2024 Battery Passport Pilots

‘The battery in this car tells a story’ – with these words, and a QR code paired to selected EVs, the GBA published the world's first battery passport proof of concept in Davos in January 2023.

The story now continues, as the GBA proudly launches the results of the 2024 Battery Passport pilots.

The 2024 Battery Passport pilots trialled real-world sustainability data-gathering in the Battery Passport ecosystem. This pre-competitive effort brought together ten consortia of battery cell manufacturers, digital traceability solution providers and supply chain companies from across the globe. 

The cell-makers that participated account for over 80% of global electric vehicle battery manufacturing capacity, making this the world’s largest initiative to measure and benchmark sustainability performance in the battery value chain. With the launch of the pilots, the GBA has taken another leap toward realising its vision to scale sustainable, responsible value chains for batteries.

The GBA is the “most important global partnership” for sustainable battery value chains - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, October 7^th 2024, Hamburg Sustainability Conference

As the culmination of this groundbreaking effort, ten consortia published prototype battery passports, which are available to view by clicking the links below. Continue reading on this page to find out more about scope, and contributing working group members.

 

 

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It is important to note that  due to the varying scope of reporting across consortia, the exploratory nature of the data gathering and score aggregation, and differing methods of data verification, the scores of the 2024 are not comparable across the pilots.  Ultimately, the primary objective of the Battery Passport is to roll out a globally comparable Battery Passport framework as a benchmark for product level sustainability certification.

Disclaimer: The GBA Battery Passport logo has been issued for piloting purposes only and the use of the GBA name and logo does not imply automatic recognition by or accreditation with the Global Battery Alliance as an official battery passport solution provider outside of the scope of the 2024 piloting exercise. The GBA is not responsible and may not be held liable for any errors, misrepresentations or omissions of any of the data presented. No representation or warranty, either express or implied, is made regarding accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, reliability or usefulness of the data’ 

 

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Scope of the 2024 pilots

The operations covered by the pilot value chains cover at least eight jurisdictions in five continents: Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, and Zimbabwe.

Prismatic and blade cell types were both included in the piloting scope, and the battery chemistries included were Lithium Iron Phosphate, Lithium Polymer, Nickel Cobalt Aluminium Oxide and Nickel Manganese Cobalt. Data was gathered from global supply chains, from China to Chile, Zimbabwe to South Korea, and beyond.

The consortia reported supply chain sustainability performance against one or more of seven pilot rulebooks developed through a multistakeholder process by the GBA, building on existing regulations and voluntary standards, covering baseline expectations and leading practices to help guide company efforts in addressing risks and sustainability impacts within their supply chains[i]:

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Environmental and Human Rights Due Diligence
• Child Labour
• Biodiversity Loss
• Circular Design
• Forced Labour
• Respect for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
• MVP Battery Passport Data Fields

The pilot trialled elements of data verification and assurance and tested different approaches to the measurement of sustainability performance, score calculation and aggregation.[i]

All consortia, regardless of their level of completion, learned valuable lessons on mapping sustainability performance in the context of a digital battery passport, helping them to benchmark their own and supply chains’ preparedness to meet stakeholder expectations and compliance requirements. Participating in the pilot allowed companies to benchmark preparedness against the due diligence requirements of the EU Batteries Regulation in line with the OECD guidelines, which will be implemented from 2025. The GBA will consolidate the lessons from the 2024 pilots into a publicly available report (coming soon).   

Going forward, the GBA continues to build the Battery Passport framework to cover the full range of salient ESG impacts, develop data assurance guidelines, promote the uptake of battery-specific indicators in voluntary sustainability standards and of site level certifications in battery supply chains. Ultimately, the GBA aims to roll out a globally comparable GBA Battery Passport product certification scheme by 2027 to inform consumer, procurement and investment decisions and regulatory and stakeholder accountability.

