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GM Among Sponsors Of ‘Transform: Auto’ Renewable Energy Adoption Program

General Motors is sponsoring a program called “Transform: Auto” aimed at driving renewable energy adoption across the global automotive supply chain. GM is sponsoring the effort alongside Ford, Honda, Toyota, and supplier Magna. The program was announced by the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment in partnership with sustainability and energy advisory company Trio.

The announcement outlines the three different scopes of emissions. Scope 1 pertains to sources owned by a company. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased energy. Finally, Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions from the supply chain and use of sold products, i.e., emissions produced by cars after they’re sold.

GM Among Sponsors Of 'Transform: Auto' Renewable Energy Adoption Program

GM Factory Zero

Transform: Auto is aimed at Scope 3 supply chain emissions. It will achieve this goal by “providing automotive suppliers with tailored guidance” while also helping “facilitate the procurement of renewable energy to reduce their Scope 2 emissions.” Launching this fall, the program is offered at no cost to Tier 1 suppliers of its founding sponsors, including GM.

“GM is proud of the progress we have made in reducing our own Scope 2 energy emissions,” said Rob Threlkeld, GM Director of Global Energy Strategy. “GM recognizes that to truly make a significant impact, we need to collaborate and scale our efforts across the entire supply chain. That is why we are thrilled to enter this collaboration, as it presents an exciting opportunity to work together to support reductions in supply chain emissions. By joining forces, we can help support a resilient and sustainable future towards a zero-emissions transportation sector.”

GM Among Sponsors Of 'Transform: Auto' Renewable Energy Adoption Program

GM Baltimore Plant

One motivating factor for GM to sponsor this effort could be the fact that it paid a $145.8 million penalty to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) following an EPA investigation that revealed excess emissions from almost six million 2012 through 2018 model year full-size pickups and mid-size crossovers. Similarly, GM paid a $128.2 million fine to the NHTSA in 2023 for violating Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards during the 2016 and 2017 model years.

While working toward a sustainable future and a zero-emissions transportation sector is a noble goal, it could have a positive side-effect of saving General Motors from paying more fines with nine-digit price tags.

George is an automotive journalist with soft spots for classic GM muscle cars, Corvettes, and Geo.

Comments

  1. Paul

    The EPA needs to be curbed.

    Reply
  2. Mel

    The trucks sell well, just pay the fine and keep on trucking. Remember to always vote Republican for maximum freedoms.

    Reply
    1. Ehdit0r

      Except if you’re a woman or a minority or a child or if you want to read whatever book you want to and so on and so on…

      Reply
      1. Mel

        LOL, you really believe all of that debunked nonsense that the left pumps out?

        Reply
  3. M

    So a “plant” that I’m “intimately” familiar with, has signs everywhere, “Three percent of our electric comes from the sun” and there’s a photo of our own personal solar field. Guy who sits near me is our energy engineer. I ask, “are we really getting 3%?”. He laughs, “no!” Me, 2% and him, lol. Noooooo. Ok, 1%? Him, “it’s never made half of 1%”. Yet, that’s where the money goes, spent of feel good garbage stuff like that instead of marketing cars that they scrap aka – Camaro,..

    Reply
  4. Mke

    Non-utility scale solar is fine. You just need to figure out the economics. The problem with solar is that it does take a lot of space and it has historically not produced much energy at night. If you’re only running your plant during daylight hours, you might be okay, but of course snow, clouds, etc., are going to eat into your power production. As long as you have some sort of back-up power such as fossil fuel, nuclear or hydro it’s all good. The problem is that you’re paying considerably more for the overall power installation at the facility and you do have time of day energy production factors to deal with.

    Reply
  5. GM Owner

    Total emissions-free is obtained by using electric trucks and charge them at the solar energy source. Then have every employee drive electric cars, charged for free at the same energy source whilw they are working.

    Reply
  6. Mke

    Sounds like a great idea as long as the employer buys the vehicles for his employees. EVs don’t work for everyone.

    Reply
  7. Tigger

    More non-value-added virtue signalling BS that the customer could care less about.

    Reply
  8. Champ

    More ridiculous behavior. Climate is always changing. How do I know? Because we are no longer in the Big Ice Age! It’s pretty much a – duh – conclusion. The period of [approximately] 950 a.d. to 1300 a.d. was known as the Medieval Warming period. It was immediately followed by The Little Ice Age [approximately 1300-1850]. That’s true climate change. And – it just happens – there is not always a rationale to heavy climate changes. The planet Earth has been around 4.6 billion years. During 80% of that time, Earth has been uninhabitable! The earth’s history includes one-billion years where the atmosphere was so toxic, there was literally no life on earth. There have been 5 extinctions during the life of Planet Earth. Carbon was never the reason for extinctions or any other cataclysmic event. There was more carbon dioxide on Earth 100 million years ago than today and since then, the amount of carbon dioxide has been diminishing. The average temperature in England has not changed for 20+ years. Climate Change due to carbon is a gigantic hoax. The goal is to give more to the rich, take away personal freedoms, and to depopulate. Carbon is only .004% of the Earth’s greenhouse gases. That is not man-made Carbon, but ALL Carbon. If that number gets to .002%, plant life starts dying. Why is it COLDER as we travel in space towards the sun? A: No greenhouse gases, like CO2, to hold in the Sun’s heat. I could go on all day.

    Reply

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