BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
MELROSE INDUSTRIES PLC
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2024
MELROSE INDUSTRIES PLC
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2024
Melrose is an industry-leading global aerospace technology business.
Through our business, GKN Aerospace, we are a multi-technology manufacturer of airframe and engine structures for the global aerospace industry, across both civil and defence platforms.
Driven by our long-standing mission to become the most trusted and sustainable partner in the sky, we are focused on improving our technology towards a zero emission future of flight, whilst ensuring our operational sustainability and efficiency, and resilience of our supply chain.
OTHER READING
This Sustainability Report should be read in conjunction with our 2024 Annual Report, which contains our climate disclosures in relation to the TCFD and CFD recommendations, as well as our Transition Plan.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
2 CEO statement
4 Sustainability highlights
6 2025 outlook
7 Group sustainability principles, material topics and targets
GENERAL DISCLOSURES
9 Sustainability governance
12 Value creation and value chain
14 Double Materiality Assessment
15 Sustainability risk management and internal controls
ENVIRONMENT
17 Environmental management
18 Climate change
50 Water
52 Biodiversity and ecosystems
53 Resource use and circular economy
SOCIAL
58 Own workforce
72 Workers in the value chain
74 Affected communities
75 Consumers and end users
GOVERNANCE
77 Business conduct
APPENDIX
79 SASB Index
82 About this report
For more information
melroseplc.net
About this reportpage 82
Read our 2024 Annual Report
melroseplc.net
Read our Transition Plan
melroseplc.net
AT A GLANCE | |||||||||||
Divisions | Revenue(1) | ||||||||||
ENGINES | |||||||||||
A global tier one supplier to the aerospace engines market, including structural engineered components, parts repair, commercial and aftermarket contracts | £1,459m | ||||||||||
4 | |||||||||||
2 | 3 | ||||||||||
1 | |||||||||||
STRUCTURES | |||||||||||
A multi-technology global tier one supplier of both civil and defence air frames, including lightweight composite and metallic structures, electrical distribution systems and components | £2,009m | 1 | Fort Worth, US | ||||||||
2 | Bristol, UK | Key | |||||||||
3 | Hoogeveen, Netherlands | Global technology centres (4) | |||||||||
4 | Trollhättan, Sweden | Countries with manufacturing locations (12) | |||||||||
CORPORATE | Employee headcount by geographical region(1) | ||||||||||
Encompasses the central functions that provide strategic direction and support to both the Engines and Structures divisions. This includes corporate governance, financial management, and strategic planning, ensuring effective resource allocation and oversight across the organisation | n/a | TOTAL 13,737 | | United Kingdom Rest of Europe North America Other | 3,196 6,150 3,027 1,364 | 23% 45% 22% 10% | |||||
TOTAL | £3,468m | ||||||||||
(1) As at 31 December 2024.
Continuing to
drive transformation and deliver sustainable growth
Peter Dilnot
Chief Executive Officer
GKN Aerospace's mission is to become the most trusted and sustainable partner in the sky. Contributing to the decarbonisation of the aerospace sector remains one of our top priorities and presents great opportunities to deploy our innovation and technology
leadership to create and commercialise world-leading solutions for cleaner air travel.
This is achieved through strong collaboration with our customers, partners and key stakeholders, and includes efforts towards increasing efficiency on the next generation of SAF-enabled aircraft, developing airframe and engine structures that are more efficient, and developing ground-breaking solutions to enable the next generation of more electric and hydrogen powered flight.
pages 4 and 5
pages 22 and 23
VALIDATED SCIENCE BASED TARGETS
In 2024, GKN Aerospace's near- and long-term emission targets were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative ("SBTi"). The decarbonisation of our own operations through energy efficiency initiatives and renewable energy installations remains a strategic priority, as we seek to reduce our own carbon footprint. A 1.2MW solar farm was completed at our Cowes site which is expected to generate approximately 1,150,000 kWh of electricity annually, supplying 20% of the site's energy needs.
Beyond our own operations, we have made progress in relation to our Scope 3 SBTi-approved engagement target (70% of suppliers by spend to have set SBTi targets by 2028) through a Supplier Engagement Project on internal training, supplier analysis and division-level engagement roadmap development. The roadmaps include multiple engagement strategies from letters and notifications to dedicated sustainability reviews and the eventual structural integration of sustainability into the standard business review agenda. The roadmaps also include key milestones where expectations are set for the GKN Aerospace supply chain, ultimately supporting suppliers to establish science-based emission targets before the end of 2028.