Battery Passport working groups

The pilot rulebooks were developed in the GBA’s multistakeholder Working Groups which were set up to define what stakeholders expect from sustainable performance, elaborate the technical components of the Battery Passport such as data models and architecture, technical standards, data validation, and to develop the GBA vision and framework on data assurance. The effort was overseen by the Battery Passport Steering Committee which sets the high-level design principles of the GBA Battery Passport.

The ESG indicators contained in the rulebooks were created through a collaborative process in 2021-2022 for Human Rights, Child Labour and Greenhouse Gas with updates ahead of the 2024 pilots, and over December 2023 to April 2024 for a second wave of rulebooks on Biodiversity Loss, Circular design, Forced Labour, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. In online Working Group sessions, GBA members reviewed draft indicators building on regulatory requirements and international standards, debated key performance expectations, and agreed upon commonly acceptable positions. Prior to finalising the rulebooks after the pilots, external stakeholders will be consulted via a public consultation and via bilateral exchanges with thematic experts.

Participation in the Working Groups does not imply full endorsement of the rulebooks.

Over 90 GBA members participated in these working groups, including:

• 3Keys
• Aalto University
• AESC
• AfDB
• Alexander Dennis
• Anglo American
• BASF
• Battery Associates
• Botree
• CALB
• Carbon Newture
• CATL
• Circularise
• Circulor
• CLEPA
• Cobalt Institute
• CSR Europe
• Denso
• EBRD
• ECGA
• EITI
• Engineers Without Borders Canada
• ERG
• Eucobat
• Euro Manganese
• Euromot 
• EVE Battery
• EY
• FinDreams Battery
• First Peoples Worldwide
• Gaea
• GFI
• Glassdome
• Glencore
• Gotion
• Government of British Columbia
• Henkel
• Hithium Energy Storage
• Huayou
• Hyundai
• Hyundai Moter Group
• IISD
• ILiA
• IndrustriAll
• Infyos
• Institute
• International Finance Corporation
• International Manganese
• Komatsu
• LG Chem
• LG Energy Solution
• Microsoft
• Minviro
• Minviro Ltd
• Mobi
• Nanjing fuchuang
• Next Source Materials
• Nickel Institute
• Nouveau Monde Graphite
• NRCan
• Pact
• Panasonic
• PwC
• Rainforest Foundation Norway
• RBA
• RCS GLobal
• Renault
• Re-source
• Responsible Mica Initiative
• Rio Tinto
• Riotinto
• RMI
• Sabanci University
• Samsung SDI
• SAP
• SEDI Nigeria
• SGS
• Shanghai ECarbon Technology
• Shenzhen Precise Testing Technology
• Siro Energy
• SK TES
• SQM
• Sunwoda
• Tesla
• The Faraday Institution
• Transport & Environment
• TuV
• UC Davis
• UL Research Institute
• Umicore
• Vecarbon
• Vistanover
• Walkfree
• WRI

 

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[i]

1. External: reported documents’ coverage of the question audited via an external audit. Example: an externally audited annual report
2. Standard: reported documents’ coverage of the question audited via an external, 3rd party voluntary standard / scheme. Example: 3rd party audited report against a voluntary sustainability standard
3. Self-reported: reported documents’ coverage of the question self-reported and not third party audited. Example: any company document, for example an internal policy, submitted by the reporting company
4. Validated: reported documents coverage of the question self-reported and verified by an independent verifier. Example: any company document, for example an internal policy, submitted by the reporting company that was checked by the GBA verifier to contain the information requested

[ii]
The foundational requirements were based on a review of over 100 regulations on battery sustainability conducted in 2023, of which 19 regulations in jurisdictions with significant battery value chain footprint were prioritised for the regulatory “baseline”. At the core was the EU Batteries Regulation and the OECD and UNGP due diligence guidance, around which the performance expectations were structured. The voluntary standards leveraged in the framework covered nine commonly used standards in the upstream and midstream of the value chain, as well as several issue-specific standards and guidance documents. Above and beyond, leading practices were debated and agreed upon by the GBA’s multi-stakeholder working groups to integrate aspirational performance expectations and good practices not yet codified in existing guidance or standards.