While in town for the 2015 North American International Auto Show and General Motors’ annual stakeholder meeting, climate expert Mindy Lubber who advocates for sustainability leadership, met with several GM executives and employees from various departments for a roundtable discussion on GM’s performance on climate change and how the automaker can continue its progress.
As reported from GM’s own blog, FastLane, the president of the nonprofit Ceres talked about how the private sector can bring social and environmental change. “The power of a company like GM can chart a future. We need to work more closely with the private sector to see sustainability issues as a corporate theme, not as philanthropy or as a nice thing to do.”
GM has had a relationship with Ceres for over 20 years. “Two decades ago, auto companies weren’t talking sustainability or making commitments. Back then there were so many things to change, but GM said it was a journey they wanted to be on. You have a long way to go, but have delivered an enormous amount of progress.”
Lubber added, “You can’t create change if you don’t have investors saying it’s OK to invest in sustainability. Customers are starting to say, ‘We want cars that are the future model of transportation’ — EVs, hybrids. And employees are motivated by companies doing honest, good work; sustainability gives you that edge to recruit the best and brightest.”
A GM employee was in agreement on the power of employees. Tom Wickam said, “It’s about how we can influence change through our employees. It’s the things we do on a voluntary basis such as voluntary river cleanups and recycling drives. We need to get people to understand it’s more than just what we’re doing at work— cultural, social change happens at home, too. If every one of our 219,000 employees did three things in the community…that’s social impact.”
Comments
It used to be global warming now it is climate change. What will they call it when they just find it is Climate Cycles.
Funny how people can create crisis and make money from the,
Things were just so much better when automakers only had to make cars.
This might be the only comment I’ve ever voted you up on.
2014 was the warmest year on record for the entire planet. Changes are not as obvious South of 49, other than extreme weather events. Get out of your bubble and see the ravages taking place up North. The higher you go, the worse it gets.
Denying the science which is now accepted worldwide is now just plain ignorant.
Well if the people you believe were correct the lower end of Manhattan would be under water at this point and the Polar ice caps would be retreating when at this point they are again growing.
Read the whole NASA statement that the liberal media failed to print.
“the NASA press release failed to mention…that the alleged ‘record’ amounted to an increase over 2010, the previous ‘warmest year’, of just two-hundredths of a degree—or 0.02C. The margin of error is said by scientists to be approximately 0.1C—several times as much.”
Pause for a moment to digest that. The margin of error was plus or minus one tenth of a degree. The difference supposedly being measured here is two hundredths of a degree—five times smaller than the margin of error. The Daily Mail continues:
As a result, GISS’s director Gavin Schmidt has now admitted NASA thinks the likelihood that 2014 was the warmest year since 1880 is just 38 per cent. However, when asked by this newspaper whether he regretted that the news release did not mention this, he did not respond.
It may have been the most dishonest year on record.
While the phrase climate change is correct the direction of the change goes both ways over time not just one way. Hell we are just one volcano way from snow in July.
But automakers have to market to even the un-enlightened too. Their money is green too.
I just wish people would understand the Global Warming is an industry that has made billions of dollars for many people. Many who claim the scientific evidence are the same people getting large amounts of funding to continue their work. If they prove there is no global warming then they would have to go get a new job.
The fact is we will get warm and then cool down but the world will continue to go on and on.
That is a lie. There was only a 38% chance it was. SO go away.
Well, maybe it was not the warmest year. They are 38% sure it was. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2915061/Nasa-climate-scientists-said-2014-warmest-year-record-38-sure-right.html
The sooner GM rolls out better EV’s, the less likely people will use a stick to beat them.
Also read up on Maurice Strong and how he is where and why Global Warming was turned into a Industry with Carbon Trading etc. That is when he was not stealing from the UN Food for Oil.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122368007369524679