Energy

GM Earns ENERGY STAR Award for Third Straight Year

Named Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence in Energy Management for second year in a row
Apr 7, 2014 10:40 AM ET
Campaign: GM Energy Efficiency

FastLane

If General Motors was a basketball team, we would be talking about the company in the same breath as the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 90s.

That team took home three straight N.B.A. championships in the early part of that decade on its way to a run of six titles in eight years.

While GM isn’t quite there, we can hang our hat on a three-peat of our own, as we were recognized as a U.S. EPA Partner of the Year for the third year in a row while earning Sustained Excellence in Energy Management for the second straight year.

This award recognizes companies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while creating financial value.

“As the world faces sustainability challenges, we strive to be part of the solution—from designing more efficient vehicles to transforming how they’re built to reduce environmental impact,” said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Sustainability and Global Regulatory Affairs. “There is a strong business case to be made for integrating energy efficient practices at all of our global facilities.”

Over the past year, GM has made several moves to further reduce its carbon footprint:

  • Reduced 158,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from energy efficiency and fuel switching projects, the equivalent of powering 22,000 U.S. homes for a year.
  • Converted two coal-fired boilers to natural gas at its Wentzville, Missouri assembly plant for carbon reduction of 57,000 tons. That’s equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 1.5 million trees.
  • Invested $24 million at Orion, Mich. and Ft. Wayne, Ind. assembly plants to increase landfill gas usage and avoid 23,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
  • Engaged logistics suppliers in carbon reductions and change of delivery and shipping routes to cut CO2 emissions by 62,000 tons – the equivalent of energy use by more than 5,600 homes in the U.S.
  • Added nine new and 22 repeat achievers to list of facilities that met the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry – contributing $72 million to total program savings and reducing energy by 23 percent.

With a goal of reducing carbon intensity at our facilities 20 percent by 2020, the company has reduced energy intensity in the U.S. by 11 percent since 2010.