London, 20th September: Jaguar Land Rover, Jardine Motors, Aston Martin Lagonda today announce they are the latest global businesses to sign up to ground breaking disability inclusion campaign The Valuable 500, which is seeking 500 global businesses to address approaches to disability in business.

The news comes as Jaguar Land Rover announces it will expand its work with disabled people, which currently involves the Invictus Games for wounded, injured and sick ex- services personnel, to help future cars better meet their needs. This includes testing a prototype ‘mobility door’ that opens automatically as the driver approaches – technology that could help disabled people for whom a car is the main mode of transport.

Similarly, Jardine Motors will commit to furthering their work to be inclusive of all disabled people. This will include their work to help shape the wheelchair of the future through its partnership with corporate charity Whizz Kidz, as well as its work placement opportunities for young wheelchair users, which helps them gain important employability skills and broaden their awareness of the types of roles and careers available in a commercial business.

Aston Martin Lagonda will build on its long history of working with local community and charity groups to boost diversity in the work place.

Caroline Casey, founder of The Valuable 500 commented:

Transportation can be one of the greatest daily challenges for a disabled person, so to have three leading automotive companies come on board and pledge to make their business more accessible and inclusive of disabled people, is a fantastic moment, and truly a huge step forward.

Not only should we value each person for their uniqueness, but we must look at this through our business eyes, and recognise there is a huge economic case for including the 1.3billion disabled people around the world at every stage of a business process too. Only then will we finally tap into a pool of talent that has been ignored for so long.

Jaguar Land Rover has been leading the way on inclusion of disabled people in the automotive industry for years, so it is brilliant to have such an avid supporter now on board, with others from the automotive industry already following.

We are delighted to welcome Jaguar Land Rover, Jardine Motors and Aston Martin Lagonda to our growing community of businesses fighting for inclusion and urge other businesses in the automotive industry, who have a true ability to transform the lives of disabled people, to come together and put an end to disability exclusion.

 

The Valuable 500 campaign, launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in Davos in January, will hold global business leaders accountable for disability inclusion in their businesses by ensuring it is discussed at leadership level and placed on their board agendas.

The worldwide call to action has already received the backing of other global businesses and recently saw the largest move to support disability inclusion from the banking sector in history, as well as the Big Four professional services firms coming on board last week.

 

Prof Sir Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover CEO, said:

We are proud to join The Valuable 500 because Jaguar Land Rover understands the importance of making our business and our products more inclusive. We are committed to creating experiences people love, for life – and that absolutely includes benefit disabled people.

 It’s why we have been the presenting partner of the Invictus Games for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women since it began in 2014. Everyone at Jaguar Land Rover is hugely passionate about that and now we pledge to do even more through The Valuable 500.

Prof Sir Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover CEO

 

Jardine Motors Group CEO, Neil Williamson, comments:

For the last four years, we’ve been on a mission to change perceptions of the automotive industry and banish some of the out-dated views we know those outside our industry have, so that we can continue to attract fresh new talent and be a retailer of choice for customers. For us at Jardine Motors, we particularly want to be seen as a beacon for those who just want to be the best, regardless of background, gender or ability. That’s why I’m proud to be supporting the Valuable 500 as an employer that’s committed to creating equal opportunities and an inclusive company accessible to all.

When we started on our journey to change perceptions, we committed to increasing the percentage of women in management roles to 30% and I’m delighted that just four years in, we’ve achieved it. Now, by supporting the Valuable 500, we’re broadening our diversification and inclusion agenda even further and have made a number of actionable pledges that will help drive change in the way we attract new talent as well as deliver customer experiences.

Jardine Motors Group CEO, Neil Williamson

 

Dr Andy Palmer CMG, President & Group CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda said:

We strive to continue to build a high-performing culture, characterised by a diverse and inclusive workforce able to meet the challenges of the future. Our performance depends on the mutual respect, diversity and the professional fulfilment of the people in our Company. I am delighted to sign up to the Valuable 500 initiative to ensure we as a company are able to do even more to promote disability inclusion in our business.

Dr Andy Palmer CMG, President & Group CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda

 

Founded by social entrepreneur and campaigner Caroline Casey, The Valuable 500 campaign was launched at Davos earlier this year, and marked the first time disability inclusion was discussed on the main stage with the support of global business leaders.

Its mission is to unlock the value of people living with disabilities across the world. Along with their friends, families and communities, the one billion disabled people worldwide also hold a disposable annual income of $8 trillion a year, equating to an opportunity that business cannot afford to ignore.

The campaign aims to end ‘diversish’ attitudes towards disability in business where 90% of companies say they’re inclusive but only 4% include disability in this definition. Research by EY and #valuable has found that 56% of global senior executives admitted to rarely or never discussing disability on their leadership agendas – proving disability to be woefully absent from the current business agenda.

The three new members will join the effort along with other sectors to tackle the poor global employment rate for disabled people, which is currently stands at half of non- disabled people, a gap which has been on the rise since 2010.

Casey, who has ocular albinism and is thus registered blind, celebrated the leaders in the automotive industry coming on board by driving a Range Rover Velar at Land Rover Experience Centre.

To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please use the contact form below.

Media contacts.

Eloise Keightley, Seven Hills.

Richard Poston, Director of Communications, the Valuable 500.

Notes to Editors.

