GM’s Rosario Complex In Argentina Earns International Energy Standard

General Motors’ Rosario Automotive Complex in North-Eastern Argentina has obtained the ISO 50001 certification from the International Organization for Standardization, becoming the first plant in the Americas to do so.

To acquire the standard, GM Argentina trained 20 internal auditors for 20 hours, who then established the base for training 70 percent of the complex’s employees, contractors, and suppliers on energy efficiency awareness.

The 50001 standard represents the latest international best practice in energy management. It builds on existing national and regional standards to assist companies manage their energy usage while identifying opportunities to save money and implement improvements.

Rosario joins the following GM facilities in earning the ISO 50001 certification:

• Aspern, Austria
• Eisenach, Germany
• Gliwice, Poland
• Rayong, Thailand
• Zaragoza, Spain

The effort embodies GM’s constant quest to improve energy consumption, as the automaker is dedicated to energy efficiency on a global scale and is working toward a goal of reducing energy intensity from its facilities by 20 percent by 2020.

In addition to earning the 50001 certification, the assembly and stamping facilities at the Rosario complex also earned landfill-free status in 2011, referring to the fact that both sites recycle, reuse or convert to energy all waste from daily operations. As of this writing, GM operates over 100 landfill-free facilities globally.