SP Work Groups

SP is a "member-driven" organization that provides quantifiable value to all of its members through the efforts and "sweat equity" of work groups as well as through meetings and activities that have been identified by the SP membership. In addition to the work group activities, SP holds quarterly Membership Meetings designed to educate and update the membership on the status of the work group projects, conducts benchmarking sessions on selected topics and provides a networking forum for the members.

The following is a list of the current SP Work Groups:

• Packaging Work Group: Is identifying ways to provide value within the automotive supply chain by working together to address ways to optimize packaging parameters to reduce the environmental footprint and costs of packaging , including how to reduce waste, promote reuse and maximize recycling. The team is currently focusing on the development of a pilot project of a container-sharing program within SP member companies.

• Environmental Performance Metrics: Focus is on developing an industry-wide method for measuring improvement in environmental performance of suppliers and OEMs, and developing an associated reporting mechanism through new approaches developed through changes in procurement process, that recognize environmental and energy issues' effects on business performance.
• SP Technical Assistance Workshops--workshops provided by U.S. EPA and National Institute of Standards & Technology's (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Workshops: Development and implementation of workshops to train small- and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the automotive sector on business value integrating environmental issues into business processes.
  NIST/MEP Contact: Mike Coast, MI MMTC mcoast@mmtc.org
  EPA Contact: Kristin Pierre, EPA Pierre.Kristin@epamail.epa.gov

• Sustainable Product Initiative (SPI) Work Group: Is working in an ad hoc and advisory capacity with Paul Chalmer of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) to discuss a potential collaborative project in regards to the NCMS “Sustainable Product Initiative.” The project would focus on designing automotive parts that, from their initial design, consider the ability to reuse or recycle the part and explore market driven incentives to reduce the impact on human health and the environment of the automobile life cycle by working with the manufacturer and their supply chain.