At a press conference preceding the Symposium, Laura Costello, Director of Marketing, AkzoNobel Automotive & Aerospace Coatings Americas, outlined the goals of the new challenge grant.
The grant will be extended to post-secondary institutions and individual students to stimulate awareness and practical development of sustainable solutions that can reduce the carbon footprint in collision repair environments. Project proposals are due Dec. 18, and awards will be announced before the end of the first quarter of 2014. Schools and students seeking awards of up to $10,000 were asked to submit formal recommendations for "programs or activities promoting sustainability in the collision repair industry."
"For several years we have asked our colleagues at collision repair centers throughout North America, what they think is needed to make the principles of sustainability ‘real’ within our industry. Their answer is always consistent," Costello said. "It is both an issue of leadership and grass roots awareness that begins with the most basic and critical level of the industry – that is, to reach students with an aspiration to enter the collision repair market segment. This, we believe, is the essential key to ensuring the proliferation of sustainable principles and practices within our industry now, and well into the future."
AkzoNobel has partnered with the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF) to administer the grant.
The grant is part of the company's Planet Possible strategy, which AkzoNobel established earlier this year to help push its sustainability initiatives.
"As many of you may know, AkzoNobel has been a long-time champion of the principles of sustainability and their ability to not only benefit our eco-system; but to also benefit the way we and those that we do business with profitability operate," Costello said. "AkzoNobel will utilize the Planet Possible strategy to drive innovation and inspire our employees, customers, and suppliers, to adopt a paradigm of radical efficiency. It will also strive to build on AkzoNobel’s No. 1 ranking on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices over the last two years."
The Symposium commenced at the close of the press conference. Panelists on hand for the event included Jeff Butler of Haury's Lake City Collision; Michael Giarrizzo, DCR Systems; Keith Hudd, the Economical Insurance Group; Jay Givens, Givens Collision Repair Center; Cark Plucinski, CREF; Trish Serratore, NATEF; Eileen Sottile, LKQ; Mike Shesterkin, What's Next; Sara Tollin, AkzoNobel; and Marcy Tieger, Symphony Advisors.
