We’re better off today because workers, companies, environmental groups and the government came together around effective, forward-looking fuel economy standards and reinvestment in American manufacturing. We have the leadership of the UAW and the industry to thank for the most fuel efficient vehicles ever. Whether it’s state-of-the-art internal combustion engines and transmissions or next generation technologies like electric vehicles, the industry is proving today’s cars and trucks can successfully prevent carbon emissions while bringing jobs back to the auto sector and boosting economic growth.

The new generations of vehicles are delivering big results. Doubling fuel economy by 2025 is the biggest single step ever taken in the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions and one of the largest worldwide—reducing annual emissions equal to about 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions today when fully implemented.

In addition to taking a major step forward to address climate change, the 2012-2025 light-duty vehicle standards in combination with existing standards for medium and heavy duty trucks will save the U.S. three million barrels a of oil a day in 2025. That’s more than a quarter of transportation fuel and more than the U.S. imported from all OPEC countries 2014. The fuel savings from these new, efficient vehicles will also save consumers over $1.7 trillion at the pump.

Building the next generation of vehicles in America means investment, innovation and jobs in a new generation of manufacturing facilities. Autoworkers building new fuel efficient pickup truck engines and transmissions, electric motors for the Spark EV and over one million fuel efficient Chevy Cruze vehicles aren’t just building cutting edge technology, they’re doing it in facilities that are pushing the envelope on clean energy generation and waste reduction. It also means investment and jobs in the hundreds of companies across the country that build components for these vehicles.

So where does the momentum created by the auto industry take us? It helps give us a model that can keep on delivering in the auto industry, in manufacturing, and in other industries altogether.

The domestic auto industry is more competitive than ever, sales are up and consumers are saving money at the pump. As a result, the cars and trucks that are rolling off assembly lines today stand as an example of how significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can rebuild the economy and continue to support the high environmental standards to which we aspire. Those are results that can be replicated in other industries as we modernize infrastructure, energy systems and more. It’s exactly the kind of good for the environment, good for the economy investments we are working everyday to recreate.

On Earth Day of all days, it’s important to remind ourselves of how far this kind of work can reach into the future.

—

Kim Glas is Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance.

The post Working Together to Build the Clean, Green Economy appeared first on FastLane.

The answer resides in why and how companies align their water stewardship strategies to support their business growth strategies. This alignment is built upon two key actions. First, companies that synchronize water stewardship strategy with growth strategy can benefit from considering and quantifying water’s full business value, moving beyond the price of water to take into account water’s various impacts on operations, value chain, brand, and growth prospects. Second, companies that depend on water would also benefit from proactively leading collective action initiatives with stakeholders across their value chain within the watersheds in which they operate. Actions in these two areas go well beyond most companies’ current thinking on water management, which focuses primarily on water efficiency and reuse and recycling within their operations.

A “license-to-grow” model

Considering water as a scarce resource necessary for growth brings into sharp focus the particular issues organizations must face when operational or economic logic is insufficient to support business growth. Where water scarcity is concerned, we have observed that firms generally follow the trajectory described by the maturity model.

Managing water scarcity and driving growth: What are the critical business decisions?

Companies whose operations and growth depend on water should also be aware of where they fall along the stages of maturity outlined above. Understanding where a company sits on the maturity model can help frame the steps needed to address water risk and to align its water strategy with its business growth strategy.

For companies looking to leverage their water strategy to drive business growth, I recommend asking the following questions as they relate to the value chain:

• What or who do water prices depend upon?
• How likely are prices to fluctuate and why?
• What are the water scarcity risks common to all users?
• What water scarcity-related risks are particular to one’s own company?
• How severe are these risks to the way the company does business today?
• How severe are these risks to prospects for future growth?
• What is the value of water to the company’s business and growth strategy?
• Where will engagement with stakeholders increase the overall value of this resource to the firm (including increases in value driven by risk and cost reductions)?

You can’t always buy what you need, but with an understanding of the business value of water and an enterprise-wide strategy to engage with stakeholders, you may be able to secure a long-term supply of the water you need to support business growth.

—

William Sarni is director and practice leader of enterprise water strategy at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He focuses on water stewardship strategies as a driver for economic and business growth and in addressing access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. A version of this post originally appeared in the July 2014 issue of Deloitte Review.

The post Fueling Water and Business Growth appeared first on FastLane.

Companies like General Motors and Nike would argue for the latter, and they’re leading a pilot project in the United States aimed at kicking material reuse into high gear, like a 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The basic idea is to set up a cloud-based landing zone for companies to post details about their material flows so that they can identify collaborative reuse possibilities. The U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development will use its 20-plus years of experience and online materials marketplace software to gather materials data, help identify possible synergies and share them with the participating companies.

