Mercedes: Driving Innovative Sustainability at Formula 1

Share
Mercedes: Driving Innovative Sustainability at Formula 1
How does the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 Team operate at the forefront of technology, innovation & sustainability, whilst competing in Formula 1?

When you think about sustainability in sport, Formula 1 is perhaps not the first championship that springs to mind.

The teams travel around the world to race cars powered by fossil fuels and the trophy goes to the fastest, not the most sustainable. 

The popularity of the sport nearly doubled from 2018 to 2023, with average viewers per race sitting at 1.11 million in 2023. 

Naturally, the increase in popularity has had two key impacts on sustainability – the sport’s emissions, and the pressure from fans to become more sustainable, have both gone up.

Operating at the forefront of technology, innovation and sustainability

Despite contradictory external perceptions, the team behind sustainability for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team believe that the very nature of the sport goes hand in hand with developing innovative sustainability solutions. 

“We make some of the world's fastest vehicles,” says Alice Ashpitel, Head of Sustainability for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team. “So how can we operate at the forefront of technology and deliver sustainable high performance at the same time?

“It is a really fascinating – and rewarding – challenge.”

Alice is working towards embedding sustainability alongside innovation to drive positive impact throughout the business.

“Whilst sustainability is a significant challenge for every organisation, in the global context, ultimately the carbon footprint of any Formula 1 team is miniscule,” says Bradley Lord, Chief Communications Officer for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team.

“The opportunity we have is to use our enormous platform to develop and amplify technologies and demonstrate that sustainable mobility solutions and performance go hand in hand.”

Despite the naturally competitive nature of Formula 1, the teams work with each other and Ellen Jones, Head of ESG at Formula 1, to make the sport more sustainable.

“I’ve worked with Ellen since day one,” Alice shares.“She joined not long before me and set up a network for all of the sustainability professionals at each of the teams to meet regularly and discuss challenges and collaboration.

“Whilst that's a fairly new way of working for Formula 1, I now know my counterpart at other teams. I think we all recognise the importance of driving positive change across the grid. Collaboration is essential, and I think we’ll continue leaning into this which is I think exactly the way it needs to be for all things Sustainability.

“If Formula 1 can do this, so can many other sports and teams.”

Whilst communication between teams is a crucial part of boosting sustainability within Formula 1, the sport has been sharing its innovations in the technology space with wider industries since its inception

Thanks to developments from McLaren in the 1970s and 1980s, carbon fibre is now widely used in road car chassis. Buttons on steering wheels, adaptive suspension and DOHC engines were all first introduced on racing cars and can now be found in many road vehicles. Technology created for car racing can be found in hospitals too – data management, sensors and efficiency.

“The unique opportunity we have as a sports team isn’t just to provide a platform for, and to advocate for change, but also to actually be integral to technology development,” Bradley explains. “The innovation behind Formula 1 can be significant for how mobility is shaped in the future and how large organisations go about addressing and mitigating the carbon output of their activities.

“It's really exciting to see the confluence of sustainability, communications and sport.”

“We put on essentially Super Bowls every other weekend in terms of size and viewership, but we're also a technology innovation company, so we sit at this really interesting intersection of sports and technology,” Alice says.

“It's the perfect place to innovate in sustainability because we create and demonstrate the solutions.

“We’ve got a group of engineers here who love two things – winning and complex problems.

And what's a more complex problem than sustainability?”

Sustainability within the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team

At US$52bn, Mercedes is the seventh most valuable brand in the world. This comes with a huge responsibility for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team to be rigorous, robust and transparent.

“The same can be said of the global prominence of Formula 1 and the natural cynicism that people initially have about Formula 1 addressing sustainability in a meaningful way,” says Bradley.

The team is working towards an overarching mission to hit net zero by 2040, with a mid-way goal to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030. 

Last year the team saved 2628 tonnes of carbon. This year's goal? Saving 6698 tonnes, and reducing business travel emissions by 65%.

As part of its commitment to transparency, it focuses on three pillars of environmental sustainability: net zero, responsible resource consumption and ecological protection.

“As a Formula 1 team our efforts are judged by millions every time we go racing,” explains Toto Wolff, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Principal and CEO.

“Every race, every practice, and every test sharpens the mind and helps us chase every millisecond.

“Although we report annually on our sustainability progress, the commitment to optimise our operations and pursue sustainable high performance is always front of mind. Just like on track, we aim to improve our performance in every area, and our annual Sustainability Report serves as a reminder of everything that’s happening behind the scenes

“Yes, we report on our results - our footprint; our demographics; our codes and policies but it’s much more than that - it’s about our people; their collective power and our impact on the world within and beyond motorsport.

“This reaches well beyond what we must do; it’s about our innovation and what we can achieve by inspiring others to follow. We are privileged to work in a sport that demands high-performance teamwork, technology, and innovation. We have a responsibility to harness those elements, as well as our people and our global platform, to go further faster. It matters to me, our team members, our partners and, importantly, fans of our sport.

