General Motors Corporate Responsibility Newsletter - September 2013
GM Increases ENERGY STAR® Challenge Plants to 63
Nine more General Motors facilities have achieved the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR® voluntary Challenge for Industry, bringing the company’s total to 63, more facilities than any organization worldwide. The facilities efforts resulted in a collective avoidance of $162 million in energy costs and a reduction of 1.6 million metric tons of CO2 – equivalent to the electricity use of 244,000 homes.
WASTE REDUCTION
GM Develops Green Thumb in Urban Gardening
General Motors is turning 100 steel crates used for shipping engines to Orion Assembly into raised urban garden in vacant parking lots throughout Detroit, building on an earlier donation of 250 crates that enabled Cadillac Urban Gardens to bloom in Southwest Detroit.
GM Donation Insulates 400 More Coats for the Homeless
GM donated 2,000 more yards of scrap vehicle sound-absorption material to Veronika Scott’s Empowerment Plan. The nonprofit operation produces winter coats year-round that transform into sleeping bags for the homeless. The automaker’s donation will help insulate about 400 more coats.
RESOURCE PRESERVATION
GM GREEN Program Helps Students Wade into STEM Careers
GM is now in its 24th year of supporting GREEN, a partnership with the nonprofit organization Earth Force, to help students understand how human activity impacts local watersheds. Last year marked the first time that every GM manufacturing site in the U.S. mentored students in their local communities on water quality and preservation.
Pollinator Garden in Detroit Provides Respite for Vacationing Butterflies
Employees of GM’s Romulus Engine plant reunited with students from Clippert Academy in Detroit to expand the raised bed pollinator garden the group built last year to benefit migrating monarch butterflies. Located on the grounds of the school, the garden serves as a living classroom that gives students the opportunity to apply classroom environmental learning to hands-on projects in the field.
Toledo Transmission Partners with Toledo-Lucas County Rain Garden Initiative
Manufacturing engineers from GM’s Toledo Transmission Plant worked with volunteers from the City of Toledo Department of Public Utilities and the Lucas County Soil & Water Conservation District Office to construct a rain garden at the Frederick Douglas Community Association in Toledo, Ohio.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Favorite Sun: Anthony Davis Helps Turn Sunlight into Golden Opportunities to Save Energy
For Anthony Davis, every ray of sunlight illuminates GM’s path to a future in which its facilities operate with more energy from renewable sources. As project manager for sustainable and renewable energy solutions, Davis helps identify opportunities for using renewable energy – including solar – at GM facilities worldwide.
Faces of GM: Jon Beck, Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps
Jon Beck, a fellow from the Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps, is working with GM this summer to reduce energy consumption in the automaker’s paint shops. Learn about the thinking that goes into Jon’s day-to-day work as he works with GM to improve how it invests the one billion dollars spent on energy each year.
GREENER VEHICLES
Navigating GM’s Electrification Options: Which Vehicle Best Suits Your Commute?
The General Motors road to electrification offers many different paths, and each can be taken in a fun-to-drive car that uses less petroleum. Recognizing different drivers have different mobility needs, GM is developing a portfolio of vehicles that is as diverse as its customers.
GM Retiree Mentors Students in the EcoCAR 2 Challenge
EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future, is a three-year collegiate student engineering competition and the only program of its kind. The competition challenges 15 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles without compromising real world performance or safety. Helping to make it all happen are John Firment, a retired GM engineer, and retired Natural Resources Canada official Tom Smyth who have spent more than a decade working with students and organizers in the program.
SAFETY
2014 Silverado and Sierra Score a Safety First for Trucks
The 2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and High Country and the GMC Sierra and Sierra Denali1500 are the first pickup trucks to receive the highest possible five-star Overall Vehicle Score for safety since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration changed its New Car Assessment Program for the 2011 model year.
2013 Chevrolet Malibu Racks up Global Safety Ratings
The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan is making a clean sweep of top safety rankings around the world, most recently receiving a maximum five-star rating from the China New Car Assessment Program.
DIVERSITY
Sharing GM’s Rich Automotive History with the Hispanic Community
Journalists from New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Houston learned about GM’s products, culture and leadership during the first GM Hispanic Media Immersion Summit. As part of their two-and-a-half day visit to Detroit, they experienced the world largest one-day automotive event, the Woodward Dream Cruise.
PHILANTHROPY
GM Student Corps Inspire Communities and Themselves
General Motors executives, University of Detroit Mercy administrators and GM Student Corps members celebrated the conclusion of the GM Student Corps internship program. Introduced in May, the program provided 108 Detroit-area high school students the opportunity to give back to their neighborhoods, working together on community service projects they planned and executed themselves.
Buick Achievers Awards $4.2 Million in Scholarships
The Buick Achievers Scholarship Program, funded by the General Motors Foundation, announced scholarships totaling approximately $4.2 million to 1,100 recipients pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also known as STEM, information technology and other fields important to the automotive industry.
