Climate Declaration Means Opportunities for GM

General Motors remains the only automaker among 750 signatories of the Climate Declaration, organized by sustainable business advocacy group Ceres and its Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy coalition. GM's investments are reducing its energy costs by at least $170 million.

For the second consecutive year, the EPA recognized GM with a 2014 Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award for superior energy management.

GM also ranked among the top 10 percent of companies reporting in the CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report 2013, because of its practices for measuring emissions and energy and transparency for its climate change strategy.

It also joined the voluntary EPA SmartWay Partnership to drive benchmarking of fuel consumption and reduction of emissions by freight shippers and carriers.

Since signing the declaration, GM has taken actions to address climate change, including:

• Met the voluntary Energy Star Challenge for Industry at nine additional plants for an industry-leading total of 63 facilities worldwide. These combined efforts saved GM $162 million in energy costs.
• Invested $24 million to use 14 more MW of landfill gas at Fort Wayne and Orion assembly plants to avoid 23,000 metric tons of CO2 per year and save a combined $10 million in energy costs annually.
• Contracted to turn solid municipal waste from Metro Detroit into process steam to heat and cool portions of Detroit-Hamtramck assembly, removing coal-fired boilers.
• Completed Ohio’s largest rooftop solar array, a 1.8-MW installation at GM Toledo Transmission.
• Participated in U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings, Better Plants program to achieve 25-percent combined energy use reduction at 25 plants by 2018 for a savings of $7 million.

Photo: Michael Sheehan Flickr photostream