SP Q3 2021 Membership Meeting Summary – Part 2

The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) Q3 Membership Meeting was held as a virtual event over July 27-29, 2021. 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 Q3 meeting began with meetings of SP’s Emerging Professionals and Responsible Battery working groups, followed by sessions focused on low-carbon steel, and achieving carbon neutrality — read more in our previous post.

The final day of the Q3 meeting featured a series of executive reports on SP work group projects and initiatives. SP’s Chair Kevin Butt (Toyota) welcome attendees to the event and introduced new SP member companies Monolith Materials, RRS and Toyota Tsusho America. Kellen Mahoney (SP) then reviewed SP’s renewed vision, mission and key focus areas, before facilitating reports on key initiatives within each focus area. The reports included comments from Sara Cook (Wildlife Habitat Council), Alissa Yakali (Honda), Sophia Borroni-Bird (GM), Vickie Lewis (VMX), and Kevin Butt (Toyota) relating to the following SP work groups:

  • BIODIVERSITY: Demonstrating leadership as an industry by working together to create a connected corridor of wildlife habitat across our operations, and within the communities in which we operate, to create meaningful new habitat for migratory species of concern in North America such as the Monarch butterfly.
  • CARBON / ENERGY: Supporting industry dialogue and action on common definitions / tools / resources for measuring and advancing carbon reduction efforts across the supply chain.
  • EHS FORUM: Facilitating deeper discussions and connections among SP members related to current and emerging environment, health and safety (EHS) issues impacting the automotive industry.
  • EMERGING PROFESSIONALS (SP EP): Supporting emerging professionals in advancing innovative associate engagement initiatives at their companies through benchmarking and collaboration with fellow, diverse industry professionals within the Suppliers Partnership network.
  • GLOBAL PRODUCT CHEMICAL COMPLIANCE PROCESS MANAGEMENT: Supporting OEM / supplier dialogue and education on emerging global product chemical compliance process management challenges and opportunities.
  • MATERIALS EFFICIENCY (SP MEWG): Working to move the automotive industry towards a circular materials economy by promoting collaboration amongst automotive manufacturers and suppliers to incorporate sustainable practices, processes, and materials in the production and content of vehicles.
  • RESPONSIBLE BATTERY (SP RBWG): Promoting information exchange on key challenges and opportunities related to end-of-life management of advanced EV batteries and identifying opportunities for strategic pre-competitive collaboration across the value chain to advance best practice in responsible management of such batteries in North America and beyond
  • TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION: Providing a structured process to assist companies of all sizes within the SP network to share innovative ideas and solutions that can address our member companies’ significant environmental sustainability challenges and needs.

Following the work group reports, Andrew Patterson (Eurofins) shared an emerging issue update regarding recent research related to 6ppd-quinone identified in tire wear particles. 

Finally, SP was very pleased to be joined by Matthew Tejada, Director of the Office of Environmental Justice at US EPA. He shared information on EPA’s current priorities and activities related to environmental justice, as well as strategies and opportunities for corporations to actively engage and support action on environmental justice.

SP’s next quarterly membership meeting is scheduled to be held on October 26-27, 2021. 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.

Check out part one for more details on the prior Q3 meeting sessions.

Additional information on the Q3 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.

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