Tesla’s Impact Report covers Tesla, Inc.’s fiscal year 2021, as of December 31, 2021. The methodologies for calculating the metrics set forth in this report and being reviewed and updated by Tesla’s ESG Sustainability Council and the PwC performed a review on greenhouse (GHG) gas emissions metrics. By only assessing Tesla’s initiatives, as presented in the sustainability report, related to increasing the availability of electric cars, of renewable energy and storage, on providing a safe work environment for employees, sustainable sourcing, etc. the sustainability rating can’t be higher than D with a positive outlook. 

Tesla is on a mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and become “the best on every metric relevant” to this goal. However, it appears that Tesla has yet to set specific targets to reach carbon or climate neutrality. Furthermore,  quantitative targets refer to an increase in the production volumes of products, specifically, 20 million electric vehicles are expected to be sold and 1,500 GWh of energy storage to be provided, per year by 2030. However, in 2021 Tesla not only started following the GHG protocol to report on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but also signed up to develop Science Based Targets Initiatives. 

One important aspect to note is also that Tesla is claiming they have generated more electricity than it has consumed by its vehicle fleet and factories, between 2012 and 2021. Specifically, 25.39 TWh of energy was produced by its solar panels, while only 25.27 TWh was used to charge all Tesla vehicles and the energy used at Tesla’s factories and other facilities. It does not appear to include the energy consumed in the supply chain. Furthermore, at the end of 2021, 10% of 2021 spent with direct supply base went through a Tesla’s supplier audit at least once, 100% refiners and mine sites of cobalt, nickel and lithium from which Tesla sources directly, underwent or have committed to undergo independent third-party sustainability audits. 

In order to close the loop on battery raw materials, Tesla is investing to recycle manufacturing scrap and end of life batteries and by the end of 2021, the battery recycling facility at Gigafactory Nevada achieved a production rate of over 50 tons of recycled material per week. Besides battery recycling, Tesla does not provide any other information on the use of secondary materials in production or how the components are recycled when the vehicle reaches end of life. 

On the social aspects regarding employee well being and safe work environment, it is hard to assess sustainability, as the only source of information is the narrative on the sustainability report, without any quantitaive data from employees surveys or awards. The same for the societal impact, where there are initiatives to invest in the well-being of the community, such as the investment in K-12 education in partnership with the Department of Education and the Education Gift Fund, but not many other initiatives have been included in the report.