GM Is Playing a Proactive and Expansive Role in Reducing the Impact of the Automobile on Our Environment
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GM is playing a proactive and expansive role in reducing the impact of the automobile on our environment Our Products General Motors 2004/05 Corporate Responsibility Report Our Products Overview General Motors is committed to providing its customers with compelling products – products that reflect strong design themes, emphasize safety and quality, offer Key Issues fuel efficiency and low emissions, and meet customers' demands for performance Highlights and utility. Every day, GM employees strive for new and innovative ways to • Leading quality improve the vehicles the company builds and sells. performance >> • 350 Hybrid buses now in use >> What’s in the Chapter? • Continuous safety - GM's Vehicle Strategy Responsible Vehicle Use before, during and after GM's "gotta have" product strategy involves GM encourages drivers to use a crash >> delivering continuous improvement in Design, their vehicles responsibly, • GM's Fuel Economy/GHG Quality, Safety, Emissions, Fuel Economy, and both to reduce environmental emissions calculator >> Vehicle Recycling. impact and to increase the safety of vehicle occupants, Challenges Advanced Engines pedestrians and other road • Reducing vehicle New technologies such as Displacement on users. emissions >> Demand and Twin Port are the latest steps to • Expanding the range of enhancing engine efficiency. GM's latest Vehicle Design Hybrid vehicles we sell >> generation of cleaner diesel engines includes the GM's life-cycle thinking world's first diesel to meet the latest Euro 4 approach and initiatives such emission standards. GM also is introducing more as the Oil-Life System or lifecycle analysis (LCA) vehicles that can run on alternative fuels such as studies have helped GM make informed ethanol, LPG and CNG. decisions about materials, processes and implications for end-of-life disposal. This section Hybrids focuses on Design for Environment as well as Current production hybrids include full-size GM's leadership in design and how it supports pickups and hybrid derivatives for city buses, our technology and research towards more with more hybrid models coming to market over sustainable forms of mobility. the next several years. Vehicle Quality Fuel Cells Quality has been and will continue to be one of GM's goal is to validate and design a fuel cell GM's highest priorities. The latest performance propulsion system by 2010 with durability and results show that GM is attaining industry performance competitive with current internal leadership in many benchmarks of initial vehicle combustion systems that ultimately can be mass quality and long-term vehicle dependability. GM produced affordably. The company's latest tied for first in the Strategic Vision 2004 Quality concept, the Sequel, brings GM one step closer Study. According to J.D. Power, GM finished to this reality. second overall in Sales Satisfaction, was highest among multi-divisional manufacturers and Efficiency & Emissions scored above the industry average for all its From saving fuel by making engines work divisions. Buick and Cadillac ranked in the Top 5 smarter to smoothing transmission function for for Service Satisfaction according to J.D. Power; better performance and efficiency, GM is using second among multi-divisional manufacturers. technology to improve the internal combustion GM's plants earned the top three places in J.D. engine (ICE) while working toward the hydrogen Power's 2005 Initial Quality Study, and six of the future. GM has taken and is planning a wide top ten plants overall were GM facilities. range of actions to continue to improve vehicle fuel economy and emissions performance. General Motors 2004/05 Corporate Responsibility Report 4-1 Our Products Overview Vehicle Safety GM's focus is on safety at all times – before, during and after a crash. Only GM is making safety technologies such as Stabilitrack and OnStar available across its entire vehicle line-up. Because road safety also depends on safer drivers and safer roads, GM is also involved in initiatives in these areas. Vehicle Recycling GM continues to develop end-of-life vehicle (ELV) infrastructures, designing its vehicles to be as recyclable and recoverable as possible, and provide ELV dismantling manuals and environmental brochures. The section gives details about regional efforts to meet vehicle recycling goals, identifies and explains the materials used to optimize recyclability and helps develop the market for recycled materials. General Motors 2004/05 Corporate Responsibility Report 4-2 Our Products Our Vehicle Strategy Key Issues and Challenges on producing hybrids first for vehicles that consume the most fuel. GM believes hybrid The automobile has contributed greatly to the