Applying for Membership of The Valuable 500.

To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please use the contact form below.

Membership of The Valuable 500 includes:

By becoming a member of The Valuable 500, you agree to:

About #valuable.

Launched by Binc, #valuable is a campaign working to ensure businesses globally recognise the value of the one billion people around the world living with a disability. We believe that building a global society that recognises the value of the 1.3 billion people living with a disability starts with business. We’re on a mission to make sure businesses across the world recognise the value of the one billion people living with a disability.

Binc was founded by social entrepreneur and activist Caroline Casey in 2015, with a mission to ignite a historic global movement for a new age of business inclusion. Binc is capitalising on Caroline Casey’s 18-year track record of success engaging over 450 organisations and working with 500,000 business leaders. Binc fundamentally believes that inclusive business creates inclusive societies and is initiating a new approach to business that genuinely includes the 1 billion people living in the world with a disability. Binc is the founding team behind valuable, an ambitious global campaign to put inclusivity on top of the business agenda around the world in 2019. Binc is using a tried and tested formula that has worked in the past for gender, race and LGBT to leverage the exponential rise of The Diversity and Inclusion Agenda.

About Jaguar Land Rover.

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest automotive manufacturer, built around two iconic British car brands: Land Rover, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium all-wheel-drive vehicles; and Jaguar, one of the world’s premier luxury sports saloon and sports car marques.

At Jaguar Land Rover, we are driven by a desire to deliver class-leading vehicles, which will provide experiences our customers will love, for life. Our products are in demand around the globe. In 2018 Jaguar Land Rover sold 592,708 vehicles in 128 countries.

We support around 260,000 people through our retailer network, suppliers and local businesses. At heart we are a British company, with two major design and engineering sites,

three vehicle manufacturing facilities and an engine manufacturing centre in the UK. We also have plants in China, Brazil, India, Austria and Slovakia.

From 2020 all new Jaguar Land Rover vehicles will offer the option of electrification, giving our customers even more choice. We will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles as well as continuing to offer the latest diesel and petrol engines.

About Jardine Motors Group.

Jardine Motors Group represents 20 luxury and premium automotive brands, operating across 70 locations in the UK and employing more than 3,600 colleagues. This includes brands such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren. JardineMotors Group is committed to driving diversification and changing perceptions of the automotive industry. Spearheading the campaign, Jardine Motors Group CEO Neil Williamson, committed the company to a target of 30 per cent of senior management roles being held by women by 2030. However, in 2019, the company already reached this target; just four years into its plan. As part of its innovative approach to driving up diversification in the business, Jardine Motorssupports Speakers for Schools, the Automotive 30% Club and Retail Week’s Be Inspired campaign.

Since 2014, Jardine Motors Group has supported mobility charity Whizz-Kidz to transform the lives of disabled children. Colleagues’ innovative fundraising ideas and teamwork has raised more than £1,000,000 to provide tailored mobility equipment, wheelchair skills training, mobility therapists and social clubs for young disabled people. As well as fundraising, the company created work experience and employment skills training opportunities for Whizz-Kidz young people.

Jardine Motors Group is owned by FTSE 350 parent company, JardineMatheson, which is a South East Asia conglomerate, founded and still run today on a business ethos that has always involved a constant evolution to keep up with the pace of modern times. With a long history of innovation, creating opportunities, developing new businesses and delivering positive change, this is how subsidiaries of Jardine Matheson operate.

Through its partnership with corporate charity Whizz Kidz, Jardine Motors Group is helping to shape the wheelchair of the future. As part of a steering group, the retail group is looking at motability in the broader sense and driving connected motability for wheelchair users. It has facilitated collaborations with the automotive industry, global innovation partners and the future marketplace to design the wheelchair of the future. This has involved, for example, looking at new connectivity and digital capabilities available such as IoT that already exist on today’s vehicles, and considered how they may interface with a wheelchair to provide a more connected world for customers.

About Aston Martina Lagonda.

Aston Martin Lagonda is a luxury automotive group focused on the creation of exclusive cars and SUVs. The iconic Aston Martin brand fuses the latest technology, exceptional handcraftsmanship and timeless design to produce models including the Vantage, DB11, Rapide AMR and DBS Superleggera. The Lagonda brand will relaunch in 2021 as the world’s first luxury electric vehicle company. Based in Gaydon, England, Aston Martin Lagonda designs, creates and exports cars which are sold in 53 countries around the world.

Lagonda was founded in 1899 and Aston Martin in 1913. The two brands came together in 1947 when both were purchased by the late Sir David Brown. Under the leadership of Dr Andy Palmer and a new management team, the Group launched its Second Century Plan in 2015 to deliver sustainable long-term growth. The plan is underpinned by the introduction of seven new models including the DB11, new Vantage, DBS Superleggera and an SUV, as well as the development of a new manufacturing centre in St Athan, Wales.

Our definition of disability.

#valuable uses the definition provided by the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with disabilities, which defines a person living with a disability as ‘those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.’

Disability and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The need to advance disability inclusion around the globe is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Disability or ‘persons with disabilities’ are specifically referenced 11 times in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a further six references to ‘persons in vulnerable situations’. Principally with reference to: promoting inclusive economic growth that allows disabled people to fully access the job market and guaranteeing equal and accessible education through the creation of inclusive environments.