Chevy Production Keeps Getting Greener

The green revolution in the automobile world isn’t just isolated to fuel-efficient cars. Chevy has made a big push to increase the efficiency of production as well. In fact, nine more General Motors plants have just met the requirements for the EPA’s Energy Star Challenge. The challenge specified GM reduce energy intensity in each plant by 10% over the course of five years. This resulted in a financial savings of $162 million and a reduction of 1.6 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.

To get a better idea, this is the equivalent of the energy used by about 244,000 homes, or a fairly good-sized city. Along with fuel efficient models like the Volt and the Cruze Turbo Diesel, Chevy is helping to reduce the impact of the automobile on the world.

Another benefit for drivers at least is the massive fuel savings brought about by this change. You can test drive models like the 2014 Chevy Volt at Cox Chevy in Bradenton. The Volt uses a more unique approach to vehicle engineering by combining the power of gasoline engine with an electric motor.

Chevy Works to Save Energy Across the Board

These nine plants only represent a small portion of GM’s production energy savings; they join 22 worldwide repeat Energy Star achievers in GM’s network:

“Creativity and energy management go hand-in-hand at GM,” said Tim Lee, executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and chairman of GM China. “We’ve been consistently cutting energy use and emissions each year, requiring us to dig deeper for innovative paths to energy savings. Environmental responsibility – and its corresponding business benefits — continues to be an everyday driver within our facilities.”

So how has Chevy done it? Here are just a few ways they’ve cut usage:

• One of GM’s oldest production facilities, Flint Assembly, in Michigan, upgraded its lighting systems and cut steam heating.
• In St. Petersburg, Russia, GM employs installed equipment that helped to decrease equipment start-up time, making it so less energy was wasted before work for the day even began.
• The GM assembly plant in Rayong, Thailand installed skylights to bring in more sun, thus reducing the need for lighting, as well as installed LED lights in paint inspection areas.