buses can deliver the best benefits because world's prosperity. People rely on motor vehicles conventional buses contribute to high levels of for personal and business travel. Automobiles air pollution and are less fuel-efficient. help us work, take part in the community and transport passengers and goods. Sustainable Mobility Project But with over 700 million vehicles on the road, Working to make transportation more they have a significant impact on energy sustainable is one of the key challenges facing resources, the environment, health and safety. automotive manufacturers. Global vehicle numbers are anticipated to Over the years, GM has focused on partner double by 2030 to a total of about 1.5 billion projects such as the Sustainable Mobility project vehicles. That fact presents great growth and run by World Business Council for Sustainable sales opportunities but it also presents major Development (WBCSD). The key issues addressed challenges. in this project include accessibility, congestion, safety, public health, greenhouse gas emissions The key product-related corporate responsibility and resource use. The project identified seven issues GM faces are: goals that, if achieved, would contribute significantly to the sustainability of mobility. The * Emissions of conventional pollutants. results of the project included defining what More on emissions >> areas of work were needed to be developed and • Fuel Economy. what roles public and private sectors should More on vehicle fuel economy >> assume. • Safety. More on safety >> The actions GM is taking to meet these GM intends to be at the forefront of efforts to challenges are outlined throughout this report. address these challenges. But it won't be easy. One of the direct results of this project has been GM's involvement in the Global Road Safety There are other challenges too. While GM has Partnership aimed at improving road safety in promoted responsible vehicle use with attention developing countries where an estimated 1.2 to fuel economy and safety, it is clear that more million people die in road crashes each year. needs to be done in all the regions where it More>> operates. GM also has improved its responses to stakeholder concerns over specific mobility GM Global Technology issues such as the growth of SUVs. GM is evolving the way it accounts for the impact its Strategy business has on society and the way it responds GM approaches the application of new to the different views of external stakeholders. technology to its vehicles with two simple and GM's governance processes describe this in more direct principles in mind: detail. • GM needs to offer vehicles that people want Control and Influence to buy. Only if people buy new technologies There are many challenges. In some areas GM in large volume will they become affordable has control in others it can only influence the and achieve the company's business outcome. GM's strategy must recognize the lim- objectives. In today's competitive market, its of its control or influence and focus its success only comes from selling vehicles at a resources on making the greatest positive price customers will pay and by keeping impact. An example of this approach is the focus production costs in line with those prices. General Motors 2004/05 Corporate Responsibility Report 4-3 Our Products Our Vehicle Strategy • GM must meet its basic business objectives. Fuel Economy and Emissions Technology cannot be sustained if it must be heavily subsidized. Advanced Propulsion Technology Strategy Vehicle Safety GM strives to make each new model safer than the one it replaces. Hydrogen GM's vehicle-based safety strategy focuses on: Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric • Before a crash - technologies designed to Reduced Vehicle Vehicles help the driver in avoiding potential crashes; Emissions and Increased Vehicle Incremental Internal • During a crash - designs and technologies Fuel Economy Combustion Engine Hydrogen that help reduce the injury potential of a & Transmission Infrastructure crash; and Improvements • After a crash - systems that can help alert emergency rescue to a crash and help Today Tomorrow provide information to aid rescue specialists. GM has adopted a two-stage strategy for Quality improving fuel economy and emissions. The integrated quality strategy unites all parts of GM in initiatives to drive improvement Today – GM is continuing to innovate current toward common quality goals. Business plans in engines and technology and will add more mod- each functional group, such as Engineering, els to its current line-up of hybrid trucks and Purchasing, Marketing, and Manufacturing buses. provide linkage to the quality strategy and clarify the role each organization plays in the Tomorrow – GM is working toward selling fuel attainment of the quality goals. This focus cell vehicles with zero