General Motors’ Kokomo Operations — which is landfill-free and has achieved a water reduction of 4 million gallons annually — is now a member of the Indiana Environmental Stewardship Program.
The voluntary organization honors companies for going above and beyond Indiana’s environmental regulations.
GM Kokomo Operations makes electronic control modules for engines and transmissions, semiconductors, and safety electronics and sensors.
Efforts to reduce the facility’s environmental impact include heat recovery, a process using heat reclaimed from cooling tower water to preheat water destined for its water system. As a result, the company eliminated the need to heat city water for its operations while avoiding the use of approximately 7 million kWh of energy. GM received a return on its investment within a year.
The state recognized GM Kokomo for other initiatives, such as meeting the Energy Star Challenge for Industry and achieving Environmental Management System ISO 14001 certification. The facility has reduced its energy intensity by more than 23 percent in three years by replacing high-intensity discharge lighting with energy-reducing fluorescent fixtures and empowering site employees to identify energy waste.
Since 2000, GM Kokomo has completed 52 environmental improvement programs that led to reductions in energy and water consumption, waste water discharge, volatile organic compound emissions, and hazardous air pollutant emissions.
Since 2010, GM Kokomo has been a Partner for Pollution Prevention through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, sharing its commitment to reduce pollutants, use energy more efficiently and conserve natural resources through forums with area businesses.
GM’s Toledo Transmission plant in one year reduced energy intensity by 30 percent, avoiding 38,425 metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere. The plant also reduced wastewater pretreatment discharges by 60 percent since 2009.
For these and other efforts to reduce its environmental impact, the plant last month received an award from the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable.
