GM España’s Zaragoza Employees Set Sail for Water Conservation

Sometimes you need to get outside and experience the environment to fully appreciate it.

Just ask the employees at our Zaragoza facility in Spain.

To commemorate the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation, 60 employees learned about water conservation first-hand during a two-day outing that included a tour of environmentally protected lands and a 12-kilometer (about 10 miles) canoe trip down the Ebro River, from which Zaragoza sources the water used for its daily operations.

“Through this first-hand experience with nature we learned the importance of this river for the plant, both before and after production,” said Miguel Angel Sancho Cabanillas, who works in Zaragoza’s press shop maintenance.

Organized by the facility’s environmental team, the activities also included informational sessions about GM’s water conservation efforts and ways they can help contribute to Zaragoza’s progress by using water more efficiently.

Zaragoza is a good example of GM’s commitment to ensuring responsible water discharge. Before returning water to the Jalón River, a tributary of the Ebro River, discharges are treated in a purification and water treatment plant that ensures the quality of the water returned is higher than that withdrawn. Zaragoza’s water treatment plant even produces drinking water for the facility, the only GM manufacturing facility in Europe to do so.

The facility has made significant progress in efforts to reduce water use through innovations like ultrasound equipment that detects leaks. In the last three years Zaragoza has reduced water use by 22 percent.

“It is so important that we preserve water all over the world, in our homes and at our facilities,” said Ruben Arnaiz, from Zaragoza’s final care division.

GM is committed to resource preservation andreducing water use throughout our operations around the world. We committed to reduce water intensity by 15 percent by 2020 over a 2010 baseline at our global facilities.