By Gary L. Cowger
Group Vice President, Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations
Solar power. Landfill gas. Jatropha plants for biodiesel fuel.
Not exactly words one would expect to be part of the culture at an auto company, particularly General Motors.
But they are and I am proud to admit they form the basis for some far-reaching environmental initiatives.
As the person responsible for GM’s 185 manufacturing sites around the world, I have a vested interest in ensuring that our people not only produce the best vehicles, but that they do so in an environmentally responsible manner.
In fact, we measure ourselves on our environmental impact right down to the operators on the plant floor who assemble our final product. The environmental metric, along with our safety and quality metrics, is reinforced with every employee, in every plant, in every language around the world today.
And, as a result, our facilities, where appropriate, have adopted conservation initiatives that have reduced our global manufacturing energy demands by nearly 20 percent in the last five years.
That means our energy reduction efforts to date can be equated to the energy required to heat and power 700,000 homes. And from a financial standpoint, that means we have contributed almost a half billion dollars to the bottom line.
How we are accomplishing this requires a little explanation because we have found there is no single solution to reducing energy consumption and improving the environment.
These initiatives include using solar power and landfill gas to power plants or surrounding communities; finding ways to re-use scrap and waste that would otherwise be landfilled; and planting trees – or other essential plants – around our facilities or in threatened forests.
Recently, I was able to get up close and personal with one of these initiatives by helping workers plant trees and other vegetation outside our new assembly plant in Talegaon, India.
These plantings are not only essential to the ecosystem outside the plant, but one plant in particular – called jatropha – will serve double duty. Its seeds will be harvested and pressed to extract an oil that will be used to power diesel engines.
Elsewhere, our initiatives are benefiting our employees, facilities and communities.
Here are some other examples:
- We are generating solar power and sending it into the grid through the world’s largest rooftop solar power structure at our Zaragoza, Spain, assembly plant. We also have solar installations at two facilities in the U.S. and plans to bring a third one on line.
- A few weeks ago, I announced that 43 of our facilities are now landfill free, meaning that all waste from these facilities will be recycled, reused or converted to energy. We expect half our operations to be landfill free in the next two years.
- Our Lansing Delta Township facility in Michigan is a model of integrating a manufacturing plant into the surrounding environment. In fact, this facility is Gold LEED certified, the only automotive manufacturing facility in the world with that designation.
- We have designated more than 870 acres in North America as habitat enhancement and restoration projects to provide food, water and homes for wildlife.
- GM has helped establish a 30,000-acre Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Project. To date, 316,805 trees have been planted on approximately 438 acres of existing rainforest.
All of these efforts are having a tangible effect on our business and the environment.
Going forward, these initiatives equal the reduction of almost 4.5 million metric tons of CO2 a year. This is the equivalent to the CO2 which is released by producing energy for nearly 400,000 houses a year.
Of course, I know we can do better and our employees, suppliers and other partners are working hard to build on these successes.
And their efforts fit perfectly with what we are doing to reinvent GM and the automobile for the next century. We have every intention to be around for another hundred years. And we have every intention to be a leader in design, fuel economy, performance and environmental sustainability.
