AkzoNobel Automotive & Aerospace Coatings (A&AC) has announced plans to establish a $50,000 Sustainability Education Challenge Grant for the collision repair industry.
At a breakfast hosted by AkzoNobel, prior to the recent opening of the 48th Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSL) in Kansas City, Mo., representatives from AkzoNobel and the Collision Repair Education Foundation previewed the grant concept with leaders and educators from more than 15 vocational schools throughout the country. Those attending were among the first to hear about the establishment of the grant, who will be eligible to receive the funding and general participation criteria.
“AkzoNobel is a forerunner in championing key societal issues impacting the collision repair industry,” said Clark Plucinski, executive director for the Collision Repair Education Foundation. “When the industry was concerned about the need for developing new talent, they delivered the Most Influential Women program and established a scholarship for young women wishing to pursue opportunities within the industry. With this new initiative, they have again taken a leadership stance on an issue that most within our industry have not yet begun to address. And as before, AkzoNobel is seeking to ensure that students and future generations are the primary benefactors.”
The Sustainability Education Challenge Grant, administered in collaboration with the Collision Repair Education Foundation, is intended to stimulate awareness and thinking at the most basic and critical level of the industry: students who aspire to enter the collision repair industry. The grant will be made available to secondary and post-secondary educational institutions and students choosing to engage in activities that provide new and practical ways of thinking about sustainability, as well as tools that help advance the collective reduction of the carbon footprint in collision repair environments.
“We’ve done our homework as to what is needed to make sustainability ‘real’ within our industry,” said Laura Costello, director of marketing for AkzoNobel A&AC Americas. “Collision repair centers that are currently heavily involved in the issue of sustainability have told us that the education of those entering the field is critical to a successful future. We are taking that guidance to heart and feel that this program will yield significant results, both now and well into the future.”
Schools and students seeking the $50,000 Sustainability Education Challenge Grant will be asked to submit their formal recommendations for programs or activities promoting sustainability in the industry to the Collision Repair Education Foundation by fall 2013. The acknowledgements for the grants, to be awarded in 2014, will be announced during SEMA 2013.
More information:
