SP Q4 2020 Membership Meeting Update

The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) Q4 2020 Membership Meeting was held as a virtual event over October 26-28 this year.

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 Q4 meeting began on October 26 with working sessions on waste management and EV battery recycling, and continued on October 27 with deeper dive session on automotive industry carbon and energy goals.

On October 28, SP’s Q4 Membership Meeting began with remarks from two special guest speakers from the US Department of Energy: Alexander Fitzsimmons, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy and, Conner Prochaska, Chief Commercialization Officer, US Department of Energy, Director Office of Technology Transitions. The speakers shared information on ongoing initiatives and R&D efforts being led by the Department and National Laboratories relevant to key interests of the automotive industry and SP’s members, including electric vehicle battery reuse and recycling, sustainable materials, plastics recycling and new energy technologies.

John Etgen, CEO of Project WET Foundation, then spoke of the value of water to the automotive industry and shared three case studies on how Project WET has worked with companies across sectors on water education programs for their internal and external stakeholders.

Following the morning guest speakers, SP member company leaders and partners from GM, Honda, Toyota, Manufacture 2030, ERA Environmental, VMX International, GWT Insight, Waste Management, Wildlife Habitat Council and others provided updates on the progress and next steps of a variety of SP work group activities including:

• SP’s Biodiversity Work Group. Providing a platform to educate, engage and recognize actions of public and private stakeholders across the automotive value chain in implementing conservation projects that are individually meaningful, yet collectively groundbreaking.
• SP’s EHS Forum. Providing a forum to facilitate deeper discussions and connections among SP members related to current and emerging environment, health and safety issues impacting the industry.
• SP’s Emerging Professionals Work Group. Emerging Professionals members are working to cultivate their current work environments into sustainable and inclusive communities, adopting the mindset of ‘No action is too small’, while promoting sustainability in all business operations.
• SP’s Global Product Chemical Compliance Process Management Questionnaire Work Group. Developing / piloting industry due diligence tool (questionnaire) to assess management processes and oversight.
• SP’s Materials Efficiency Work Group. Developing strategy to use collective leverage of industry to increase demand for sustainable-content and incentivize innovation. Developing voluntary guidance on sourcing sustainable packaging in automotive operations.
• SP’s Technology & Innovation Advisory Council. Developing structured process to assist companies of all sizes within the SP network to share innovative ideas and solutions that can address member companies’ significant environmental sustainability challenges and needs.
• SP’s Responsible Battery Work Group. Providing a forum for SP members from across the value chain to work together to advance responsible management of advanced vehicle batteries, with a particular focus on end-of-life management of lithium-ion batteries.
• Manufacture 2030 Automotive Supplier Engagement Program. Providing common platform and tools for sponsoring OEMs to collaborate with key suppliers at scale to track and forecast carbon reductions in support of long-term targets, while connecting to best practices and support to accelerate carbon and energy reduction improvements.

SP’s next quarterly membership meeting is scheduled to be held as a virtual event on January 27-28, 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.

Additional information on the 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.