Sustainability
Why we race
Formula E is the world’s first electric street racing series, defined by real street rivalries, raw electric performance, and renewable energy within reach.
The problem: air pollution
Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time with 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathing unsafe air, killing about 6.5 million people worldwide and making a significant contribution to climate change.
- Cities contribute disproportionately to global warming with 75% of global emissions
- Transport continues to be the largest contributor of global emissions, representing one quarter
- Urban air pollution from transport contributes to over 3.7 million premature deaths every year
- 80% of people are now living in cities and breathing in air which has surpassed the limits considered healthy by the World Health Organisation
Our solution: the electric vehicle
Formula E is the world's first fully-electric street racing series, bringing the latest innovations in electric vehicle and alternative energy solutions to city centres: for thrilling entertainment, to further enhance technologies and to fight climate change by offering a solution to air pollution, the Electric Vehicle. Read more about the championship here and how sustainability is in the DNA of Formula E.
ISO20121: A sustainable management system
Formula E has implemented a sustainable management system in line with the international standard of sustainability in events. This means that we manage our events in a way that reduces the environmental impacts of our activities, whilst bringing social benefits and generating economic prosperity in every city that we race. To find out more about our achievement of this certification, please click here.
Community engagement: acting locally and thinking globally
We engage with the local communities of our host cities through our new Community Engagement strategy. This involves reaching out to the local communities of our host cities such as NGOs, schools, universities and local institutions through a newly developed consultation process, in order to understand their needs and expectations and to build meaningful projects. We especially believe in the importance of young people’s education as key to empowering them, with solutions to choose to live more sustainably in the future.
If you’d like to know who we engaged with in Season 4, please follow this link
Legacy: what we'd like to be remembered for after our races
The Legacy Programme is a joint commitment between Formula E and our partners to leave behind a long-lasting heritage on sustainability through environmental improvements and creating social awareness, particularly amongst younger generations.
- To find out more about what our partners are doing, please click here
- To find out what Formula E are doing, please click here
- To find out more about our Foundation partners, please click here
Reports and studies: an in-depth evaluation of the sustainability of our activities
Sustainability reporting and lifecycle assessments are a key platform for evaluating and communicating sustainability performance and impacts – whether positive or negative.
The lifecycle assessment is a tool used to holistically assess the environmental and social impacts of an event throughout its lifecycle. To find out more information and to see our footprint across the last 3 seasons, click here.
We have communicated a Sustainability Report on an annual basis since our inaugural season. To download the latest report (Season 3) please click here.
Check back in a couple of months for an update on Season 4.
Recognition: reinforcing our efforts to commit to sustainable transportation
Our hard work has been rewarded through recognition for our efforts and commitment towards sustainability. Read more about our achievements here.
Batteries: finding alternative solutions for our batteries at end of life
Since our inaugural season, we have kept our batteries safely in storage whilst looking for a solution for end-of-life. We are going to be doing a number of different projects with them:
- A handful of batteries with good provenance data will be going to Warwick Manufacturing Group for research purposes, as the data set is unique in that the actual battery use is restricted mainly to the race season (with testing pre-season too)
- A handful of batteries will be repurposed and will be used as energy storage on track somewhere
- The rest will be sent to our Official Battery Recycling Partner to be disposed of safely and responsibly
We will also be carrying out a lifecycle assessment of our batteries for the first time this season, and also the cars.
Headquarters: maximising the wellbeing of our employees whilst minimising our environmental footprint
Whilst we make every effort at the races to minimise our impact, we are conscious that our headquarters in London also gives us a footprint:
- The electricity supplied to our building is 99% renewable
- We have fruit baskets delivered to the office multiple times a week by Fruitful Office. From January-June this year, we have had 204 baskets delivered which has planted 204 trees in Malawi, Africa
- We have uniform recycling in place to dispose of our branded uniforms responsibly
Sustainable Development Goals: our progress towards shifting the world onto a sustainable and resilient path
The Sustainable Development Goals are a set of 17 goals and 169 targets which seek to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, the social and the environmental. Implementation has begun and this is our progress so far.
