Cheryl Daverin is the Regional ESG Director at ENNOVI, overseeing ESG strategies and implementation in North America and Europe. As part of the global sustainability team, she works at the forefront of her company’s extensive sustainability efforts. With a personal passion that has long advocated for environmental stewardship and human rights, Cheryl found the opportunity to embark on a sustainability journey with her employer. Reporting directly to the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), she focuses with the team on risk evaluation and mitigation while driving sustainability initiatives throughout the entire organization.
ENNOVI, formerly known as Interplex, is a key player in designing and manufacturing products for the electric battery platform, serving as the supplier to hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and electric vehicle (EV) original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Being deeply embedded in sectors like the automotive industry, where sustainability is a significant topic, provided a strong initial prompt for their efforts.
While some of ENNOVI’s sustainability initiatives began in response to customer requests and specific requirements, the organization decided to build significantly upon this foundation. Being a critical team member of the global sustainability team at ENNOVI, Cheryl is committed to pursuing excellence in whatever the team undertakes, striving to establish the company as a leader.
A crucial element in this journey has been their engagement with third-party evaluation platforms like EcoVadis. One of Cheryl’s team achievements was leading the standardization of sustainability questionnaire responses across all company sites, thereby providing a competitive advantage with key customers. By analysing past submissions and guiding teams through evidence preparation, scores improved dramatically by 20-30 points per site, placing ENNOVI well above industry and regional benchmarks. Cheryl’s structured and collaborative approach with the team to closing gaps and improving these scores also helped enhance the management systems for such items at the site level.
This early experience with evaluation scores highlighted the value of such platforms. By analysing the results, ENNOVI could identify areas where it did not score well and lacked sufficient evidence. The organization learned from these assessments, using the insights to create its sustainability strategy. This strategy targets weak spots, leverages strengths, and enhances the presentation of existing efforts. Identifying areas for improvement and preparing next steps based on evaluations is a core part of setting goals and targets, allowing ENNOVI to move forward continuously.
Benchmarking became another vital practice, whether through platforms like EcoVadis or within its value chain. A key principle guiding ENNOVI’s efforts was ensuring that everything they did made sense for the business. It wasn’t enough for a customer to request something or state how they did things; ENNOVI had to evaluate how each initiative would work specifically for the organization, its leadership, and its 8,000+ employees to ensure buy-in throughout. Achieving buy-in across such a large and diverse company is inherently challenging. ENNOVI’s ambition was to strive for excellence from the C-level down to the site level.
EcoVadis evaluates companies across four main themes: the environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. ENNOVI found that its environmental score was consistently its strongest area. The organization’s strategy involved securing ‘easy wins’ in areas such as the environment, while developing longer-term strategies for other areas.
Leadership extended beyond strategy and metrics. Through the creation of company-wide Regional Sustainability Summits, Cheryl and the Global Sustainability Team fostered a collaborative environment where sustainability team members could learn directly from peers, troubleshoot challenges, and co-develop innovative solutions.
ENNOVI developed an early roadmap to clearly define gaps and plan what could be realistically accomplished within its limited resources each year. Driving these initiatives required engaging cross-functional teams, including human resources and the supply chain department. A powerful sustainability committee, composed of members from these various departments, plays a key role, with teams setting tasks for themselves each year that help boost their scores.
With nearly two decades of experience in industrial safety, health, and the environment, Cheryl was an integral part of the team’s success in transforming the company’s EHS culture from one driven by compliance to one focused on prevention. Along with the members of the Global Sustainability team, they have engaged employees at all levels to increase their focus on early hazard identification and response, targeting preventive metrics that have contributed to a 47% reduction in lost time injuries over the past two years, with Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates well below industry averages.
While the environmental score was initially the focus for maximization, ENNOVI then focused on ethics and human rights. Sustainable procurement presented a greater challenge due to the sheer number of suppliers the organization needed to engage with, requiring a slower start. However, efforts picked up pace in recent years.
A core driving force behind ENNOVI’s continued improvement is the mindset of taking analysis and building upon it. It becomes a personal challenge if the organization does not achieve full points in an area. The ultimate goal is to achieve a perfect score. The process of evaluation and adaptation is ongoing, necessitated by changes in regulations and industry expectations.
These dedicated efforts have yielded significant success. ENNOVI has achieved an EcoVadis Platinum rating for the last five years, continually improving the overall score, with the most recent result at 85. This high rating has translated into tangible business benefits, particularly in securing new business. The organization’s sustainability program and ratings, being higher than those of many competitors, have provided a crucial edge in winning new contracts, especially within the competitive automotive industry. This demonstrates that prioritizing sustainability can be a powerful driver for commercial success.
Cheryl’s sustainability journey at ENNOVI exemplifies a strategic, data-driven approach grounded in personal conviction and organizational commitment. By leveraging evaluation platforms like EcoVadis, focusing on continuous improvement, building on strengths while addressing weaknesses, and fostering cross-functional collaboration, ENNOVI has transformed initial customer prompts into a leadership position, earning a Platinum rating. The organization’s experience underscores the importance of integrating sustainability into core business strategy and the competitive advantages it can yield.
