General Motors and Automobile Suppliers Announce New Partnership for the Environment Which Provides Value to the Auto Supply Chain

DETROIT, May 8, 2003 -- General Motors Corporation (GM), automobile suppliers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced an innovative partnership to increase the business performance of companies in the automobile industry while reducing environmental impacts.

"The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) is a new forum for sharing environmental best practices throughout the automotive industry supply chain, especially for the benefit of the smaller, lower-tier companies in the industry," said Rebecca Spearot, Director, Environmental Management, Lear Corporation and SP's first Chair of the Board. She continued, "SP will enable automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers to actively engage all levels of their supply chains in development of common sense approaches to reducing environmental impacts." She concluded, "Through the Partnership, suppliers will be able to continuously improve products and processes, increase energy efficiency, eliminate wastes, identify cost-saving opportunities, and optimize resources and technologies."

"GM is committed to environmental excellence and to cooperating with and supporting our supply chain," said Pat Beattie, Director, Environmental Services, GM. "While working with EPA on a pilot project initiated with our Saturn division, we identified real opportunities to improve both the environment and the competitiveness of companies in our supply chain," she said. "The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment grew out of that experience. This organization is committed to providing quantifiable value to the automobile supply chain and we are pleased to be a leader in this effort," Beattie said.

SP will provide value to its members by: providing a forum for companies to work together to share "best practices" through task forces and work groups to address specific issues; providing facility-specific technical assistance on energy and materials use optimization and other issues; identifying and addressing externally driven environmental impacts; and retaining the costs savings realized through SP activities.

"The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment establishes a forum where the Environmental Protection Agency and the automobile supply industry can work together to achieve common goals of environmental performance," said Stephen L. Johnson, Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances. Johnson continued, "Through pollution prevention, smarter decisions can be implemented throughout the automobile manufacturing process that will benefit both the environment and a company's bottom line. We welcome this effort."

"As a member-driven organization, SP is addressing several different issues important to maintaining a productive and green supply chain including energy and materials use optimization, training, education, technical assistance, sustainability and transactional processes," stated Spearot. "SP is open to all automotive companies and the members are to be commended for the proactive environmental supply chain management efforts that have led to the creation of SP," concluded Spearot.

The Suppliers Partnership's members include: Ashland Inc.; B.A.E. Industries; Delphi Corporation; Detroit Chassis LLC; Federal-Mogul Corporation; Freudenberg-NOK; General Motors Corporation; Haas TCM; Johnson Controls, Inc.; Lear Corporation; Motorola, Inc.; NSK Corporation; Petoskey Plastics, Inc.; and Visteon Corporation.