10 Tips for Better Energy Management

When it comes to efficiently operating GM facilities, our team possesses a

competitive spirit that pushes us to get the most out of our facilities by using the

least amount of energy.

We don’t keep our energy reduction methods a secret. It’s beneficial for all

companies to share best practices to achieve common goals. In our work laying

out a blueprint for reducing waste, we've learned some lessons on how a company

can cut its energy use. Here they are:

1. Engage Objective Experts: The best judges are those with no immediate

stake in the results. In 2012, we contracted an independent third party to

validate our global energy, water, greenhouse gas, production usage and

environmental data for all of our manufacturing and major non-manufacturing

facilities.

1. Set Goals: Goals are an integral part of running a successful business. We

set energy and environmental goals and then integrate them into our

manufacturing business plans. Each of our facilities develops their own

energy efficiency plan to meet their objectives.

1. Benchmark: Using external benchmarking resources from EPA ENERGY

STAR®, we identify plants that are within the top 25th percentile of

automobile companies so that opportunities can be prioritized and best

practices identified and shared globally.

1. Invest in Energy Efficiency: GM allocates monies for high-return efficiency

projects. We collect proposed projects from facilities and prioritize them

based on return on investment and probability of successful implementation.

This year, we spent $20 million on energy efficiency in the U.S., and as a

result reduced manufacturing energy intensity by eight percent from the

previous year.

1. Monitor – Constantly: Across all of our U.S facilities, we monitor about 2.5

million points of energy data per minute. That’s a lot of data, and to

adequately manage it we, in conjunction with Science Applications

International Corporation, Inc. operate a dashboard system called Energy

OnStar. Assisted by the third party, plants compare hourly performance of

heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment and their energy use to

identify opportunities on a real-time basis. As a result of seeing this feedback,

we implemented more than $3 million worth of energy savings at our U.S.

facilities this year via Energy OnStar.

1. Measure Performance: We keep employees informed of our energy, water

and CO2 intensity performance on scorecards, helping us determine how

we’re tracking against monthly and annual goals. Any performance with less

than a “green” status requires a countermeasure to be developed to correct

it, which is also tracked with additional emphasis to ensure achievement.

1. Involve and Reward Employees: We use a formal employee suggestion

system. Not a slip of paper dropped in a suggestion box, but a process where

U.S. employees’ active involvement pays off – literally. Employees who

suggest an improvement to an existing process can receive a portion of the

implemented savings up to $20,000. We’ve implemented many employee

ideas in the last year, yielding hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy,

water and carbon reduction savings.

1. Share Best Practices throughout Organization: Reducing energy

consumption is a global team effort and requires collaboration from all levels.

We use a global web-based system where plants and offices around the globe

can input energy, water and carbon-reduction best practices for all GM team

members to learn from and improve upon.

1. Be Transparent: We calculate greenhouse gases through a web-based

global system that shows energy effect on carbon emissions and water

intensity. This information is reported publicly to the Carbon Disclosure

Project (CDP) and in our annual Sustainability Report.

1. Communicate: GM communicates progress, shares results, discusses the

implementation of ideas and tells stories of its global energy and water

efficiency gains through a variety of channels like our internal e-newsletters,

employee intranet and our environmental blog. A project isn’t complete

unless it’s talked about, since that often inspires and sparks other ideas.

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