Jaguar Land Rover has been named Responsible Business of the Year

Jaguar Land Rover has been named Responsible Business of the Year by Business in the Community (BITC). The UK's leading premier automotive manufacturer collected the accolade at the BITC’s Responsible Business Awards yesterday.

Jaguar Land Rover received the award in recognition of its significant investment in UK jobs and facilities, improving its environmental performance and increasing the skills and education opportunities for young people and existing employees.

Jaguar Land Rover has created 9,000 new jobs since 2011 and will invest £2.75 billion this year, making it the largest UK automotive investor. This investment supports technology innovation and the company’s CO2 reduction strategy.

Over the past few years, Jaguar Land Rover has reduced tailpipe CO2, lowered operational carbon emissions per vehicle, waste to landfill and water use. Carbon emissions from inbound logistics and emissions for outbound logistics have also been reduced. Jaguar Land Rover’s CO2 offset programme has compensated 5 million tonnes of CO2 over the last five years by funding 50 sustainable development projects which have positively impacted the lives of more than 1.2 million people.

Dr. Ralf Speth, CEO, Jaguar Land Rover, said: "We are delighted to receive the Responsible Business of the Year Award, which recognises the achievements of our employees, suppliers, stakeholders and academic partnerships to deliver sustainability improvements across our business. Sustainability is integral to Jaguar Land Rover’s business plan and we are committed to achieving a sustainable future.

“Jaguar Land Rover has been investing in researching and developing the latest technologies and creating new and updated engineering and manufacturing facilities to help grow and develop our business in a sustainable way. We have ambitious plans for sustainable growth and developing sustainable products that meet the needs of customers now and in the future is vital to that goal.”

Marc Bolland, Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer Plc and Responsible Business of the Year 2012, who presented the award, said: “Jaguar Land Rover is addressing sustainability at every stage of the life cycle of its products and at all levels of its business. It is a potential pioneering force in bringing about transformative change to the luxury goods industry and a key driver in educating and influencing the client base and wider consumers on behaviour change.”

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive of Business in the Community, said: “Jaguar Land Rover perfectly embodies the mutuality of responsible business - an understanding that by transforming business you can transform communities. It is an inspirational example of a large business combining profitability with responsibility.  Through improving environmental performance, investing in communities and proactively developing its future workforce Jaguar Land Rover has become a powerful example for this movement.  We are delighted to name them our 2013 Responsible Business of the Year and look forward to working with them and sharing their story with many more businesses over the coming year.”  

The company also won the 'Education Award' which recognises businesses that are building sustainable partnerships with schools to raise aspirations of young people to enable them to build successful working lives. Jaguar Land Rover's Inspiring Tomorrow's Engineers national school education programme has been developed to increase young people's engagement of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and promote engineering careers. The programme includes partnerships with various schools and academic organisations. In 2012, more than 200,000 young people were engaged in the programme.