As a manufacturer of environmentally-friendly products and a fast-growing employer of talent in Northern Colorado, Lightning eMotors recognizes and embraces its responsibilities to its employees, its community and the environment. As a public company subject to additional regulatory oversight, Lightning has implemented rigorous governance policies to ensure excellence and integrity at all levels.

Environmental stewardship

At Lightning eMotors, we are committed to environmental stewardship not only through our products, but also how we operate.

Our operational sustainability efforts focus on responsibly managing our use of environmental resources, prioritizing landfill diversion, and improving efficiencies. We are also committed to ensuring our compliance with environmental regulations that apply to our operations.

A long-term commitment to environmental stewardship will benefit our company and its stakeholders by fostering a sustainable future that leads to social and economic benefits in the communities where we do business.

Some of our environmental stewardship efforts include: 

• We invested in building improvements at our Loveland, Colorado, facility to reduce our energy intensity by 40% over the past two years and have sustained this reduction despite increased production and headcount.
• We have recycled over 475,000 pounds of materials from facility upgrades and manufacturing scrap recycling since January of 2021, and we continue to prioritize landfill diversion throughout our entire operation.
• As part of our offerings, we electrify existing in-service gasoline or diesel-fueled fleet vehicles, through a service known as Lightning Repower. This process terminates their tailpipe emissions.
  
• We encourage our employees to drive electric vehicles and have provided free charging stations on-site for their use.

Product 

Our business is to provide specialized and sustainable fleet solutions and bring environmentally friendly transportation products to the marketplace. Commercial transportation is currently a significant contributor to climate change. Our portfolio of zero-emission electric commercial vehicles emits no greenhouse gases such as CO₂, or air quality pollutants such as NO_X or particulate matter. Even though grid electrical generation in most regions currently includes some fossil fuel power stations, the much higher inherent efficiency of our electric vehicles guarantees that much lower CO₂ emissions are generated at the grid level than by internal combustion engine vehicles on roads. And as utilities retire fossil fuel generation and bring more renewable sources online, our electric vehicles become greener over time.

Lightning eMotors also supports customers as they implement zero-emission electric vehicles into their operations through a suite of solutions, such as charging infrastructure, telematics and a mobile charging trailer.

As a leading provider of commercial electric vehicles in North America, we are leading the charge towards cleaner commercial transportation in many sectors, whether moving people or packages.

Sales weighted average efficiency for our vehicles: 43.1 MPGe 

Community involvement

Our charitable contributions committee provides a framework for our involvement and contribution in the local community. We provide financial support to workforce initiatives led by the local chamber of commerce in Northern Colorado and are involved with the Rotary Club of Loveland in promoting STEM within Loveland schools.  This includes sponsorship of robotics teams, enrichment of STEM resources and sponsoring STEM camps such as Camp Enrichment. Our CEO has personally been involved in the CEO Habitat for Humanity program on behalf of the company and our Denver Broncos partnership includes a full STEM program that sponsors a STEM competition and robotics training program.

In addition, our employee engagement committee has coordinated other community involvement events including Operation Backpack (providing backpacks filled with gifts and essentials for children in northern Colorado during the holidays), Salvation Army Angel Tree (“adopting” children and seniors in our community who need a little extra help with Christmas gifts), and regular mobile blood drives in coordination with UC Health Garth Englund Blood Center.​

Volunteer program

Our company-paid employee volunteer time off program was designed to encourage and support involvement in the community of Lightning employees by providing company-paid time off to volunteer. Employees may volunteer at a non-profit organization that benefits education, youth, human services, health or other charitable causes.

