5 August 2026, Farnborough, UK: Leading business mobility provider Alphabet (GB) has traded silver for the EcoVadis Gold Medal in this year’s assessment, recognising the business' dedication to embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles throughout its operations.

The award places the UK operation among the top-performing 5% of participating organisations assessed by EcoVadis globally. This year, Alphabet (GB) has achieved an overall score of 85/100 – a significant 14-point increase on last year's result.

The step up in performance was driven by multiple key factors: most notably the sharing of best practice among Alphabet teams across Europe, the successful introduction of new vendor assessment processes, and strengthened internal policies and improved reporting practices.

The Gold Medal builds on Alphabet's strong track record of ESG progress, reflecting years of investment in responsible business practices and continuous improvement. Achieving such a high score is particularly noteworthy considering the challenging economic and geopolitical landscape, evolving regulatory demands, and wider pressures facing the automotive sector. Despite these headwinds, Alphabet continues to strengthen its sustainability performance, which remains a key element of its strategy.

EcoVadis is one of the world's most trusted providers of business sustainability ratings, helping organisations assess and improve their ESG performance. Its rigorous assessment framework examines standards across four key areas, providing businesses and their customers with a benchmark of their sustainability credentials. Alphabet (GB) scored highly in all four categories of Environmental Impact, Labour & Human Rights, Ethics, and an impressive 21% uplift in Sustainable Procurement.

The assessment process is tailored to each organisation's sector, size and operating environment, ensuring companies are measured against criteria that reflect their unique business activities. Achieving Gold status requires consistently high performance across all four pillars.

The latest accolade also adds to a growing list of achievements for Alphabet (GB) in 2026, reflecting the business's excellence in sustainability, its people and customer service. Earlier this year, the business was certified as a Top Employer, celebrated the recognition of two colleagues at the BVRLA Industry Hero Awards, and achieved Gold status in the FleetWise 100 Trusted Brands report.

Commenting on the achievement, Natasha Foley, ESG Officer for Alphabet (GB) and BMW Financial Services (GB), said: "Being awarded the EcoVadis Gold Medal is fantastic recognition of the progress we’ve made in bolstering our sustainability strategy. This is only achievable with the collective effort and backing of teams across the business, who weave responsible practices into everything we do and support our customers, partners and colleagues on the journey towards a more sustainable future. 

“Achieving an overall score of 85 demonstrates that, even during a period of significant economic, geopolitical and industry uncertainty, we’ve been undeterred in our progress towards our ESG ambitions. That dedication has enabled us to continue improving year on year, and we're extremely motivated to build on this success and raise the bar even further."

The EcoVadis Gold Medal is valid for 12 months, after which Alphabet (GB) will undergo a further assessment. The business will use the feedback from its latest evaluation to continue enhancing its ESG performance and aims to build on this success in future assessments.

The Chancellor has set our plans for a new Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED), or mileage tax, for electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

From April 2028, battery electric car drivers will pay a road charge of 3 pence per mile, while plug-in hybrid drivers will pay 1.5 pence per mile, with the rates going up each year in line with inflation. It does not apply to light commercial vehicles, HGVs, and motorcycles, which will initially be exempt from the eVED.

Therefore, the owner of an average electric car driving 8,000 miles per annum can expect to pay an additional £240 per year in 2028/29.

As the eligible vehicle numbers are expected to grow over time, the discount level will reduce from 4 March 2030 to 12.5% for electric cars and 25% for electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles, provided they are registered on Auto Pay.