Bentley activates colleague support for sustainability goals on World Earth Day

Bentley’s 4,000 colleagues in Crewe are supporting Volkswagen Group’s #Project1Hour programme, by participating in digital team activities focused upon how everyone can better understand climate change and identify on actions and opportunities to make a difference on a personal and professional level.

The Bentley site in Crewe has been certified carbon neutral to PAS 2060 by the Carbon Trust since October 2019 and significant strides have already been made to reduce energy use, with a 55.5% drop in kwh per vehicle between 2010 and 2020.

This initiative, which is also being undertaken by many regional teams and retailers around the world, will focus upon accelerating key parts of Bentley’s Beyond 100 strategy where colleague behaviour and awareness can help make an even greater difference. Therefore one element will focus on the launch of a “Power Down” internal campaign, to make sure that all devices that can be turned off, are turned off, to further reduce energy consumption and another will focus on changing habits and increasing digitalisation to reduce paper use.

Bentley is making significant strides towards the digitalisation of a 100 year old company, following the recruitment of a new generation of digital experts and home-grown digital apprentices. With progress already accelerated by Covid, the team have created a range of digital solutions and alternatives to previously paper heavy processes. Consequently paper use has decreased by 50% since 2019 and 25% of Bentley’s printers are being removed at the end of this month. A further 30% will be eliminated by the end of 2021.

The “Power Down” exercise will highlight the big impact of everyone making a small difference. The factory is already fitted with PIR lighting and settings to carefully manage essential manufacturing infrastructure, but estimates suggest that encouraging colleagues to power down “surplus” devices such as screens, fans, lights and chargers at the end of every day, could save up to 700kwH per hour.

Adrian Hallmark, Bentley’s Chairman and CEO explains:
“As a company, we have already set out on the path towards Beyond 100, which will see us introducing a hybrid option to every product in our range by 2023. We are on track to deliver our first BEV in 2025 and we are working towards a clear goal of becoming end-to end carbon neutral by 2030. We see this as a fundamental part of our strategy for the future.

“Project1Hour is very important to us, because it gives us all a chance to reflect on our environmental impact and make small changes that together will make a big difference”.

Read more about our plan for a sustainable future here.