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Important opportunities exist to improve the resource and environmental impacts of the automobile over its product life cycle. The use of aluminum in automobile designs is increasing, which offers ways to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions during vehicle use via light weighting. However, to fully capture lifecycle reductions in environmental loadings and impacts, material suppliers, parts manufacturers and automakers must also understand which of their own operations and facilities offer opportunities for environmental improvements through investments in process or technology advances. Quantifying these opportunities across the comprehensive life cycle of vehicle systems and components can be a challenging task because of the complexity of today's extended supply chain. For instance, even quantifying opportunities from the front end-aluminum material supply-requires gathering, verifying and acting upon information from facilities throughout the world.