Sustainable Packaging Specification Recommendations for Automotive Manufacturing Operations (2020 Version)
An updated version of this document was published in 2022. Please visit www.supplierspartnership.org/sustainablepackaging for the latest version.
The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) – an association of global automakers and their suppliers working together to advance environmental sustainability through the automotive supply chain – has published a new guidance document, Sustainable Packaging Specification Recommendations for Automotive Manufacturing Operations.
The guidance document was produced through a collaborative process by the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) Materials Efficiency Work Group, whose members include automotive original equipment manufacturers such as Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda of America Mfg., Stellantis and Toyota Motor North America.
The document is designed to provide straightforward industry-supported guidance to help automakers and their suppliers source sustainable packaging designs for use in automotive manufacturing operations.
Sustainable Packaging Specification Recommendations for Automotive Manufacturing Operations
A succinct set of practical recommendations to help automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers source sustainable packaging designs for use in automotive manufacturing operations. These recommendations focus on opportunities to minimize automotive packaging waste and address barriers to recyclability in the design phase.
Industry Perspectives
“We [Sustainability representatives from OEMs that collaborate through SP] decided to put together a working group to measure and track progress towards increasing recycled content in the automotive industry. The goal is to leverage our requests as an industry to increase demand for sustainable content and increase supply of it from our suppliers. We have been working with suppliers and together to understand how to define sustainable content and how to track the progress. We’re very excited for the packaging specs and see this as the start of other sustainable material initiatives,” Sophia Borroni-Bird, Sustainability Lead, General Motors.
“This project is another example of how our companies are working together through SP to not only share leading environmental sustainability practices, but advance understanding of how to actually do something that makes a real change. By working together to advance implementation of leading practices that can be put in place on a large scale, we have the opportunity to make a meaningful and positive impact to the environmental footprint of our industry,“ Kevin Butt, Senior Director, Environmental Sustainability, Toyota Motor North America.
“This project is about companies working together through SP to share knowledge and lessons learned over many years of work to minimize waste across the automotive industry, and promoting the thinking and action that is needed to tackle packaging waste minimization and pave the way for others to follow the same path,” said John Bradburn, Sustainability Expert Consultant at ERA Environmental Management Solutions.
Acknowledgements: This guidance document was produced through a collaborative process by the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) Materials Efficiency Work Group. The original document was developed by John Bradburn, on behalf of ERA Environmental Management Solutions, with input from representatives of SP member companies including FCA, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda of America Mfg., and Toyota Motor North America.
Disclaimer: This document is intended to provide guidance for automakers, their suppliers and the general public on sourcing sustainable packaging designs. The guidance included in this document is based on the professional judgment of the individual authors and reviewers and may be used at a company’s discretion. SP and its member companies make no warranty, expressed or implied, and assume no liability for any form of damage that may result from the application of the guidance contained in this document.