Advancing Our ESG / Sustainability Journey

From our long-standing commitment to our local communities to our history of developing innovative, safety-critical motion control technologies to our focus on environmental, health and safety – Nexteer’s commitment to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) / sustainability is woven into all aspects of our business. In short, we’re committed to being a responsible corporate citizen in everything we do.

While 2020 brought unprecedented times, our global Nexteer team adapted quickly by strengthening our focus on employee health and safety and acting with a deeper sense of corporate social responsibility – while also learning new ways to operate and move the business forward. We continue to identify opportunities to leverage sustainability as a Nexteer differentiator – such as by aligning our innovation and technology with industry megatrends like electrification and by maintaining our commitment to conduct our business ethically and with transparency.

Being a Great & Safe Place to Work

Our “One Nexteer” culture empowers and inspires our team to go above and beyond – whether that means taking the next step in advanced steering and driveline technology or using our manufacturing prowess to support our local communities with face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. At its core, our One Nexteer culture is built on making tomorrow better than today.

As part of our culture, we focus on recruiting and retaining top talent, as well as engaging our employees and jobseekers through differentiators such as personalized career development, growth opportunities, training programs, employee recognition initiatives and more. We are very proud for receiving external recognitions as best employer and Great Place to Work certifications in multiple regions.

Health and safety are embedded into all aspects of our corporate culture through education, training and awareness. Proactively involving our employees in these practices helps us to achieve our goal of zero on-the-job injuries. Our focus is on keeping our employees, customers, suppliers and visitors safe while working at our global facilities and valued as our stakeholders.

We also continue to cultivate and foster growth within our One Nexteer culture – for example, we launched our new diversity, equity and inclusion program called RISE (Respect, Inclusion, Support and Equity) in 2020. We believe diversity drives innovation, and we’re committed to building a culture where difference is essential and valued. We have work to do, and we’re rising to advance diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by investing to move our organization upward.

Commitment to Community Connections

To us, our operations within a community are about more than a business location. The One Nexteer team – including our employees and their families – live, work, play, go to school and give back within our communities. Consequently, we work to be valued members of the business and social communities in which we operate. Our community partners are important to us and have become a big part of our company culture.

We recognize that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have had major implications for people and organizations around the world – which is why we channeled our energies differently to keep our employees and stakeholders’ safety paramount, while continuing our strong commitment to our communities. We believe that our support of education, health, social, civic and cultural initiatives make a difference in the lives of others and matter to our employees.

While the challenges of the global pandemic may have changed the way we interacted with our communities in 2020, they did not impact our commitment to being part of the communities in which we operate around the world. We are proud of the local activities that our employees participated in – volunteering more than 7,000 hours to community service in 2020. From donating blood to assisting in mask creation and donation during the pandemic to helping with disaster relief or mentoring youth in science and engineering, the generosity of Nexteer employees runs deep and is valued globally.

Managing our Environmental Footprint

Another key part of our sustainability strategy is enabled by promoting a culture of environmental responsibility – including conserving resources, reducing pollutants and recycling materials for environmental preservation.

In 2020, we continued to focus on enhancements to our Environmental Management System with a 93% ISO 14001 certification rate achieved, while continuing to explore opportunities to help manage the Company’s environmental footprint by implementing energy-saving, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission avoidance and water-saving projects.

Recognizing sustainability as an imperative megatrend, we also remain vigilant of climate change impacts. For example, in 2020, we formalized a cross-functional Climate Change Task Force, including representation across operations, environmental, health and safety, legal, finance and risk management, investor relations, engineering, manufacturing operations, sales and marketing, supply chain and sustainability, to coordinate enterprise-level efforts in climate change assessments.

Creating Value through Innovative Products & Technologies

We continue to focus on relentless innovation and strategic alignment with key industry megatrends, including Electrification, Software, Connectivity, ADAS – Advanced Safety and Performance and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). We do this by leveraging our deep technical competencies to develop innovative, sustainable products and value propositions to drive future growth and meet OEMs’ evolving needs. For example, our High-Output Rack-Assist Electric Power Steering (HO REPS) allows heavier vehicles to take advantage of EPS’ advanced safety, comfort and fuel economy benefits, while our innovative stowable steering columns allow OEMs to redefine drivers’ ‘behind the wheel’ experience.

Overall, we believe that through sustainable practices, Nexteer can continue to improve our business performance and provide greater value to all our employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, shareholders and society overall. To learn more about our ESG / sustainability journey, check out our 2020 Sustainability Report.