Monarch caterpillar on swamp milkweed. Photo taken by Amanda Loveday, MPS Group, Inc.
As automakers and suppliers come together to promote voluntary conservation programs across our respective lands we have a unique opportunity to create a connected corridor of wildlife habitat spanning our individual operations and provide meaningful new habitat for pollinators...
WASHINGTON (PRWEB) January 30, 2020
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 announced key outcomes of its Biodiversity Work Group Pollinator Project Challenge in 2019, including that SP members are now collectively managing over 2,400 acres of their corporate lands as wildlife habitat for pollinators.
SP’s Biodiversity Work Group provides a forum to educate, engage and recognize actions of stakeholders across the automotive supply chain in implementing corporate conservation projects that are individually meaningful, yet have the potential to be collectively groundbreaking. The work group is co-chaired by Kevin Butt, Director Environmental Sustainability, Toyota Motor North America and Sam Qureshi, National Business Development Manager, Waste Management Sustainability Services.
“As automakers and suppliers come together to promote voluntary conservation programs across our respective lands we have a unique opportunity to create a connected corridor of wildlife habitat spanning our individual operations and provide meaningful new habitat for pollinators and other migratory species, particularly considering the position and scale of our industry’s manufacturing footprint in North America,” said Kevin Butt, Director Environmental Sustainability, Toyota Motor North America.
In 2019, SP issued a challenge to its member companies to work together through a Biodiversity Work Group and to make a commitment to implement or expand pollinator projects at one, or more, of their sites. A variety of large and small SP member companies have taken this challenge on, including companies such as DENSO International America, ES Group, ERA Environmental Management Solutions, FCA, FIC America Corp, Ford Motor Company, GHD, General Motors, Heritage Interactive Services, Honda of America Manufacturing, Lear Corp, Mobile Fluid Recovery, MPS Group, Robert Bosch LLC, Sustainable Materials Solutions LLC, Tetra Tech, Toyota Motor North America and Waste Management.
Through a partnership with the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), SP members receive access to complimentary conservation resources to help guide them through a pollinator project design and implementation process, along with one-on-one technical support from WHC conservation specialists where needed. SP has also engaged with the Pollinator Partnership to provide its members with additional educational resources and ideas to support pollinator conservation on their sites and within their communities.
“As part of Wildlife Habitat Council’s partnership with SP, those SP members interested in supporting biodiversity activities at their facilities have the opportunity to benefit from WHC’s conservation support and guidance to design, implement, and maintain practical, successful, and sustainable conservation programs,” said Sara Cook, Senior Manager, Conservation Strategy, Wildlife Habitat Council.
SP worked with experts at the Wildlife Habitat Council and ERA Environmental Management Solutions to conduct a survey of participating SP members to assess their progress in support of the SP Pollinator Project Challenge over the past year. The responses to that survey showed that participating SP member companies are collectively managing nearly 200 pollinator projects across their respective sites, including both pollinator habitat projects and pollinator-focused employee and community education programs. Taken together, those projects represent over 2,400 acres of corporate lands that are currently being managed by SP member companies as wildlife habitat for pollinators. Additional information on the SP Pollinator Project Challenge may be found on SP’s website at https://www.supplierspartnership.org/pollinator-project-challenge/
“We look forward to building on our successes and lessons learned over this past year to further support current SP members, and other stakeholders along the automotive supply chain, in designing and implementing corporate conservation projects that can create meaningful new habitat for migratory species of concern in North America like the Monarch butterfly,” said Sam Qureshi, National Business Development Manager, Waste Management Sustainability Services.
About SP
The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) is an association of automakers and their suppliers working in collaboration with the US EPA and other governmental entities to identify and implement creative projects and programs that will advance environmental sustainability while providing economic value to the automotive supply chain through strategic action and engagement. http://www.supplierspartnership.org/
