SP Q1 2022 Membership Meeting Summary – January 25

The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) Q1 Membership Meeting was held as a virtual event over January 25-27, 2022. SP’s quarterly membership meetings are designed to provide a forum for global automotive manufacturers, their large and small suppliers, and other partners from around the world to work together toward a shared vision of an automotive industry with positive environmental impact.

The Q1 meeting began on January 25 with in-depth discussions on ESG Leadership Strategies and Renewable Energy Implementation Strategies.

ESG Leadership Strategies

The Q1 meeting began with an interactive session on ESG Leadership Strategies featuring Scott Nadler, Nadler Strategy and Senior Fellow, Global Environmental Management Initiative.

The session is part of a series organized by SP’s Emerging Professionals Work Group to help emerging professionals learn from industry leaders about the key concepts and strategies they have found to be effective to maximize their personal effectiveness, improve organizational efficiency, and motivate people.

Scott Nadler began the session by setting the context of the rapidly expanding Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) priorities and stakeholder expectations, and the growing pressures and challenges facing industry professionals in leading their organizations through this. Scott then shared strategies and lessons learned in doing, keeping and growing the ESG leadership job, and opportunities for sustainability leaders to to drive action on the big challenges ahead.

Based on attendee interest and feedback on this session, SP will be reviewing additional opportunities to continue peer discussions on ESG Leadership Strategies through new work group efforts.

SP EHS Forum – Renewable Energy Implementation Strategies

SP’s EHS Forum provides a forum to facilitate deeper discussions and connections among SP members related to current and emerging environment, health and safety issues impacting the industry, as identified by SP members. This quarter’s Forum was an interactive member discussion of renewable energy implementation strategies and opportunities.

The Forum began with a presentation from Jack Nunes (Lear Corp.) setting the context of corporate carbon neutrality goals and the role of renewable energy in reaching these goals. Monica Walker (General Motors) then spoke to GM’s corporate sustainability goals and renewable energy strategy, and shared examples of recently announced projects and programs in this space.

Benjamin Landry, Lauren Regan and Blair Wilcox (Edison Energy) then provided an in-depth presentation on drivers, challenges and opportunities in implementing renewable energy projects. They walked attendees through a structured process for identifying, developing and deploying a renewable project. Through the presentation they introduced a variety of strategies and tactics for meeting corporate renewable energy goals, providing analysis and lessons learned on the benefits, tradeoffs and key issues to be considered in evaluating each approach.

Following the presentation, attendees discussed some of the challenges in addressing renewable energy projects today and opportunities for additional collaboration / education to support suppliers, small-businesses and communities in sourcing renewable energy.

Stay tuned for part two, with more details on the next day’s Q1 meeting sessions.

SP’s next quarterly membership meeting is scheduled to be held in-person on April 14, 2022, with accompanying virtual-only events before and after the conference. As always, SP members and collaborators are encouraged to reach out to learn more about how to get involved in SP work group activities and initiatives and to share your ideas to keep moving us toward our shared vision of an automotive industry with positive environmental impact.

Additional information on the Q1 meeting discussions, presentations and next steps is available to current SP member companies. Please contact us if you’d like to learn more about SP and opportunities to participate as a member.