And Now, a Word About Sustainability With Stanley Merritt

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

IPC Community spoke with several members of IPC's Sustainability for Electronics Leadership Council on their company's sustainability mission, reasons for joining IPC's Council, and future Council leadership projects.

Stanley Merritt

Northrop Grumman Corporation (OEM)

Why is your company's sustainability mission so important?

To best address the needs of our customers, Northrop Grumman took a major step in furthering our sustainability mission in 2022 when we introduced our next generation of environmental sustainability goals. These cover three areas. The Footprint Goals address the fundamental needs driving environmental sustainability by minimizing the footprint of our operations. The Handprint Goals enhance sustainability within the aerospace and defense industry by supporting customer needs and supply chain objectives. The Blueprint Goals affirm our leadership in sustainability through collaboration to protect ecosystems and define environmental opportunities in our communities.

What led you to joining IPC's leadership council?

Being a global leader in the printed circuit board industry and sustainability arena, we felt it imperative to actively participate in strategy and IPC's action to build electronics better. Our place as an aerospace and defense industry leader also provides us with a unique perspective to bring to IPC, especially when it comes to supply chain best practices. For example, we know the role of supply chain in helping us achieve our sustainability goals and to ensure that proprietary data security is maintained as it is communicated through the supply chain.

What's on the agenda for initial leadership council projects for the rest of this year?

The first part of the effort has been the formation of the Council, the identification of sustainability topic priorities, their ranking by relevance and urgency, and communication to the IPC Board about status of the broader Sustainability Initiative. The next phase will be generating an industry-level materiality assessment and other work products to finalize a recommendation (to the IPC Board) for an industry-backed sustainability strategic plan.

This conversation appeared in the summer 2023 issue of IPC Community magazine.