Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) 2ndQuarter MembershipMeeting Minutes

May 5, 2005

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Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP)

2nd Quarter Board Meeting Minutes

May 5, 2005

Hosted by Visteon Corporation

SP’s Chair, Mr. Randy Leslie, Johnson Controls, Inc., called the meeting to order at 9:30am EDT with the following individuals present:

MEMBERS:
Frank / Florio / Ashland, Inc.
Amy / Keziah / Ashland, Inc.
Brian / Sweeney / Ashland, Inc.
Mark / Doetsch / BAE Industries
Emley / Halibozek / BAE Industries
Chris / Mieczkowski / BAE Industries
Leon / Richardson / Chemico Systems, Inc.
Ross / Good / DaimlerChrysler
Nakia / Simon / DaimlerChrysler
Angie / Coyle / Delphi Corporation
Brad / Strohm / Delphi Corporation
Jim / Laney / Denso International America, Inc.
Dave / Brown / Diversity Products
Darlene / Fleser / Diversity Products
Heidi / Heil / Diversity Products
John / Resslar / Diversity Products
Jim / Stratman / Enviroplas, Inc.
Dave / Weaver / Enviroplas, Inc.
Dave / Whitmore / Enviroplas, Inc.
Sharon / Stahl / Gage Products Company
Tim / Wing / Gage Products Company
Pat / Beattie / General Motors Corporation
Sandy / Brewer / General Motors Corporation
Terry / Cullum / General Motors Corporation
Robin / Richey / General Motors Corporation
Candace / Wheeler / General Motors Corporation
Scott / Stanley / Guardian Automotive
Ken / Price / Heritage Interactive Services, LLC
Mindy / Tasich-Koyani / Heritage Interactive Services, LLC
Bob / Nolan / International Components Strategies Inc.
Dave / Duesterberg / Johnson Controls, Inc.
Randy / Leslie / Johnson Controls, Inc.
Dean / Petrick / Johnson Controls, Inc.
Jim / Colmer / Lear Corporation
Beccy / Spearot / Lear Corporation
David / Briggs / Mobile Fluid Recovery
Paul / Chalmer / NCMS
Ron / Lang / NCMS
Mike / Barto / Petoskey Plastics
David / Millunchick / Principal Manufacturing Corporation
George / Cary / Quaker Chemical Corporation
Bob / O'Neill / Remy International
Amy / Goldman / SP
Steve / Hellem / SP
Sara / Hartwell / U.S. EPA
Tom / Murray / U.S. EPA
Andy / Darmanin / Visteon Corporation
Gary / Mayo / Visteon Corporation
Matt / Roman / Visteon Corporation
GUESTS:
Jim / Weddell / DuPont
Jerrold / Carter / Enviro-Tech Plastics
Sal / Olivito / Enviro-Tech Plastics
Susanne / Fredericks / Goodwill Association of Michigan (GAM)
Mike / Szukhent / Goodwill Industries of Mid-Michigan
Howie / Frederick / Honeywell International
Laura / Brandt / TRW Automotive

In recognition and remembrance of Michelle Jackson, Diversity Products, who passed away on March 21, 2005, Mr. Leslie requested a moment of silence to recognize the loss of a friend and SP Leader.

Mr. Leslie welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the meeting. He reviewed SP’s antitrust guidelines and recommended that each member indicate in their notes of the meeting that the guidelines were discussed.

Mr. Leslie recognized and thanked Mr. Gary Mayo and the Visteon Corporation team for coordinating and hosting the meeting.

Mr. Leslie introduced Mr. Gary Mayoto provide an introduction to Visteon. Mr. Mayo welcomed the members and guests to the meeting, and introduced Mr. Michael Johnston, President and CEO , who welcomed the attendees and noted the importance of the Suppliers Partnership to Visteon. Mr. Mayo then introduced Mr. Andy Darmanin of Visteon who provided an overview of VisteonVillage in Van Buren Township, MI.

Mr. Leslie asked the attendees to review the minutes from the 1st Quarter Membership meeting on February 3, 2005. On a motion duly made and seconded, the minutes from the 1st Quarter Membership Meeting on February 3, 2005 were approved.

Mr. Ross Good, DaimlerChrysler Corporation, for SP’s Finance Chair, Mr. Reg Modlin of DaimlerChrysler Corporation, provided a financial update. He noted that there was one company with outstanding dues of $500 for 2004. He added that all dues had been received for 2005 except from the newly joined companies and that SP is near the 2005 budget goal of $154,000.

