts (SMEs), ensuring relevance and accuracy, and updates are implemented as necessary. Our sustainability policies can be seen here.
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“Sustainability is part of who we are at EnerSys, it’s something that all of our stakeholders – investors, customers and employees – care about and want to see more of.” Lisa Hartman |
Our Sustainability Goals & Commitments
Alignment With SDGs
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is a call to companies to align their business strategies and operations with ten universal principles on human rights, labor, the environment and more, and to take actions to advance societal goals. More than 20,000 companies in 167 countries participate in the Compact, including EnerSys. Our corporate policies adhere to the UNGC. Our corporate policies and actions adhere to the UNGC’s 10 Principles.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, embraced by United Nations (UN) member states in 2015, outlines a global plan for peace, prosperity, and sustainability for current and future generations. Central to this agenda are the 17 SDGs, urging global action across developed and developing nations to address climate change, eliminate poverty, enhance health and education, reduce inequalities, and promote economic growth.
EnerSys is dedicated to advancing the SDGs, aiming to make a positive impact through our products, operations, community involvement, and workplace. We are focused on contributing significantly to the top three SDGs where we believe our impact is most substantial:
- SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
- SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
- SDG 13: Climate Action
We aim to leverage the UNGC and the SDGs to further the transition to a low-carbon, clean energy future everywhere, for everyone. Throughout this report, we have indicated where our actions and metrics align with specific SDG targets.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY BETTER PLANTS PROGRAM
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Plants Program helps leading manufacturers boost their resilience and economic competitiveness by supporting improvements in energy efficiency.
As part of the BPP, EnerSys has committed to reducing our energy intensity by 25% over the next 10 years with 2020 as our base-line year.3
ALLIANCE TO SAVE ENERGY
Founded in 1977 by two U.S. senators who recognized the enormous opportunity of energy efficiency, the Alliance to Save Energy is a bipartisan, nonprofit coalition of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders advocating to advance federal energy efficiency policy.
As part of the Alliance to Save Energy, EnerSys is committed to advocating for federal policies that accelerate energy efficiency across industries and sectors.
U.N. GLOBAL COMPACT CEO WATER MANDATE
U.N. CEO Water Mandate is a CEO-led commitment platform for business leaders and learners to advance water stewardship and reduce water stress worldwide by 2050.
Committed companies identify and reduce critical water risks to their businesses, seize water-related opportunities and contribute to water security and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. As of 2022, the Mandate has been endorsed by more than 200 companies from various industry sectors and regions worldwide.
Endorsing companies commit to action across six key elements and report annually on progress:
- Direct Operations
- Supply Chain and Watershed Management
- Collective Action
- Public Policy
- Community Engagement
- Transparency
U.N. Sustainable Development Goals
CEO ACTION FOR DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
EnerSys is proud to be a part of the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, a collaborative of nearly 2,000 CEOs from the world’s leading companies and organizations committed to advancing diversity and inclusion within the workforce. The organization was founded on the belief that diversity, equity and inclusion is a societal issue, not a competitive one, and that CEOs and the business community need to collaborate to drive change.
Member companies agree to take action to create workplace environments where diverse experiences and perspectives are welcomed and where employees feel safe, comfortable and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion. All signatories are leaders of their companies who agree to implement the pledge and support other companies in doing the same.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY BETTER PLANTS PROGRAM
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program helps leading manufacturers boost their resilience and economic competitiveness by supporting improvements in energy efficiency. As part of the program, EnerSys has committed to reducing our energy intensity by 25% over the next ten years with 2020 as our baseline year.
In 2023, EnerSys won the Better Practice Award for the implementation of the EnerSys Operating System (EOS). EnerSys won the Better Project Award in 2024 for implementation of the cold-cube cutting process which significantly reduces emissions and lead exposure.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE SUSTAINABLE COMPANY AWARD
The Award-winning EnerSys Operating System: In 2023, EnerSys won the distinguished Energy Efficiency Initiative of the Year award as part of Environmental Finance’s Sustainable Company Awards. The recognition was given specifically for the implementation of the EOS, a lean management program designed to identify, reduce, or eliminate excess waste and associated costs across its operations. View our press release to learn more.
Our Sustainability Journey
This report builds on our commitment to labor and human rights, sound governance and accountability, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility. The timeline below illustrates the steps we have taken since the launch of our sustainability program, and our adherence to internationally recognized frameworks, and demonstrates our commitment to rigorous and transparent disclosures.
Our Stakeholders
CUSTOMERS & PARTNERS
As our customers and partners heighten their focus on sustainability, they are expressing a clear desire for their suppliers to follow suit. We understand that our products and services play a crucial role in helping our customers achieve their sustainability objectives, and we are committed to ensuring that our own operations reflect and support these goals.
EMPLOYEES
Employees are also deeply invested in the practices of their employers. Attracting and retaining top talent necessitates aligning with employees’ values and addressing their concerns regarding ESG matters. Similarly, we must extend the same consideration to the families, friends and neighbors within the communities where we operate and reside.
INVESTORS
Investors increasingly recognize companies that excel in ESG metrics as effectively managed and better equipped to navigate future operational, financial and regulatory landscapes. This includes addressing both short and long-term challenges related to climate change and the global shift towards a low-carbon economy.
SUPPLIERS
EnerSys works with more than seven thousand suppliers, sourcing goods and services from all over the world. In 2023, we sent out our first supplier ESG survey, working with our supply chain to begin the process of measuring and reporting on supply chain ESG topics.
REGULATORS
Regulators worldwide are also looking at new corporate requirements around ESG. As a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed company, EnerSys complies with all corresponding U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements. The SEC announced its “Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors’’ plan in 2022. While still a few years from required compliance for EnerSys, we are already preparing for this new regulation by aligning a portion of this 2023 Sustainability report with the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and ESRS.
Enhancement & Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors
Materiality Assessment
In alignment with the EnerSys corporate sustainability strategy, we updated our materiality assessment in 2023 to meet double materiality standards, in which we identify and prioritize material risks, opportunities and potential external impacts. The assessment informs our sustainability reporting and disclosure efforts, ensuring that EnerSys reports on the issues most relevant to stakeholders and the business. EnerSys designed the 2023 assessment to engage the company‘s internal subject matter experts (SMEs) and delve into the environmental, social and governance topics that have the most significant bearing on our operations, stakeholders and the world.
MATERIAL TOPICS
As a result of our assessment, we identified 11 recurring themes related to impacts, risks and opportunities. The themes fall under multiple materiality topics. If new themes emerged, we incorporated them into the materiality topics covered in our 2021 Sustainability Report.3 We employed the following three-part process below.
INPUT
In addition to meetings with external SMEs and researching industry issues trends, we interviewed fifteen internal stakeholders in leadership positions including the Chief Executive Officer and Presidents and individuals from Finance, Legal and Investor Relations, and Operations and Engineering.
ANALYSIS
We aggregated the interview data and sorted it into themes, analyzed the theme frequency* and then narrowed them into key topics. These topics were then cross-referenced against topics identified as material by key sustainability reporting frameworks such as ESRS, GRI, and SASB.
ASSESSMENT
A comprehensive assessment of each topic’s relative impact on our financial performance, including potential financial implications, was conducted, utilizing a scoring system that categorized impacts.* A similar scoring system was employed to assess the relative impacts on society, the economy and the environment.*
Sustainability Update 2023
Learn how EnerSys is contributing to building a sustainable future