GM receives Energy and Environmental Excellence Award

General Motors
Tags: green manufacturing, energy management

General Motors received an Energy and Environmental Excellence Award from Hart Energy Publishing, recognizing the company’s progress toward the sustainable use of global natural resources and reducing its environmental footprint.

The award was presented Thursday at the “Meeting the Clean Fuels Challenge” conference in Houston.

“We work hard to reduce our environmental impact throughout all of our business practices from sustainable facilities and greener vehicles to recycling and reusing materials,” said Mike Robinson, vice president of environment, energy and safety policy at GM.

When designing new vehicles, GM engineers use materials from renewable resources whenever economically and technically possible. Materials come from many sources, including old soft drink bottles, nylon carpet, used tires and recycled vehicle bumpers. For example, the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze’s sound insulation material is made from recycled blue jeans.

At the end of their lifecycles, GM vehicles are at least 85 percent recyclable and 95 percent recoverable by weight.

The Energy and Environmental Excellence Award comes on the heels of a recent announcement by Chevrolet to invest $40 million in various clean energy projects throughout America with a goal to reduce 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The company also received industry accolades for its Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range, including Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal.

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