Participants thus far include an array of global companies from textile, consumer products, metals, mining, logistics and chemicals industries. Each company has dozens of US operations and manufacturing sites that would be involved. The Corporate Eco Forum and World Business Council for Sustainable Development are co-collaborators in this scale-up project, scheduled to launch in May 2015.

GM and Nike are long-time leaders in designing cross-industry material reuse. Both have helped overhaul supply chains to convert traditional waste streams into products like car parts or clothing. Other companies involved are equally innovative, making this a first-ever circular US marketplace at the national level. This effort will require working with material collection companies and processors, and engaging with company designers to establish and expand cost-effective reuse markets.

One core goal is to keep the materials circulating here in the U.S. rather than going overseas or into landfills. Designers, asset managers and procurement teams will explore and identify ways of replacing virgin materials with reused streams in product offerings. GM has long been actively pursuing this approach and, in the process, has established new layers of economic growth and jobs based on creative material reuse.

Another goal is linking with the growing demand in the U.S. for more effective post-consumer recycling plans, which are being championed by consumer-facing companies like PepsiCo, Alcoa and Walmart. The average recycling rate across the country is below 20 percent. Finding ways to connect post-consumer and industrial material flows to achieve critical mass, infrastructure investment and new markets offers another breakthrough opportunity for the project.

This is a scalable circular economy initiative being led by U.S. companies. All of the participants want to establish an effective, safe and productive online marketplace that allows companies, city departments and other organizations to take our underutilized materials, partially used transportation systems, and off-gases for what they really are – valuable assets that have gone undiscovered. We look forward to reporting on this exciting initiative later this summer.

—

Andrew Mangan is executive director of the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development.

The post The Circular Economy: The Start of an Economic Revolution or Just the Latest Business Buzzword? appeared first on FastLane.

As we innovate new advanced technologies to make autos greener, we’re also looking at alternative solutions to today’s mobility challenges.

Case in point: the bike share program we introduced at our Warren Technical Center in August.

We partnered with Zagster to give our 19,000 employees who work there new options for getting to and from the 61 buildings covering the 330-acre campus.

The program was the first of its kind from any U.S. automaker and an instant success. So much so, we’re expanding the program to meet growing demand from our Tech Center workforce. Twenty new bikes and seven docking stations will be added, bringing the total number of bikes to 70 at 14 stations.

The popularity of the bike share was one reason for the expansion. How popular, you ask? Zagster estimates Tech Center employees pedaled some 2,800 miles during the first five months of the program, more than the driving distance from New York City to Los Angeles.

The bike share has increased worker productivity, too. Employees using the service save between 10 to 30 minutes a day commuting across campus on two wheels.

“The Zagster program is a triple play for GM, as it increases productivity, makes our employees happy, and helps us continue to make progress on our sustainability goals,” said GM Director of Sustainability David Tulauskas. “Additionally, the program is providing key data we can use as we reimagine mobility on campus settings and in densely populated areas.”

Biking to meetings is a convenient, practical, healthy and emissions-free way to commute. It’s just one example of how we’re transforming transportation.

The post GM Employees Put Pedal to the Metal appeared first on FastLane.

“Convertibles are best enjoyed when it’s warm and sunny, but Cascada has been designed and engineered to be used year-round, regardless of the weather,” said John Dolch, program quality manager for Cascada. “Not only is Cascada’s top engineered to be weatherproof in extreme conditions, but each and every Cascada built will also be put through a rigorous water test.”

Specialized water test booths, located at the end of Cascada’s assembly line, will allow freshly built cars to roll off the line and into testing. Each booth has no fewer than 124 individual nozzles, which will quickly immerse the Cascada in a miniature rainstorm for 10 minutes.

Each nozzle emits 1.9 gallons of water every minute. Cascada’s test is designed to produce nearly the equivalent of 1.23 inches of rain in a minute, which matches a world record set in Unionville, Md. in 1956.

Additionally, two Cascadas will be randomly selected daily to undergo another water test, known as the “deluge.” While this test is designed to last only eight minutes, each nozzle blasts roughly three gallons of water each minute.

Much like actual rain clouds, Cascada’s water testing booths are also part of a water cycle. While nearly 132,000 gallons of water – or nearly 5,500 full bathtubs – will be used daily, only 1.5 percent of that volume is lost to evaporation. The other 98.5 percent of the water used will be collected, filtered and recycled for use in later tests.

