Our Product and Company News

ERA Environmental Management Solutions is kicking off the 2014 new year by attending the first quarter member meeting of the Supplier's Partnership for the Environment (SP). The meeting is being held on January 15th in Detroit at the General Motors Renaissance Center. The Supplier's Partnership meeting is being held in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show. 

Automotive SP Members General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, American Honda, and Subaru will all be in attendence at the Januray meeting. In addition, U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Gina McCarthy has been invited to participate in the meeting.

This first quarter meeting will showcase the progess made by the SP's working groups, tackling issues like materials efficiency, and will feature a panel discussion on Integrating Energy, Carbon, and Water Management into Business Strategy.

ERA is a member of the Supplier's Partnership's Materials Issues working group, providing an environmental perspective on finding better materials for automotive manufacturing and offering our expertise on Life Cycle Analysis and End of Life Management.

Gary Vegh, a senior Toxicologist from ERA, presented last year on tracking hazardous materials through the supply chain in automotoive manufacturing and will continue to contribute to the Materials Issues working group. 

ERA's team is looking forward to meeting up with our fellow SP members and the attendees of the North American International Auto Show. If you're attending make sure to come at say hello.

ERA Environmental Management Solutions is continuing to play an important role in the Suppliers Partnership for the Materials Issues Group by providing environmental data management expertise at the recent December SP Canada meeting in Toronto and at an upcoming January SP Chemical Issues Work Group Meeting in Detroit.

Gary Vegh, ERA's lead toxicologist, was on hand to work with automotive manufacturers as they determine the most effective methods for finding cleaner and more efficient materials in the manufacturing process. 

The Toronto meeting particularly focused on making the automotive industry's supply chain more sustainable by working with vendors and OEMs to make better choices and increase the flow of information up and down the supply chain - a perfect fit for ERA. 

We're looking forward to continuing our work with the Suppliers Partnership in the next year. 

In mid-July, ERA will officially begin working as part of the Materials Issues Group for the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment. 

ERA joined the Suppliers Partnership earlier this year, adding its environmental compliance expertise to the SP's diverse range of environmental & manufacturing specializations. We plan on bringing our unbeatable knowledge in environmental data management to the Supplier's Partnership.

As part of the Materials Issues Group, ERA will assist in two main projects:

• Developing standardized criteria for sustainability reporting and sustainability projects in the manufacturing industry.
• Developing standardized criteria for managing materials and final products throughout the entire product life cycle.

Congratulations to the Volkswagen Chattanooga facility, who recently won the prestigious Gold Edison Green award for 2012 - an award that recognizes Volkswagen's excellence in the fields of environmental stewardship and sustainability.

ERA is proud to have been a part of a facility that continues to achieve continued environmental success. VW's environmental efforts continue to break ground with their work on important environmental initiatives that will, no doubt, continue to fuel their success.   

The Chattanooga facility has already achieved LEED platinum certification as part of Volkswagen's Think Blue initiative. It is the first and only automotive manufacturing plant in the world to achieve this extraordinary level of LEED certification.

You can read about the Chattanooga facility's journey to achieving platinum certification from the LEED green building program in our 3 part interview with Ron Drumeller, the Environmental Specialist for the Chattanooga facility starting here.

ERA is pleased to announce it is now a member of the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment and will collaborate as part of the Chemical Issues Work Group to help develop and define sustainability criteria for the automotive industry.

The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) brings together automobile original equipment manufacturers, their suppliers, and the Environmental Protection Agency to implement projects that advance the environmental sustainability and economic success of the automotive industry.

As part of the Chemical Work Issues Group, ERA will be working to address emerging chemical issues related to supply chains and environmental compliance. In particular, the group is looking to improve the way that environmental specialists make chemical decisions for their facilities and communication of chemical information across the sustainable supply chain.

Visit the SP website here: Supplierspartnership.org