“Ultimately, our ambition is to become one of the most sustainable global professional sports teams. It’s a long-term goal but an important one; we set ourselves big challenges and recognise that it will take all of us to get there.”

The team is working on sustainability initiatives in every corner of the company, including sustainable fuels for on-track and travel including SAF, biofuels, renewable energy and electrification. 

All elements of ESG are important to the team, who work in social sustainability and governance as much as environmental, believing that the three in tandem are far more successful and influential.

Mercedes’ socially conscious fanbase 

Formula 1 has seen an immense growth in its fan base in recent years, with a growth in response from a new younger, more socially conscious audience. The Mercedes Formula 1 team believes this is to use their platform to influence and inspire. 

“We have a really young, socially engaged, socially conscious fan base, which is amazing,” Alice says. 

“They care about what we're doing environmentally and socially, and it's really nice to be able to deliver.

“We did a fan voice survey to gauge engagement and what we found really exciting is that our fans are the most engaged fans in terms of sustainability in comparison to other teams. This is important because it shows that we're doing the right thing, because it's resonating.”

Partnerships bolstering sustainability

As is the case in most industries, partnerships are an important part of sustainability for Formula 1 teams. 

“The sport had its biggest year ever last year, so our emissions grew,” Alice says. “A lot of those emissions still sit within our supply chain, but we still reduced our race team controlled footprint – Scope 1 and 2 – by 10% last year, which is testament to the people and partners that we work with.”

Mercedes’ title partner is PETRONAS, a global energy and solutions company working with Mercedes on alternative, innovative and sustainable fuels amongst other things.

“We have such an interesting and diverse range of partners who all bring innovative technologies and ideas to the table,” Alice continues. “We learn from the banking sector around how they've developed credible removal strategies. It's a great privilege to have that kind of resource and those people to work with.

“UBS has been fantastic as an advisory partner on good governance credibility and advocating for sustainable fuels.”

UBS, one of the world’s largest wealth managers, joined the Mercedes team as a partner in 2011.

“We sponsor the Mercedes team, because we align with them so well in vision and sustainability,” says Michael Baldinger, Chief Sustainability Officer at UBS.

“We’ve learnt from Formula 1 how impressive it is and if you have the right mindset, the right people working on solutions you can really transform a sector.”

UBS’ innovative work in climate works in tandem with the Mercedes team, and supports the stakeholder management. 

The first bank to obtain ISO 14001 certification for worldwide environmental management system, UBS works with its clients to mitigate climate risk, manage assets and investments and support stakeholder expectation management. 

What is next for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team?

In performance and sustainability, the team plans to continue learning, developing, building on successes and exploring failures and challenges to build success.

“The next step for us is to keep pushing successes,” Ali explains. “How do we keep going and scoring the kind of the next set of savings? It is an exciting challenge.”

The team’s long-term sustainability challenges lie in the supply chain. Alongside working towards the 2030 goal to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the team is constantly looking to collaborate within its supply chain to deliver the larger net zero goal. 

“It is incredibly important because it's not just about one team or one sport – every organisation needs to do this, and I think it's so important to bring the smaller suppliers along with you.

“We're in a privileged position to be able to put resources into understanding decarbonisation and upskilling ourselves, but actually it's important that we then share that knowledge with our value chain and support them with what net zero means for their businesses.”

The main takeaway? Continued transparency, robust reporting, innovative thinking and the willingness to make mistakes on the journey to success.

“As a sport, the unique opportunity we have to promote, invest in and popularise technology is really, really powerful,” Bradley concludes.

“Formula 1 is arguably the most exciting sport in which to be working in sustainability for exactly that reason.

“If Formula 1 can do it, anyone can do it.”


To see the full interview in the magazine, READ HERE.

******

Make sure you check out the latest edition of Sustainability Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series - Sustainability LIVE 2024

******

Sustainability Magazine is a BizClik brand

Share

Featured Articles

How Workiva is Transforming ESG Reporting Strategies

Corporate reporting platform Workiva's latest study reveals 97% of executives see sustainability data integration as key to business growth by 2026

This Week's Top Five Stories in Sustainability

This week's top stories include a forecast for DEI across 2025, missed UN NDC deadlines, energy revolution in the Baltics, Starbucks' legal case & AI laws

McKinsey Will ‘Boldy Pursue’ DEI in Face of Storm

Reports say McKinsey has doubled down on DEI initiatives despite other high-profile firms and businesses retreating from pledges after US executive orders

Apple, IBM & GM Amongst Those Set For DEI Showdowns in 2025

Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)

Which 10 Nations Met the UN's Deadline for NDC Targets?

Net Zero

What Next as Baltic States Switch off Russian Energy Supply?

Renewable Energy