Changes to the index took effect on May 2, and a spokesperson for the index explained why they were made in a
blog post published Wednesday.
It said that Tesla’s “lack of a low-carbon strategy” and “codes of business conduct,” along with racism and poor working conditions reported at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, affected the score. Tesla’s handling of an investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration also weighed on its score.
While Tesla’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, in February this year it settled with the Environmental Protection Agency after years of Clean Air Act violations and neglecting to track its own emissions.
Tesla ranked 22nd on last year’s Toxic 100 Air Polluters Index, compiled annually by U-Mass Amherst Political Economy Research Institute — worse than Exxon Mobil, which came in 26th. (The index uses data from 2019, the most recently available.)
In Tesla’s first-quarter filing the company also disclosed it is being investigated for its handling of waste in the state of California, and that
it had to pay a fine in Germany for failures to meet “take back” obligations in the country for spent batteries.
Meanwhile, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Tesla over anti-Black harassment and discrimination in its Fremont car plant. The agency says it found evidence that
Tesla routinely kept Black workers in low-level roles at the company, gave them more physically demanding and dangerous assignments and retaliated against them when they complained about racist slurs.