SP’s Membership Development Chair, Mr. Mayo provided a membership update acknowledging SP’s newest six member companies brining the total to 31 members in the organization: Enviroplas, Inc.; Mobile Fluid Recovery, Inc.; International Components Strategies, Inc.; Principal Manufacturing Corporation; and Remy International, Inc. He then welcomed the guests companies in attendance, including: DuPont; The Environmental Recycling Group; Envirotech Plastics; Goodwill Association of Michigan; Honeywell International; SKD Automotive Group; and TRW Automotive. Each guest company then reviewed a prepared slide to introduce their company.

Mr. Leslie for SP’s Communication Chair, Mr. Strelow, provided an update on SP’s communication activities, including: the April Update; April 21, 2005 press release about four new members; and SP received its trademark registration certificate. In addition, Mr. Leslie noted that the SP website continued to be strong and hits on the site continued to rise. He added that the Executive Committee members had discussed potentially developing a new SP brochure.

SP’s Work Group Chair, Ms. Spearot, Lear Corporation, introduced the Work Group Chairs for project updates:

•SP’s Chair of the DfE LCM Work Group, Mr. Brad Strohm, Delphi, noted that a conference call held March 24 to discuss potential leasing program for automotive parts as well as potential for developing training program for design for remanufacture. He added that Mr. Paul Chalmer of NCMS would be provided an update on the project later on in the day.

•SP’s Co-chairs of the DfE Packaging Work Group, Ms. Darlene Fleser, Diversity Products and Ms. Robin Richey, GM, noted that the Work Group met on May 4, 2005 with approximately 25 attendees. Ms. Fleser reviewed the presentation about the SP Containerization Sharing Program pilot project, developed by Diversity Products. She added that a memo would be sent to the members regarding the SP Containerization Sharing pilot project developed by Diversity Projects followed by a conference call on June 6 at 2:00pm EDT to discuss plans for the project.

•SP’s Chair of the Metrics Work Group, Mr. Jim Colmer, Lear Corporation, noted that he and a few colleagues had reviewed the NIST green workshop metrics and decided that it would be better for companies to agree to collect and share workshop information with the Work Group.

•SP’s Chair of the Lean Manufacturing Work Group, Ms. Angie Coyle, Delphi Corporation, reviewed the recent activities of the Lean Manufacturing Work Group. She noted that a conference call would be scheduled later this spring.

•SP’s Small Business Forum Co-Chairs, Leon Richardson, Chemico Systems and Mark Doetsch, BAE have been discussing additional ways to provide value to SP’s smaller companies. Mr. Richardson noted that there would be discussions during the Membership meeting about creating a SP Small Member Forum that will provide an opportunity for smaller companies to work together, learn from each other and expand their voice with OEMs and Tier I companies. The purpose of this Forum is to provide an expanded opportunity to provide value to SP’s smaller members.

•Mr. Tom Murray, EPA, provided an update on EPA activities, noting that Mr. Steve Johnson had been confirmed as EPA’s Administrator. The attendees agreed that SP should send Mr. Johnson a letter congratulating him on his confirmation, thanking him for his ongoing support of the organization and that we look forward to continue working with him and note that we will be meeting at EPA in November. Mr. Murray has been sharing information about SP with the other divisions within the Agency, including giving a presentation at the Inter-Agency Council meeting in June.

Mr. Murray led a discussion about the November meeting and suggested inviting Mr. Bob Benson of the SectorStrategies to discuss sector strategies to work within the industry to remove regulatory barriers of litigation. It was agreed that the meeting should have a theme to attract the Assistant Administrators and Administrator Johnson to attend the meeting, such as: low cost sourcing and supply chain, environmental stewardship/shared responsibilities, performance track, SP’s international initiative in 2006, etc. He added that SP should consider participating in the Performance Track/EPA Innovation Summit in 2006.

Mr. Paul Chalmer, NCMS, provided an overview and led a discussion of the Automotive IC Subsystems spreadsheet of SP members as well as an update on the Sustainable Product Initiative (SPI).

Mr. Leslie reviewed the meeting agenda and provided the objectives for the team building and breakout sessions. He noted that SP needed to “find its core,” the area where the needs and expertise of all the members overlap. He briefly discussed The Pacific Sustainability Index, a system developed at the RobertsEnvironmentalCenter to score environmental and social disclosure and performance presented by companies on their web sites. He then reviewed the discussions held during the 1st Quarter meeting breakout sessions noting that SP topic areas included in the core are: environmental best practices (chemical technologies, innovation for the environment, facilities management); lean and green; knowledge and subject matter expertise; and, gathering information to create change and a common interest/willingness to exchange knowledge. In order to provide the most value to its members, SP needs to focus on these common areas of interest and knowledge, but in order to do so all members need to communicate their needs and share their knowledge.

Mr. Leslie noted that the attendees would be divided into 5 breakout groups for 2 separate sessions to continue the discussions from the 1st Quarter meeting in February on SP’s work groups and focus for the future – breakout session #1 will write objective statements for goal of a project and metrics to measure success/key measurable; breakout session #2 will focus on other interests of the members, especially the SMEs. Attached to the minutes are the summaries from each session.

