To help improve the sustainability of its Chinese operations, Swedish electric car manufacturer Polestar engaged management consultancy BearingPoint to help devise a strategic roadmap.
Having largely lost faith in government, the public is now increasingly looking to the private sector to take action on climate change, with repercussions for brands seen to be dragging their feet on efforts towards sustainability. This is especially the case for companies active in the green economy, such as luxury Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer Polestar, which decided it wanted to be proactive and lead by example.
Polestar vehicles are currently available across Europe, North America, China, and the Asia Pacific, with plans to be present in 30 global markets by next year.
Owned by Volvo Cars under Chinese automotive parent Geely, the majority of its operations are based in China, where the government has been tightening regulations for various industries to promote environmental protection – including in the automotive sector.
The goal for Polestar was to adapt to the new regulations and enhance overall sustainability by better aligning its supply chain to sustainable practices, and so the company brought in management consultancy BearingPoint to help define a strategic roadmap towards climate neutrality, including circularity, transparency, and cultural inclusion of its supply chain.
The global consulting firm supported Polestar through a four-step approach.
Covering short, medium, and long-term objectives, the first step saw BearingPoint analyse Polestar’s current supply chain maturity, initiatives, and available capabilities. While integrating leading practices, BearingPoint could then define new processes for Polestar and dedicated tools to support sourcing and procurement, production, logistics, and marketing.
With quick wins prioritised for last year, a framework with altogether more than 100 initiates was created, coupled with clear actions and recommendations after identifying prerequisites, setting timelines, and designating teams to support the corresponding tasks. BearingPoint also helped to prepare the implementation plan as well as onboard the teams and align stakeholders to support each of the themes through to 2024.
“Polestar now has a comprehensive roadmap that helps them drive tailored initiatives to support a sustainable supply chain,” said BearingPoint’s Shanghai-based partner Tunde Laleye, who serves as the global management consultancy’s general manager for China. “With this, the company sets the tone of how environmental best practices can be integrated in the automotive industry to support a green future.”
Along with its strategic roadmap, by leveraging its new tools Polestar can now make data-driven decisions for its supplier procurement processes and assess and monitor their suppliers’ sustainability credentials from an economic, environmental, and social perspective, as well as appraise cost-versus-sustainability benefits. This allows the car manufacturer to challenge its suppliers to improve their own supply chain practices.
“It was a great collaboration with BearingPoint to integrate sustainability management into Polestar’s global procurement process,” commented Ellie Wu, Polestar’s global head of procurement. “The project driven by BearingPoint enables us to align Polestar’s supply chain sustainability ambitions with suppliers and helps us to identify priorities and track progress for the areas of improvement.”
Sourced from Consultancy.Asia