Internships

Lightning eMotors’ Internship Program was developed to assist us in bringing in fresh perspectives, create a pipeline for new hires and provide mentorship opportunities for our existing employees.  This program not only introduces our interns to working at Lightning, but also prepares them for work beyond our organization. Additionally, we plan to develop a pathway that will open the door for interns to return year after year until they graduate with a potential option to continue their professional career with the company. ​

Part of our internship program includes professional development sessions where our Lightning Leaders prepare and lead a discussion on a particular topic of their choice.​

Workforce training

Lightning eMotors has partnered with Aims Community College to provide safety and skills training for our workforce. This training provides our employees with the opportunity to grow their knowledge base, improve their job skills and to grow professionally.  Courses include Quality in Action, Lean Manufacturing, 5S, Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, Ergonomics in the Workplace, and Welding.  All courses are conducted in our facility to ensure our employees have easy access to the training.​

Colorado State University partnerships

• Partner in DOE research grant​
• Sponsored a senior design project​
• Provided data and expertise for Master’s candidates’ papers ​
• Host yearly Summer MBA internship program
• PEMS machine loan​ to CSU
• Engaged CSU staff for training at Lightning, including high voltage safety and vehicle cybersecurity training
• Sent employees to CSU for management training and coursework
  
• CSU Environmental Health and Safety students have performed field work on-site at Lightning, which has contributed to our safety program development as well as to their education
  

Awards

Lightning eMotors strives to create excellence in all that we do. We are happy to have been recognized for that excellence. See the full list of awards here.

To highlight our ESG-related awards:

• World’s First Hydraulic Hybrid shuttlebus at BusCon
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Industry Growth Forum top award “Best Venture“
• Colorado Cleantech Industries Association’s “Breakout Cleantech Company of the Year“
• CompanyWeek’s Colorado Manufacturing Award – Energy/Environment category
• BP Advancing Low Carbon program accreditation 2019 & 2020
• AutoTech Outlook’s Top EV Solution Providers 2020 award
• Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award 2020, North American Electric Commercial Vehicle Customer Value Leadership Award
• Grant Thornton “Manufacturing Innovation Leader and Learner Award” (MILL) 2021.

Governance 

Our Board and leadership team recognize that our business is deeply intertwined with the movement towards a sustainable future. Guided by our pioneering zero-emission technology, our Board and leadership team are sincerely committed to addressing climate, social, and environmental concerns through their oversight roles and policy initiatives. To this end, our Board has established various committees to provide oversight and manage our risks.  

The Audit Committee monitors and oversees:

• Our accounting and financial reporting process, and the audits of our consolidated financial statements
• The preparation and integrity of our consolidated financial statements 
• Our compliance with financial and regulatory requirements
• The qualifications and independence of our independent registered public accounting firm 

The Compensation Committee monitors and oversees: 

• The compensation of our executives and our disclosures on executive compensation  
• Our adoption of policies that govern our compensation programs, including stock and benefit plans 
• Ensuring independence of our Board 

The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee monitors and oversees: 

• The size and composition of our Board 
• Compliance with NYSE and Sarbanes-Oxley Act rules and regulations relating to corporate governance 
• The functions and needs of our Board 

The Finance and Investment Committee monitors and oversees: 

• Our financial affairs 
• Our investment guidelines 
• Our investment asset allocations and financing activities 

Corporate Governance Best Practices 

• Board Chair separate from CEO
  
• All but two board members are independent  
• Racial and gender diversity of board members 
• Two thirds of board members have served less than two years 

Policies

We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to our directors, executive officers, and employees. Our Board and its committees review the adequacy of our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and related processes. Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics aligns our extensive risk mitigation efforts with our philosophy that all of our employees, officers, and directors are individually responsible for ethical conduct and should promptly report ethical concerns when such concerns arise. To foster this ethical openness, we maintain an active whistleblower web portal and hotline where wrongful, illegal, or unethical conduct issues may be anonymously raised with us. Our leadership team regularly reports to the Board on developments with respect to ethical complaints and on additional risk management matters to enable Board oversight of our risk identification and mitigation efforts.

Our corporate governance enables responsible and sustainable growth through our additional Board adopted policies, listed on our Governance Documents Page, which includes:

• The charters for our Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, and Finance and Investment Committee
• Corporate Governance Guidelines
• Code of Business Conduct and Ethics

As Lightning grows and expands, our Board and leadership team are thoughtfully and deliberately approaching our operations with sustainability and social responsibility programs in mind. Our commitment to corporate governance mechanisms that ensure ethical and responsible conduct at all levels of our operations helps us ensure that we can maintain our focus on zero-emission technologies that will meaningfully contribute in global efforts to combat climate change.