PREPARING FOR NEW SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
The new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") and underlying Standards aim to ensure more transparent and consistent reporting of sustainability information. With a number of our European sites falling within the scope of CSRD, we have chosen a consolidated approach to CSRD reporting. The timing and requirements of the first year of reporting are subject to the adoption of the 'Omnibus' legislative proposals to the European Parliament and Council.
In preparation for this, we have undertaken a number of actions to ensure our processes and disclosures are closely aligned with the standards and ready for external assurance. As such, in 2024, a value chain mapping exercise was commenced in order to gain a better understanding of the entire value chain and to enable the assessment and identification of material impacts, risks and opportunities ("IROs"). Internal governance structures and capacity building have also been introduced.
A key element of the CSRD requirements, is to perform a Double Materiality Assessment ("DMA") to identify the material sustainability IROs to the business. The European Sustainability Reporting Standards ("ESRS") supporting this Directive require that sustainability information related to the material IROs is reported through a sustainability statement, therefore a DMA must be conducted first to determine which topics are material for reporting. We have made significant progress on our DMA this year which will be concluded during 2025, ready for reporting at the end of the next financial year.
OUR PEOPLE
Promoting diversity and inclusion, prioritising the safety and wellbeing of our people, and investing in their development is instrumental to the success of our business. Having completed our commitment in relation to the Melrose Skills Fund in 2023, investing £10 million across the Melrose portfolio over a period of five years to promote engineering skills across the UK, this fund was relaunched in 2024. The new Global Skills Fund covers all functions and locations and provides our employees with funding support to learn new skills and to learn collaboratively across the business. The investment culminates in our commitment to invest at least £5 million annually on skills development. Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging ("DIB") are core pillars of our success, and moving into 2025, we are refreshing our DIB Strategy and associated action plan.(1)
(1) All Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives and activities referenced throughout this report are applicable only within the scope of legally permitted jurisdictions.
Our work on inclusion, development and wellbeing are all part of our drive to create a highly engaged workforce. In 2024 our engagement surveys were consolidated and completed in partnership with Gallup. The response rate was 84%, an increase from 2023, and showed meaningful improvement in topics such as Mission and Purpose, Recognition, and Materials and Equipment. In response to the feedback received, an organisation-wide initiative was launched to ensure continuous improvement actions are being undertaken with respect to the most material issues arising from the engagement survey for each team.
EXTERNAL RECOGNITION
We are pleased that our sustainability performance continues to be recognised by several key benchmarking agencies, including MSCI which upgraded our Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") rating to AA, making us a leader among our aerospace and defence industry peers. Melrose was assessed to be within the top decile of Aerospace businesses through external ratings agencies Sustainalytics, ISS and EcoVadis. Our ISS Corporate score was upgraded to C+, Prime (2023: C, Non-Prime) and GKN Aerospace's first evaluation of operational sustainability practices was completed with EcoVadis, receiving a silver medal with a score of 70 out of 100 for the first disclosure year. CDP Ratings of B were achieved for Climate Change and Water Security.
Sustainability has always been an important part of our strategy, and we firmly believe that this focus is not just the right thing to do, but is central to our success. We are grateful for the dedication of our employees, suppliers, customers and stakeholders who we work with to ensure responsible business practices. We have made significant progress throughout 2024, highlighted in this report, and aim to build on this work in 2025.
Peter Dilnot
Chief Executive Officer
EXAMPLES OF OUR INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP | ||||||||||||
H2GEAR Continuing our ground-breaking work on hydrogen aircraft propulsion, including the successful test of the world's first cryogenically cooled hydrogen electric motor demonstrator. | eVTOL Delivery of the first complete composite wings and booms for Supernal's first electric vertical take-off and landing ("eVTOL") demonstrator aircraft, underscoring our role as a key partner in the project. | |||||||||||
DECARBONISATION OF OUR OWN OPERATION | S | |||||||||||
Cowes, UK A 1.2MW solar farm was completed at the GKN Aerospace Cowes site in 2024. 1.2MW 20% capacity of the site's energy needs supplied 1,153,442 kWh electricity to be generated annually See page 19 | ||||||||||||
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Disclaimer
Melrose Industries plc published this content on April 30, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 30, 2025 at 18:43 UTC.
