General Motors: Going Green in Both Product and Practice
General Motors’ LEED-Gold Certified plant in Lansing, Michigan
For all the flack GM has taken in the marketplace for its gas guzzling vehicles, I have to hand it to them for stepping up to the plate with some solid green initiatives, from focusing on more fuel efficient and less polluting vehicles to their green building programs. As a manufacturer, GM gets double points for being green in both product and practice:
1. Making their products more environmentally friendly, and
2. Making the actual production process of their products more environmentally friendly.
According to Kimberly Hosken of the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings in the United States consume 40% of our energy. This is why green building initiatives are a cornerstone of today’s clean technology movement.
GM actually built the first LEED-Gold Certified auto manufacturing facility, in Lansing, Michigan, which was the first its kind, not to mention the largest and most complex manufacturing site, to ever receive this level of LEED certification.
Worth viewing, for both information and inspiration, are GM’s promotional videos on their green initiatives:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid824493250
The press release – “GM Opens First-Ever LEED-Gold Certified Automobile Manufacturing Facility” - can be found here:
http://www.gm.com/corporate/responsibility/environment/news/2006/leed-cert_080406.jsp
Despite of the economic doom and gloom littering the media these days, this puts wind in my sails.
Ford, what they hay???