Formula One teams must do more to improve their governance and transparency if they are to embrace a sustainable future, according to new research.
The report by the Standard Ethics group has concluded that F1 teams need to make clear their position and goals on environmental, social and governance issues, with only three of the 10 on the grid currently having a publicly stated code of ethics.
“There is work to do for the governance side, this is the most important,” said Jacopo Schettini, the director of research at Standard Ethics. “It is very, very important to see a long-term commitment to sustainability. A long-term commitment comes from crucial important documents like a code of ethics or a sustainability plan or policies on specific issues.
“There were three teams with a code of ethics – McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari. They were talking about all major sustainability issues but I would like to see more from the other teams.”
Standard Ethics assesses companies on their performance relating to sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. They were not commissioned to analyse F1 teams but undertook the research independently.
In their report, teams were assessed on whether they publish a code of ethics, the quality of reporting of ESG issues, whether they have a human rights policy and whether they disclose environmental targets. They did this by analysing the information each team has published in the public domain. Schettini noted that investigating this way was a vital test of the transparency he believes is key to a positive sustainability policy.
“We analysed by what they publish,” he said. “It’s very important, the first part of sustainability is to be transparent, to inform people what you are doing about that. You should publish everything.”
Schettini acknowledged that in some areas the teams performed well. Most, the report concluded, were addressing human rights and addressing environmental targets. However outside of the three teams cited the lack of a published code of ethics and of an ESG reporting system meant governance and transparency was lacking.
“Sustainability is not just environmental topics, but also gender inequality or risk management, or health and safety. It’s a lot of issues,” Schettini said. “Having an ESG reporting system we can see what they are doing, they have to improve governance and reporting.”
Clearly, however, teams are acting positively. Mercedes have committed to fund the MSc motorsport scholarship programme with the Royal Academy of Engineering, aimed at improving diversity among motorsport engineers, part of their Ignite partnership with Lewis Hamilton. Schettini added that some teams may also have a code of ethics and ESG reporting system that was not public, but reiterated that was a part of the problem.
“Sustainability needs transparency,” he said. “Transparency and a long-term vision, give us a long-term vision. What you are thinking about sustainability and keep us updated on your goals. If you fail to meet a target we understand, you can postpone a target but it’s very important that you have a target and a roadmap.”
The group have since received feedback from several teams looking to improve their performance in future.
F1 recently published its latest report into its environmental goal of going carbon neutral by 2030, a target the sport believes it is on course to meet. However, F1’s teams are far from alone in requiring improvement.
“We do something like this, even more accurately with most leading European football teams,” said Schettini. “Last year, we discovered more or less the same approach from them, so we have seen some environmental targets but even leading football teams lack transparency.”
