Sustainability at Dayco

EcoVadis Silver Medal 2022Sustainability is a cornerstone of Dayco’s operations. We are committed to building and maintaining a sustainable company by safeguarding natural resources, fostering a culture of growth, safety and belonging with our employees, and creating efficient, innovative, and safe products. Dayco promotes sustainability by going above and beyond to deliver on initiatives that have positive environmental and societal impacts. We are pleased to have a partnership with EcoVadis that began with Dayco earning their silver status award in 2021. We look forward to growing and strengthening that relationship both now and into the future.

The Company has enlisted the support of sustainability consultants to guide us in developing a robust sustainability framework. This work encompasses an internal audit and a peer benchmarking exercise as well as an illuminating materiality assessment with our executive team. We have identified 14 priority Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) topics material to Dayco, our mission and our stakeholders.

Currently, Dayco is focusing on 6 of the 14 high priority topics identified in the materiality exercise. These 6 priority topics were aggregated into three pillars that drive our sustainability initiatives: Performance, People and Planet.

Pillars 2023

The world is going through a climate and humanitarian crisis with significant global implications. The climate change crisis is causing unpredictable and more frequent extreme weather events – rising sea levels, severe droughts, increasingly frequent forest fires, amongst others. The climate crisis is directly linked to the humanitarian crisis causing the most vulnerable communities to feel the effects of instability, hunger, violence, and displacement. We all share responsibility in addressing these global threats by committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by addressing social impacts as they arise and by ensuring adequate management controls are in place as a means of good governance. See below for how Dayco is driving sustainability initiatives within our three ESG pillars:

Implementing Responsible Governance

Good corporate governance is the foundation of our business – operating with honesty, transparency and integrity. Our board of managers and executive team strongly believe that good governance is essential to creating and preserving value for all our stakeholders. The board oversees our executive team who, in turn, lead our senior managers. Members of our senior managers, including our Global Environmental, Health and Safety manager, are responsible for implementing policies and procedures that promote ethical and sustainable operating practices.

Dayco works to maintain the highest standards of ethical behavior by demonstrating accountability, providing clear policies and guidance and communicating effectively. Compliance with our Code of Conduct ensures the integrity of all our actions. Showing respect for human rights, combatting corruption and ensuring compliance standards are met or exceeded across our supply chain demonstrates our commitment to conduct business responsibly.

At Dayco we take pride in setting and maintaining the highest levels of standards for product safety and quality management across our value chain. Our suppliers and business partners are held to the same standards as our business operations and are expected to abide by our Code of Conduct and our Global Supplier Performance Manual.  Dayco’s sound environmental, safety and occupational health management practices fully comply with industry standards. Dayco is proud to be ISO certified placing value on the importance of quality, safety and efficiency of our products, services, and systems — 100% of Dayco’s global manufacturing facilities are ISO 14001, ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and IATF 16949 certified.

Dnv Certification

Protecting Human Rights

Respect for human rights is especially important to our business and we believe this begins with our employees. We create a work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. Protecting all employees’ basic human rights, maintaining fair working hours and wages, committing to zero-tolerance for immoral practices involving child labor, forced labor and modern slavery and holding our suppliers to the same standards are all human rights elements outlined in Our Code of Conduct. Dayco strives to act with honesty and transparency, creating a safe and healthy environment with zero tolerance for harassment and discrimination. In addition, our internal complaints mechanism – Dayco’s Ethics Point hotline, is one of our approaches to ensuring respect for human rights. The most pertinent human rights issues derived from this framework include equal opportunity, health and safety, labor related aspects (child labor, forced labor, collective bargaining, and others) and zero tolerance for discrimination.

Driving Employee Well-being

We continuously invest in our workforce through wellness and benefits programs, creating a safe and healthy environment with equal opportunity and zero tolerance for discrimination. We also invest in our employees through training and development programs to provide the skills they need to grow in their careers.

We have several initiatives in place to ensure employee well-being – these include:

  • Operationalized global standards to ensure employee safety. Global standards include but are not limited to: Machine Safeguarding, Emergency Preparedness and Response, Confined Space, and others
  • Tracking key metrics such as Recordable Incident Rates and Lost Time due to injury

Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Dayco pursues diversity, equity and inclusion because it is a fundamental ingredient to creating a more just and sustainable world. We believe diverse and inclusive teams offer unique perspectives which position us for success. We promote a culture where all employees are respected & valued and feel a sense of belonging.