Mr. Leslie noted that the date of the 3rd Quarter meeting would need to be changed due to schedule conflicts and that a host was needed. Therefore, the 3rd Quarter Meeting will be held on August 24-25 in the Detroit metropolitan area. He noted that a company had volunteered to host but that they would need to confirm availability on the date.

ACTION ITEMS:

  • The Executive Committee will review the suggestions from the breakout sessions and get back to the SP membership.
  • Ms. Spearot will share with the work group chairs the items raised during the breakout sessions for each of their work groups.

On a motion duly made and seconded, the SP Membership Meeting was adjourned at 3:15pm EDT.

Respectfully Submitted,

Steve Hellem

Executive Director

BREAKOUT SESSION #1:Each team was provided a work group summary in which they were to: write an objective statement for the work group – be precise and define the key measurables the work group should use to drive their success.

  • DFE -- LCM:facilitated by Matt Roman, Visteon
  • Objective: To create a value stream map of SP companies to create alignment for a total recycle to minimize waste and cost
  • Database of case studies
  • Drivers—Regulatory, cost, environmental performance, customers
  • Measurables:
  • How many successful database studies were created?
  • Conduct member benchmark survey(s) – was information helpful?
  • Waste reduction
  • Cost savings
  • DFE – PACKAGING:facilitated by Angie Coyle, Delphi
  • Objective: Optimize packaging parameters to reduce waste, promote reuse and maximize recycling.
  • Measureables:
  • Case studies
  • Formula to determine whether to use expendable or reusable
  • What packaging is most environmentally friendly? Most cost efficient?
  • Success stories to help further define measurables
  • Benchmark best practices (even outside automotive industry)
  • Enhance sharing information among SP members
  • Drive towards standardization, if it supports objective
  • LEAN MANUFACTURING: facilitated by Leon Richardson, Chemico Systems
  • Objective: Collect and disseminate information on best practices for lean and then clean and green manufacturing processes
  • Lean – manufacturing consumes fewer resources than currently used
  • Clean and Green– a reduced negative environmental impact than current process
  • Clean = short-term
  • Green = long-term (i.e. DfE)
  • Measurables:
  • Quantifiable bottom-line results
  • Quantifiable environmental impacts
  • Approximately 4 best practices disseminated by end of 2005
  • METRICS: facilitated by Ross Good, DCC
  • Objective: To measure and report the environmental improvements resulting from the collaborative efforts of the SP projects.
  • Measurables:
  • Number of project reports which detail the results of 5 environmental measurements such as waste to landfill/air/water; energy; resource conservation; recycling/reuse
  • Report format template
  • Report validation process
  • Communication plan – project team SP--Rest of the world
  • SP SUMMIT:facilitated by Pat Beattie, GM
  • Objective: To facilitate SP Summits which have synergies across other groups and industries and have tangible benefits.
  • Measureables:
  • Take SP product and scale up to share with other sectors of industry
  • Summit results in specific actions that relates a barrier or creates an opportunity for innovation
  • Obtaining lesions learned from other industry successes

BREAKOUT SESSION #2:Each team developed a list of “other” environmental interests that SP should be working on and prioritized each item (high to low)

  • HIGH
  • Practical ideas – collect examples and post on web – only have to be a laundry list 2-3 sentences
  • End of life initiatives
  • Learn about industry problems – so each can take back to company and try to solve
  • Small business initiatives – issues/concerns
  • Develop a mindset for turning a waste into a product
  • Improve SP members ratings on various sustainability indices
  • Broaden exposure of smaller companies’ capabilities – how smaller companies (entrepreneurs) bring value to larger companies efforts to reduce/reuse/recycle
  • Profitability
  • Zero waste to landfill
  • Sharing of best practices – in all environmental issues
  • Energy sources – green power efficiencies
  • Understand how companies integrate environmental considerations into product design, purchasing and other business areas
  • Understand environmental inefficiencies driven by OEM specifications
  • More focus on plastic reuse in vehicles
  • MEDIUM:
  • Regulatory awareness
  • Have SP projects apply for and receive environmental awards
  • Collaborative waste management – hazardous waste/toxic materials – studies on handling and managing costs
  • Green buildings, including existing buildings – impact design process, geographical base of employees, CO2 emissions, transportation issues
  • Promote environmentally-friendly technology
  • Organization, staffing, percentage of budget for safety and environmental departments
  • LOW:
  • Labeling issues around hazardous chemicals
  • Lobbying/streamline process of staying current on global environmental regulation changes
  • Create jobs – reduce need for outsourcing
  • Develop low cost (affordable/economical) infrastructure to keep jobs in US
  • Make environmental concerns part of everyone’s job