Wrap-up: LeasePlan leads the zero emission mobility debate at World Economic Forum in Davos
LeasePlan returned to Davos last week for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting to help educate heads of state, CEOs of over 1,800 organisations, activists and leaders of civil society about the importance of switching to a sustainable fleet, and what we’re doing to make it happen. The message aligned closely to the theme of this year’s Annual Meeting: “Stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world”.
Here’s a quick wrap up of what we got up to:
Ahead of the meeting, LeasePlan released its 2020 EV Readiness Index, which revealed the level of preparedness of different European countries for electric vehicles (EVs). The Index, which is released every year ahead of Davos, provided great input to conversations around the energy transition, as well as giving insights to policymakers about what they need to do to make going electric a viable option for everyone, no matter where they live.
One of the big issues to come out of the Annual Meeting was the need for large corporates to go further and faster when it comes to tackling the climate emergency. Key to this will be the enforced disclosure of a common set of ESG (Environmental, social and corporate governance) metrics that companies will need to report on every year. This initiative is led by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, who set out his approach in a open discussion at the Forum at the beginning of the meeting:
As a responsible company, LeasePlan is committed to working with partners across its value chain to lower emissions and drive up standards. To support this ambition, LeasePlan also became one of the founding partners of the Global Battery Alliance’s ‘Battery Passport’ initiative. The aim is simple: to align stakeholders across the EV battery value chains through data and ensure we only have clean, safe and ethically produced batteries going into electric cars. Ultimately, all materials that go into the next generation of EV batteries will be trackable and traceable through a blockchain-enabled ‘battery passport’, driving up standards and enabling easier upcycling.
To close the event, LeasePlan also hosted a dinner on the subject of Circular Cars with its partners, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the We Mean Business Coalition, and the Word Economic Forum. The dinner marked the formal launch of the ‘Circular Cars Initiative’, which aims to eliminate automotive emissions across the entire value chain by embracing circular economy principles.
And that’s a wrap for Davos 2020!