2012 Sustainability Report: GM’s Manufacturing Commitments

“Our sustainability strategy is guided by this simple truth: energy diversity, resource conservation and CO2 reduction are business imperatives.”

- Daniel F. Akerson, Chairman and CEO

Yesterday we highlighted our three commitments to meet customer needs for efficient vehicles and significantly reduce the environmental impact of our products, as announced in our recently released sustainability report.

Additionally, our 2012 Sustainability Report  provides updates on our 2020 manufacturing priorities, introduced in our inaugural report. We’re improving efficiency of our vehicles, as well as the facilities that make them.

We’re proud to say we’ve progressed in all of our commitments to operate leaner and greener. Here are a few of the highlights.

Carbon Reduction

GM’s energy management and renewable energy leadership helped reduce carbon intensity by 5.3 percent since 2010, making progress toward our 20 percent reduction commitment by 2020. In 2012 alone, we reduced 173,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions throughout our operations – equal to the carbon sequestered by more than 4.4 million newly planted trees in the first decade of growth.

Renewable Energy

GM uses more than 60 megawatts of solar, landfill gas and biomass energy at its facilities today. This means we are more than halfway to our goal of using 125 megawatts of energy generated from renewable sources. We also reduced the amount of energy required to build one vehicle by 7 percent and avoided $66 million in energy costs through conservation initiatives since 2010.

Waste Reduction

GM’s landfill-free program continues to grow around the world and produce bottom-line benefits, with an industry-leading 105 facilities that recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations. By recycling and reusing 90 percent of its manufacturing waste worldwide, we generate about $1 billion in revenue annually. We have also reduced total waste 25 kilograms, or 55 pounds, per vehicle since 2010.

To read about more of our manufacturing progress, or the report in its entirety, please visit www.gmsustainability.com.