General Motors‘ industry leading efforts to reduce energy consumption has earned it the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star Partner of the Year award for a fifth time. The automaker found ways to cut back energy usage by 5.6 percent per vehicle in 2015, which translated to a savings of $237 million and avoided 1.8 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
“GM reinvested $7.4 billion to develop safer and more fuel-efficient vehicles with reduced emissions last year,” said Jim DeLuca, GM executive vice president of Global Manufacturing. “We’re continually in pursuit of innovative technologies to reduce the environmental impact of driving, as well as practices that lessen the carbon footprint of manufacturing those vehicles.”
Aside from receiving this award, GM has also earned Energy Star certification for 11 of its facilities. The certification is given to buildings with an energy efficiency rating that is better than 75 percent of similar buildings nationwide. The buildings must also meet strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. Other efforts by GM include use of EPA Smartway, which allows for the efficient management of shipping routes.
Comment
Given that CAFE in 2025 supposedly needs to be 54.5 miles per gallon, one needs to think that General Motors will need to use the core of Chevrolet’s Bolt as the starting point for battery powered versions of all existing models whether they’re CUV or the Corvette.