Nurturing Our Habitats: Conserving More Than 5,000 Acres of Wildlife Habitats in 16 Countries

General Motors’ biodiversity efforts focus on reducing environmental footprint, driving business value and savings, maximizing benefits for communities and supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal to halt biodiversity loss.

Today, we are proud to share that a total of 75 of our sites have earned the Conservation Certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), leading the industry with the most certified sites. With this year’s addition of three programs in China, Korea and Russia, we are at nearly 85 percent of our goal to achieve certification in all our global manufacturing sites by 2020.

Also as part of this year’s progress in addressing biodiversity, our CAMI Assembly Plant in Canada received the Gold Program Award – the WHC’s highest recognition for overall excellence in corporate conservation.

“General Motors Canada CAMI Assembly plant has exceeded the standard set for Conservation Certification,” said Margaret O’Gorman, president, WHC. “The program at CAMI Assembly had a total of 13 qualifying projects this year, ranging from management of grassland and wetland habitats to outreach events for the community. This award is a testament to General Motors' commitment to conservation.”

Community engagement and involvement are a big part of how our employees around the world make a difference. For example, CAMI Unifor Local 88 employees volunteer at Oxford Children’s Water Festival, a four-day community event held every three years to help educate local elementary school students about the importance of water. At the event, employees manage stations, where they engage students in hands-on activities. We also partner with local organizations, such as Friends of the Thames, to organize local river cleanups along the Thames River where employees and families can participate.

“We owe this recognition to our environmental team and our Unifor Local 88 partners, who have always been at the forefront of protecting and preserving the environment and community in which we live and work,” said Gary Duff, plant manager, General Motors CAMI Assembly. “Our local activities and efforts, no matter how big or small, help protect the planet and move General Motors closer to our vision of a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”

In 2002, our Saginaw Metal Casting Operations was the first to receive the Conservation Certification from the WHC. Today, we manage more than 5,000 acres of wildlife habitats in 16 countries.

Celebrating its 30th year, the WHC’s certification program is the only voluntary sustainability standard built on the best practices of global recognition programs. The program recognizes a company’s efforts to use its land, resources and partnerships to help address pressing global biodiversity issues.

To learn more about the recent recognition, click here. For more information on our environmental commitments, visit our Sustainability Report.