These tests may seem extreme, but they’re especially important given April showers are more than an old proverb. As winter gives way to spring, rain showers are bound to splash cities across the U.S. with more than a little precipitation.

“Typically, April sees weather patterns bring in more moisture from the Gulf, especially in the eastern half of the United States,” said Jim Piro and Allan Reppert, AccuWeather climatology supervisor and meteorologist, respectively. “Rainfall for the spring looks to be wet along much of the East Coast, from New York south into northern Florida, and stretching along the Gulf Coast into eastern Texas.”

Some spring showers may take drivers by surprise on an otherwise sunny day, but Cascada engineers came prepared. Its power-folding top will be fully deployed in as little as 17 seconds, and at speeds up to 31 mph.

Beginning in early 2016, Cascada owners in arid corners of the U.S. may not have to worry about facing those showers, but they may still appreciate the result of these tests.

“Chances are good you’ll still clean the car with a pressure washer, or run it through an automated car wash,” Dolch said. “The same watertight concerns will still apply, even under clear blue skies.”

The post April Showers No Match for Buick’s New Convertible appeared first on FastLane.

Launched last fall, the Reuse Opportunity Collaboratory Detroit (ROC Detroit) is comprised of a diverse group of companies, academic institutions, non-profits and government agencies with a strong common interest in creating environmental, beneficial societal and economic opportunities from Detroit’s underutilized materials. The collaboration is breathing new (second) life into old byproducts.

ROC Detroit held its second meeting last week, bringing together familiar faces from the fall gathering and brand new faces.

Jeff Hohlfeldt, business development and engineering manager at Northern Industrial Manufacturing, attended the first ROC Detroit event. Jeff was looking to find someone who could reuse two of the company’s waste streams – grinding sludge used to cut down metal parts and crushed corn cob used to dull the edges of the cut material. “The corn cob is a big waste stream for us – something like 60 or 70 thousand pounds a year,” he said. “I mean come on, it’s corn. We have to be able to find a reuse for that.”

One person Jeff approached at the event as a possible reuse partner was Pashon Murray, founder of composting company Detroit Dirt. Pashon collects food scraps from various Detroit businesses to create nutrient rich compost that feeds urban gardens across the city. GM and Pashon have partnered on a number of facility composting initiatives that have fed projects in Southwest Detroit. Currently, Pashon collects food prep scraps from our landfill-free global headquarters and then uses that compost to fuel our rooftop garden on an adjacent parking garage.

From last week’s Reuse Opportunity Collaboratory #Detroit meeting: @detroitdirt’s Pashon Murray talks about working with @generalmotors’ John Bradburn on #composting initiatives. “This man has been a great mentor to me.”

A photo posted by @gm_sustainability on Apr 15, 2015 at 9:56am PDT

This waste innovation and collaboration is happening across the country, not just in Detroit. The U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, which helped start ROC Detroit, has also helped launch and/or manage waste synergy projects in a number of cities across eight states. The nonprofit business association is rolling out a new online tool called the Materials Marketplace that enables participants to easily post available or desired waste materials, identify reuse opportunities, and exchange underutilized materials.

The Materials Marketplace is proving to be a “resourceful” tool to many groups in Texas. In fact, our call center in Austin recently joined in on the trash-to-treasure hunt taking place in the Lone Star State. We were able to supply more than 75 cubic yards of waste – everything from old TV and computers monitors to unused tables and chairs – to a local office product and supply company, which netted them an estimated resale value of $3,000 and saved the call center around $600 in recycling costs. Just as important, the transaction diverted this waste from ending up in landfill.

Another collaboration is underway in Spring Hill, Tennessee, home to the assembly plant where we build the Chevrolet Equinox. We initiated the first Suppliers’ Partnership for the Environment Southern Network forum there in 2013, a forum that brought together fellow automakers, their suppliers, recycling partners and government officials to discuss waste-reduction challenges, recycling opportunities and capabilities.

John Bradburn, GM’s global manager for waste reduction/resident MacGyver, said connecting these various partnerships is key to overcoming tough waste challenges.

“Groups such as Suppliers Partnership and the U.S. BCSD are now joining forces to best manage their materials systematically. That may not have happened years ago. There may have been a little anxiety with doing such a thing. But now they’re saying ‘you know what, we’re going to be stronger and accomplish more by working together, so let’s join forces here.’”

From Detroit to Tennessee to Austin and beyond, these collaborations are helping ensure industrial waste doesn’t go to waste.

The post Companies, Entrepreneurs ROCk Detroit through Waste Innovation appeared first on FastLane.