 

We have several initiatives in place to promote diversity, equity and inclusion – these include:

See what Some of our Leaders have to Say about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Diversity Equity Inclusion Wang China“Respect the Team – is what Dayco lives by on a day-to-day basis. I am proud to be a part of Dayco’s global team where all staff, regardless of their differences, are treated with respect. We have great policies and systems in place from recruitment and annual performance management to making sure people have equal opportunities for growth within the company. Dayco China’s leadership team ensures compliance with these policies and systems to foster a culture of respect and equality across all plants in China. Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion is a never-ending goal for Dayco China where we will continuously leverage opportunities to enhance in this space. I am pleased to say that 50% of our leaders are women in China’s Guiyang office” – Kennie Wang, Director of Global Strategic Sourcing Belt.

Reducing Waste and Promoting Circular Economy

We strive to preserve natural resources by reducing waste generation and by actively participating in the circular economy through our recycling initiatives. A sustainable circular economy involves repurposing materials for other uses. Our goal is to retain the functional value of materials, which will contribute to resource conservation and reduced environmental pressures. We at Dayco are proud to support circular economy initiatives some of which are outlined below:

  • Repurposing sewage wastewater, following treatment, to build a green city forest
  • Implementation of renewable energy infrastructure

Managing Climate Change

In an effort to combat climate change, preserve ecosystems and protect human health, Dayco aims to track, report and work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2025, we will:

  • Track electricity use and aspiring to increase use of renewable energy
  • Track fuel use and aspiring to transition from liquid fuels to natural gas and to electricity as technology allows
  • Quantify and identify our Carbon Footprint

 

We have several initiatives in place to manage climate change – these include:

Dayco's Paperless Business Cards

At Dayco, we are always looking for opportunities to elevate our organization’s sustainability and digital efficiency. Using Digital Business Cards from Doorway.io as an alternative to traditional business cards is another step in that direction.

Enzo Rabante Dayco Doorway 3How it works.

Dayco employees have replaced traditional business cards with digital business cards that are saved on their smartphones’ Apple or Google Wallet, allowing access to their business cards anytime, anywhere.  If they want to share their contact information with someone, the other person simply scans the QR Code which instantly saves the Dayco contact information to their phone — no more wasting paper!

“Doorway has been instrumental in revolutionizing our networking capabilities at Dayco. Their digital business cards have provided our employees with a cutting-edge, eco-friendly way to connect with others, elevating our brand image in the process” – Enzo Rabante, IT Director of Global Digital Solutions.

Dayco’s commitment to sustainability.

Utilizing Doorway’s digital business cards doesn’t stop at simply eliminating paper cards. Doorway has partnered with Tree-Nation, a United Nations Environmental Program certified corporation. Thanks to this partnership, 100 trees will be planted each month on behalf of Dayco with an additional tree planted for every 25,000 Dayco.com website views.  Click here to see our impact on restoring the world’s tree population.

Sustainable business practices and environmental stewardship are pillars of our foundation at Dayco.  Our partnership with Doorway and Tree-Nation gives us an exciting new opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint, sustain livelihoods and restore habitats across the globe.  It is our privilege as an organization to be able to enhance local communities and support climate change-resistant industries.

Dayco forest: https://tree-nation.com/profile/dayco

Dayco Solar Panel Initiative

Renewable energy sources are the fastest growing area of energy generation in the world and are an essential part of achieving net zero (a target to completely negate greenhouse gas emissions).  In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions though the promotion of sustainable technologies, Dayco has been scaling-up solar projects by upgrading multiple facilities in Italy. These include production facilities in Chieti and Colonnella, as well as manufacturing and warehouse locations in Manoppello. The combined infrastructure spans over 6,500 square feet (607 square meters).

In addition to creating minimal greenhouse gas emissions and making Dayco Italy’s carbon footprint relatively smaller, these upgrades came with additional environmental, social and economic benefits.

  • Solar energy emits less pollutants, enhancing overall air quality in the general vicinity of the plant locations. Increasing the supply of solar energy replaces carbon-intensive energy sources ultimately minimizing negative health impacts to surrounding communities.
  • Dayco Italy’s transition to solar panels simultaneously allowed for the removal of asbestos roofing material at Dayco’s facilities in Colonnella and Manoppello.
  • Solar energy requires no water to function, therefore reducing our facilities’ demand for local potable and non-potable water.
  • Increasing renewable energy as part of overall energy consumed by these plants reduces grid reliance and disruptions to production due to outages.
  • Renewable energy technology costs have steadily declined, increasing affordability of solar power and contributing to cost savings for Dayco.

“These kinds of investments are cost effective and maximize social and environmental opportunities. The impact of this project contributed to CO2 emissions reduction, equivalent to about 1,800 trees, ultimately enhancing air quality and the standard of life for community members in close proximity to these site locations” stated Carlo Fulgenzi, Global Belts Operations Director.

Our Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) Policy

Dayco is committed to workplace safety, employees health/well-being and environmental preservation. The principles that relate to our EHS policy can be found here.