Ranking
Comparison
Total Score
Environment
Human Rights
Summary
BMW continued to make improvements in the Leaderboard this year, achieving a 5 percentage point score increase overall, driven by significant progress on Fossil Free and Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains, and on General Human Rights Due Diligence. The company remains in sixth place overall.
BMW is now the top scoring automaker in both General subsections of the Leaderboard, which evaluate companies’ overall approach to supply chain decarbonization and due diligence. The company scores 67% in the General climate and environment subsection and 73% in the General Human Rights Due Diligence subsection.
The company achieved its greatest improvements in the fossil-free and environmentally sustainable supply chains section, where BMW improved its score across each of the four subsections, increasing its overall score in this area by 11 percentage points.
BMW continued to make significant improvements on its General Human Rights Due Diligence practices, achieving another 8 percentage point increase. However, this progress has been offset by the lack of improvement on Indigenous Peoples’ and Workers’ Rights, and a 10 percentage point dip on Responsible Minerals Sourcing. This has made BMW’s overall progress on human rights amount to zero, and has pushed the company’s position on human rights from 4th to 5th place.
BMW should now build on these strong foundations to develop and implement more targeted strategies on the specific issue areas covered by the leaderboard, such as steel decarbonization and Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
Key Findings
- Strongest performer on deforestation in the General Climate and Environment subsection, as the only company with deforestation targets for two commodities (leather and rubber) and the company also discloses specific measures it undertakes to mitigate deforestation risks through both the supplier selection and supplier monitoring processes.
- Made marginal improvements in the steel and aluminum subsections, specifically on the circularity-focused indicators, disclosing new information on closed-loop processes and design for circularity approaches for steel and aluminum recycling.
- Published a new Responsible Raw Material Management in 2025, improving levels of transparency regarding the company’s identified human rights risks. However, the descriptions of human rights risks and due diligence measures per raw material are more limited than those of its peers (e.g. Mercedes and VW)
- One of the few companies to score 0 for its efforts on battery reuse and repurposing, and scores minimum points regarding its efforts on battery recycling.
- Continues to perform strongly on human rights commitments and supply chain due diligence systems, with robust requirements on suppliers and risk identification tools that extend beyond Tier 1.
- Provides more detail about its supply chain mapping efforts, including plans for the provision of digital product passports with product-specific data. However, key information is still lacking, and the company has actually regressed on disclosure of direct sourcing agreements this year.
- Has not progressed on Indigenous Peoples’ rights, where the company’s performance remains extremely low. While requiring suppliers to respect UNDRIP and FPIC, the company is still not disclosing any information to demonstrate effective implementation.
- One of only three companies to require suppliers to pay a living wage, though is yet to adopt for itself the requirement it places on suppliers. Information on involvement of supply chain workers or their representatives in supply chain risk assessments, monitoring, or remediation, still lacking.
Score Breakdown
Fossil-Free & Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains
General
Steel
Aluminum
Batteries
Compare by year
Human Rights & Responsible Resourcing
General
Minerals
Indigenous' Rights
Workers' Rights
Compare by year
Supply Chain News & Progress
Latest on BMW
Supply chain transformation is a risk management imperative and opportunity for a competitive edge. Leading brands are already securing a first-mover advantage and leveraging their power to transform legacy supply chains into a force for good. The revolution is underway.
By 2026, more than one third of BMW’s steel will be “CO₂-reduced” + “CO₂-reduced” aluminum agreement
As part of their value chain-wide climate neutrality by 2050 goal, BMW stated their focus on CO₂-intensive materials, including aluminum and steel.
On steel, from 2026, more than one third of BMW’s steel worldwide will be “CO₂-reduced steel,” eliminating approximately 900,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. They state that this is based on contracts with suppliers in Europe, China, and the US. BMW also noted that they see their efforts as “promoting the transformation of the steel industry.”
On aluminum, BMW have signed a declaration of intent with Rio Tinto in Canada for “significantly CO₂-reduced” aluminum from 2024. BMW states that compared to conventional methods, “the process avoids around 70% of CO₂ emissions.” This aluminum will be used exclusively in vehicle production at BMW’s Spartanburg plant in the US.
BMW signs agreements for low-carbon steel & aluminum in Europe, US and China
BMW has signed agreements with Salzgitter AG in Europe, Steel Dynamics (SDI) and Big River Steel in the U.S. and HBIS Group in China for low-carbon steel to be used in its production cycles. In February 2023, BMW also signed an agreement to source reduced CO2 aluminum from Rio Tinto for its US vehicle production.
Allegations of negative environmental impacts & forced labor
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has documented allegations against BMW’s supply chains for being implicated in environmental harms affecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and forced labor. Reports also link BMW’s nickel supply chain with pollution in Indonesia.
Our Vision
01 — Equitably
Respecting and advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, workers, and local communities throughout the supply chain.
02 — Sustainably
Preserving and restoring environmental health and biodiversity across supply chains, while reducing primary resource demand through efficient resource use and increased recycled content.
03 — Fossil-free
100% electric and made with a fossil fuel-free supply chain.
