EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
As the Vice President of Sustainable Workplaces and the Chief Sustainability Officer at General Motors , Kristen Sieman is responsible for driving the company ’ s sustainability strategy into all aspects of the business . She also heads up GM ’ s energy procurement , traditional environmental work and all construction and facility management .
Recently celebrated in Sustainability Magazine ’ s Top 100 Women 2024 , Sieman has spent the last 30 years at GM . An innovative titan of the sustainable automotive space , she shared her expert insight on the panel The Future of Electric Cars in a Net Zero World at Net Zero LIVE London 2024 and previously delivered a keynote address at Sustainability LIVE New York 2023 .
Q . PLEASE INTRODUCE GM ’ S SUSTAINABILITY AND ELECTRIFICATION JOURNEY ?
» General Motors set some pretty bold goals back in 2021 . Our first goals were to be carbon neutral in our products and operations by 2040 , and to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty US vehicles by 2035 . We originally aimed to power 100 % of our US sites with renewable energy by 2050 , but we ’ re proud to be on track to achieve that by 2025 , a full 25 years early , and we ’ re on track to meet our global target of 60 % globally by 2035 . We ’ ve done a lot of work on sustainable materials , energy efficiency and water efficiency – for us , it is about driving sustainability into all aspects of our business .
“ Anything we can do to make the future of EVs a reality is something that we can all be proud of ”
Q . GM IS WORKING TOWARDS CARBON NEUTRALITY IN ITS GLOBAL PRODUCTS AND OPERATIONS BY 2040 . HOW DOES CARBON NEUTRALITY PLAY INTO GM ’ S WIDER SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY ?
» The biggest part of our carbon footprint at General Motors is the customer usage of our vehicles , so we are focussed on making the transition to electric vehicles , which will reduce our carbon footprint the most . With that said , part of that is also ensuring that those electric vehicles are ultimately charged with green energy .
The work that we ' re doing is not only on reducing energy usage in our own facilities and our transition to renewables , but also collaborations with organisations like the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance , that really helps make this transition a reality .
There ' s a number of other things that we need to work on : partnerships with our suppliers and their own decarbonisation strategies , clearly logistics and all of the other aspects of our footprint , but we ' re trying to do everything we can on what we control , whilst influencing and collaborating on the areas that we can ' t do by ourselves .
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