Suppliers Partnership, Commission for Environmental Cooperation and Oakland University Announce "Summit on Accelerating Innovation to Drive Sustainable Automotive Manufacturing Growth Across North America"

WASHINGTON--May 6, 2013: Why is it that advanced manufacturing innovations with the potential to realize significant savings in key indicators such as energy use, materials use and manufacturing costs often fail to realize their potential global impact on business growth and environmental sustainability? What strategic steps can organizations in the automotive supply chain take to identify, champion and drive the implementation of innovative processes and technologies that improve the environment while providing economic value to the North American automotive supply chain?

On June 26-27, 2013 on Oakland University's campus in Rochester, Michigan, the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP), Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and Oakland University will co-host the first Summit on Accelerating Innovation to Drive Sustainable Automotive Manufacturing Growth Across North America to explore this issue, the organizations jointly announced today.

"The Summit on Accelerating Innovation has been designed to bring a diverse group of leaders from across the North American automotive supply chain together to understand and explore the barriers presently limiting the widespread adoption of environmentally and economically impactful advanced manufacturing process innovations.  Through lean process driven breakout discussions, the Summit seeks to create a collaborative environment to explore opportunities to drive new innovations through the automotive supply chain," said Steve Hellem, Executive Director, Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP).

"Automotive companies have operations across North America, which means that greening the supply chain can't happen in one factory or even in one country alone. This Summit will be the highlight of our work with the Suppliers Partnership to promote trinational collaboration among automotive manufacturers, their suppliers and governments in Canada, Mexico and the United States," said Benjamin Teitelbaum, Program Manager, Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

The Summit will include an hour-long panel discussion hosted by the CEC to look at innovative work being done by Suppliers Partnership members to green the auto supply chain across North America. Part of the CECTalks series of discussions with North American environmental leaders, this panel discussion will be webcast live and include questions from participants at the event and online.

"Oakland University is very excited to collaborate with Suppliers Partnership and the CEC to host the inaugural Summit on Accelerating Innovation on our campus in Oakland County.  Our faculty and staff keenly anticipate the opportunity to engage with leaders in the industry, and investigate opportunities in key areas such as educating tomorrow's leaders in embracing innovative and sustainable thinking to prepare for future careers in the automotive sector," said Louay Chamra, Dean and Professor, School of Engineering and Computer Science, Oakland University.

The Summit on Accelerating Innovation brings together North American automakers, suppliers, government, academia and investment leaders to explore opportunities to accelerate advanced manufacturing process innovation in the automotive supply chain.  Participation in the Summit is limited and by invitation only. To request an invitation for your organization to participate in the Summit, visit Accelerating Innovation