Michigan Manufacturers and Nature Conservancy Announce Partnership for Sustainability Training
A Brief Summary
The Michigan Manufacturers Association and the Nature Conservancy of Michigan, two statewide organizations, have announced a partnership to produce webinars to explore and study sustainability in manufacturing for bringing down CO2 emissions.
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Three webinars are available for free on MMA's online learning hub. The first one focuses on why manufacturers should accustom themselves to sustainability, while the second webinar covers both federal and state policies that are in place.
“We hear a lot about transportation and energy but the industrial sector is about a third of total emissions, so it’s a big portion,” said Madhu Anderson, director of government relations for The Nature Conservancy in Michigan.
“They’re also very unique in the solutions that might be possible for manufacturers,” Anderson told MiBiz. “Not everyone is the same. You can’t just switch to clean energy and it works. We approached (MMA) and said we need to talk about this issue with our small and medium manufacturers, give them a lead time and also get them engaged so that they can start thinking about solutions.”
Kristen Siemen, Vice President of sustainable workplaces and chief sustainability officer at General Motors and Steven Holty, sustainability leader at Hemlock Semiconductor Operations LLC, are welcomed for the third instalment.
The last in series that is the fourth one, which is scheduled for next month, most likely will kick start in the half of March, is available to both MMA members and non-members free of cost.
The organizations have to make resources available to small and medium-sized manufacturers because they make up the majority of MMA's membership.
“I think they get left out of the conversation, and that’s just me personally saying that,” Anderson said. “What you have is investors and consumers pushing the bigger companies. They have the capacity to think about it and they’re working on a global scale, so they’re hearing it around the world.
“So, we want to give small and medium manufacturers some voice and some information. At the end of the day, they’re scrambling for workers, they need to retain the workers they have and they also might see potential government regulations coming down the pike and they have to react quickly.”
