Global Battery Alliance Pioneers a Revolutionary Battery Passport for a Sustainable Future
The quest for a sustainable battery value chain has taken a giant leap forward with the successful completion of the largest pre-competitive effort to establish harmonized battery passports. Led by the Global Battery Alliance (GBA), this groundbreaking initiative brought together ten consortia, spearheaded by the world’s leading battery cell manufacturers.
Building upon the successful proof of concept in 2023, the consortia worked with seven digital solution providers to trace the origin and flow of seven crucial battery materials: lithium, graphite (artificial), aluminium, cobalt, copper, iron phosphate, and nickel. This collaborative effort involved a diverse range of stakeholders, including mining companies, refiners, manufacturers, and recyclers, representing over 80% of the global electric vehicle battery market share. Notable participants included giants like Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), CALB Group Co. Ltd, LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, and many more.
The GBA’s approach goes beyond data collection. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive framework, they developed seven rulebooks through a multi-stakeholder process. These rulebooks encompass key sustainability considerations, including Greenhouse Gas emissions, Environmental and Human Rights Due Diligence, Forced Labour, Child Labour, Biodiversity, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, and Circular Design. By defining baseline expectations and leading practices, these rulebooks empower companies to actively address risks and sustainability impacts within their supply chains.
The pilot program served as a valuable benchmarking exercise, allowing companies to gauge their preparedness against the stringent due diligence requirements of the EU Batteries Regulation, set to be implemented from 2025. Over 200 sustainability reports were collected, with five pilots participating in independent data verification for the first time. This marks a significant step towards establishing the GBA Battery Passport as a trusted source of sustainability indicators.
Furthering the commitment to transparency and accountability, the GBA also piloted a system to score company efforts, paving the way for a potential product-level sustainability certification in the future. Leveraging digital product passports for data collection, aggregation, scoring, and verification, the GBA Battery Passport offers companies a globally harmonized framework for reporting and continuous improvement.
The GBA Battery Passport goes beyond compliance, actively recognizing and rewarding efforts to achieve greater sustainability. This fosters a culture of continuous improvement, enabling investment, procurement, and purchasing decisions to be guided by globally comparable metrics on battery value chain sustainability.
Looking ahead, the GBA Battery Passports aim to provide comparable data across 20+ environmental, social, and governance categories in a trusted format.
Inga Petersen, Executive Director of the GBA, expressed her enthusiasm about the project’s success: “We are thrilled with the results of the 2024 Battery Passport pilots and congratulate all participating organisations for this major achievement. Having the world’s leading cell manufacturers mobilize their supply chains, work pre-competitively and report on harmonised sustainability expectations represents an unprecedented commitment to greater transparency and sustainability in the battery industry as captured in the 2030 GBA Vision.”
This pioneering initiative signifies a transformative shift towards a more sustainable and responsible battery industry, paving the way for a cleaner and greener future powered by reliable and ethically sourced batteries.
