General Motors June Corporate Responsibility Newsletter
WASTE REDUCTION
GM Reaches Century Mark in Landfill-Free Facilities
A single plastic bag of household garbage represents more trash going to a landfill than 100 General Motors facilities combined. GM recently added its 100thlandfill-free facility – a parts distribution center in Lansing, Mich. It is a milestone in the company’s ongoing waste-reduction efforts. No other automaker has as many facilities contributing zero waste to landfill.
GM Builds ‘Green Construction’ Program
A $200 million stamping plant at its Arlington, Texas, plant is one of five General Motors construction sites to follow a process that helps reduce waste and increase energy efficiency throughout construction. So far, GM has recycled 150,000 tons of waste at the five sites.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
GM Powers Computers with Energy from Engine Testing
As visitors to the GM Powertrain Engineering Center in Torino walk the halls, they can often hear the whirring of engines being tested. But what they can’t hear is the excess energy being transferred back to the grid. Within a year, the center has harvested 300,000 kilowatt hours of energy from test benches – equipment that tests various measures of a running engine. This excess energy would normally be lost to the atmosphere. Now GM captures it to power all of the facility’s computers.
Second GM Facility Receives ENERGY STAR Certification
General Motors’ Lansing Customer Care and Aftersales parts distribution center recently reached landfill-free status and earned ENERGY STAR® certification for superior energy efficiency from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The facility generates 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 35 percent less energy than similar buildings nationwide. It also is GM’s 100th facility to recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations.
Orion Assembly to Pull Energy from the Sun
General Motors will be partnering with DTE Energy to build a 350-kilowatt solar array on the grounds of its Orion Assembly plant, the home of the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano. When it’s up and running, the array will have enough capacity to annually power 45 homes in Michigan.
GM’s Spring Hill Cuts the Lights, Saves Energy
General Motors is committed to energy efficiency, and its Spring Hill Manufacturing complex is its latest example. Spring Hill expects to save nearly $800,000 annually by upgrading to high-efficiency lighting in its general assembly and new engine plants. This upgrade, which will replace more than 4,000 fixtures with high-efficiency fluorescent lighting, is estimated to save 8.5 million kilowatt hours (kWhr) of electricity per year – equivalent to the energy needed to power 750 homes.
GREENER VEHICLES
Cadillac ATS’s Lighter Weight is Competitive Advantage
Like an athlete training for a major competition, Cadillac is completing its preparations for the all-new 2013 ATS, including finalizing key performance specifications. The ATS with the 2.5L engine and automatic transmission has an official base curb weight of 3,315 lbs. (1503.7 kg) – making it the lightest vehicle in the U.S. segment that includes the BMW 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Audi A4.
Electric Ampera/Volt range extender wins green engine award
The range-extending 1.4-liter engine in the Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt won the “International Engine of the Year Award” for the best green engine in a field of 45 contenders, the first time in the 14-year history of the awards that a range-extending powertrain has won.
2013 Chevrolet Volt Boosts EV Range to 38 Miles
The all-electric vehicle range of the 2013 Chevrolet Volt will be 38 miles on a single charge, providing owners with a three-mile EV range increase from the 2012 model. The miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) will increase from 94 miles to 98 miles and the total range, including extended range operation, will be 380 miles.
Chevrolet Malibu Eco Achieves Double Safety Honors
The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco is the first and only all-new 2013 midsize car to receive double honors for safety including a 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a 2012 Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Both are the highest ratings possible.
Chevrolet Only Brand with Two Models in 2012’s 10 Best Green Cars
Chevrolet was the only brand to land two of Kelley Blue Book’s picks for the 10 Best Green Cars of 2012, with the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco and 2012 Chevrolet Volt earning platitudes for their efficiency, as well as groundbreaking green technology.
College Students Compete in EcoCAR2 to Improve Vehicle Efficiency
When General Motors looks to the future of automotive engineering, they literally look to the group that embodies what the next generation of innovation will look like: student engineers. As such, it sponsors EcoCAR2: Plugging In to the Future, a three-year competition that provides students from 15 universities real-world, hands-on experience and tasks them to improve the energy efficiency of an already efficient vehicle, the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.
SAFETY
2014 Impala Focuses on Crash Avoidance From All Angles
The all-new 2014 Chevrolet Impala is the latest addition to Chevrolet’s passenger car lineup and provides first-ever safety technologies for the global brand. The Impala leads the full-size segment with 10 standard air bags and boasts numerous active safety systems. While passive safety systems, such as air bags and seat belts, protect occupants in the event of a crash, active safety systems are designed to prevent a crash in the first place through the use of sounds, visual warnings and automated actions.
Active Safety a Common Element in Expanding Buick Brand
In addition to the redesigned Enclave luxury crossover SUV arriving this fall, Buick’s lineup will continue to expand in the coming year with two all-new models – the 250-horsepower (187 kW) Verano Turbo luxury sedan and the versatile Encore luxury crossover. No matter the size, safety is a cornerstone of every new Buick.
OnStar: Most Kids Unprepared for Auto Emergencies
For emergencies in the car, young children often do not know what to do. A recent study by OnStar and Kelton Research found that less than half of parents are sure that their children would know at least one measure to take in the event of a car crash (46 percent) or a medical emergency in or around a vehicle (47 percent). Comparatively, 72 percent of parents expect their kids would know what to do if there was a fire in the home.
GM Studying Operator Behavior in Self-Driving Vehicles
How would driver behavior change in the self-driving vehicles that could be available by mid-decade? General Motors and its research partners recently tried to find out by studying how non-driving activities influence driver behavior in self-steering, semi-autonomous vehicles. One key finding is that driver attentiveness can be improved through advanced driver assistance and safety features.
OnStar Reaches Milestones in China
Shanghai OnStar, General Motors’ in-vehicle safety, security and communication service joint venture, achieved two major milestones in May with its subscriber base across China reaching 450,000, and requests for Turn-by-Turn Navigation totaling 13.8 million since the launch of the service in October 2009.
RESOURCE PRESERVATION
Recharging Colorado Conservation Efforts - A Q&A with Linda Campbell, Chairwoman, Colorado Conservation Trust
General Motors donated a Chevrolet Volt to the nonprofit Colorado Conservation Trust. The vehicle will be auctioned off, as a result of the silent auction at the annual “Q for Conservation” event that generates revenue for conservation projects throughout the state. Linda Campbell, committed conservationist and chairwoman of the CCT, discusses the Volt, preservation projects and protection of natural resources.
PHILANTHROPY
$250,000 GM Gift to Help Put Vets to Work
GM and the GM Foundation are contributing $250,000 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Chamber Foundation’s Hiring our Heroes program, a national grassroots effort to find jobs for returning veterans and their spouses, many of whom have put their own careers on hold because of long separations and overseas deployments due to military service.
