General Motors Internationally Recognized With Prestigious Water Award
DETROIT- In a first for the automotive industry, General Motors has earned the prestigious 2001 Stockholm Industry Water Award for a progressive water treatment and recycling program implemented at one of its manufacturing facilities.
GM officials will be on hand in Stockholm, Sweden, August 15 to accept the award during World Water Week. The annual symposium hosts corporate, environmental and engineering experts from around the world who discuss the relationship between maintaining successful industry while preserving the planet's most precious resource.
The Stockholm Industry Water Award was established in 2000 and GM is the first automaker to receive the honor. The 2001 award, given by the Stockholm Water Foundation, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, honors GM de Mexico's Ramos Arizpe Complex.
The Ramos Arizpe facility is located west of Monterrey, Mexico, in an area of extreme water scarcity. In 2000, it manufactured 590,000 engines and 171,000 transmissions, and assembled 222,000 passenger vehicles.
GM engineers faced the challenge of expanding the plant's production while reducing water usage during manufacturing and preserving the environment overall. Engineers successfully found a way to recycle and reuse the facility's industrial and sanitary wastewater, rather than further deplete the local water supply and discharge industrial wastewater into the local environment.
"This award and the operational performance of our Ramos Arizpe facility demonstrates GM's commitment to sustainable business development and how we believe business leadership and environmental leadership are complementary goals," said Dennis Minano, GM Vice President for Environmental & Energy and Chief Environmental Officer. "This facility's water conservation and recycling program can serve as a model for our other plants around the world.
"Across the globe, we at GM recognize that preserving our natural resources is absolutely essential, and we're committed to incorporating sustainability into the practice of economic development," Minano said.
While annual production at Ramos Arizpe has increased sevenfold since 1986, GM has reduced its use of well water by more than 50 percent in the same period.
"The Award Nominating Committee selected the facility as an outstanding example of corporate contribution to sustainable water use because of its multifaceted approach to achieving better quality water for everybody - including the plant itself and the people living in that region," said Ulf Ehlin, director, Stockholm International Water Institute. "We applaud General Motors for finding an environmentally supportive solution to what could have been seen as just another corporate challenge."
Since 1980, the Ramos Arizpe facility's single source of water has been a small aquifer with a relatively high salt content that also provides drinking water to a population of 40,000. GM's challenge was threefold: secure water for the manufacturing process without depleting the aquifer, desalinate the well water supply, and recycle and reuse the industrial and sanitary wastewater from the plant.
"Water is certainly an issue of utmost importance, in particular in those countries and areas where this precious fluid is scarce, as is the case of the northeastern strip in Mexico where our Ramos Arizpe Complex is located," said Arturo S. Elias, president and managing director of GM de Mexico.
The Ramos Arizpe conservation program successfully recycles and reuses 70 percent of the plant's sanitary and industrial wastewater, while cutting in half the amount of water drawn from the local aquifer.
"This important achievement attained by our Ramos Arizpe Complex is living proof that successful technical and economic results can be obtained, while at the same time honoring our social and environmental commitment," Elias said. "We are demonstrating that more products can be manufactured with less water. Sustainable development can and should go hand in hand together with productive processes."
The facility has increased the use of reverse osmosis desalination with the well water. It employs outflowing industrial streams that have a low contaminant level and reuses them in manufacturing processes that do not require high quality water. It has established a routine inspection of pipes for leaks and repairs, as well as the use of water-saving toilets and showers throughout the plant.
In order to remove dissolved solids from the brine, a system of micro-filtration, reverse osmosis and solar evaporation ponds was installed.
Even while using a number of high-tech processes to clean the water, engineers at the Ramos Arizpe site still employ basic biology to filter contaminants. Industrial wastewater flows through a manmade stream assembled with non-hazardous solids from the wastewater, rocks and certain plants that naturally remove toxins as water is pushed through. A storage lagoon of treated sanitary wastewater attracts fish and birds and is the focal point of a recreation area that serves the complex's 6,000 local employees and their families.
GM has been the leader in total sales in Mexico for five consecutive years. Operating in Mexico for 65 years, GM has manufacturing plants in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila; Silao, Guanajuato; and Toluca, State of Mexico, producing Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac and Saab vehicles. More information can be found at www.gm.com.mx.
General Motors , the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, designs, builds and markets cars and trucks worldwide. In 2000, GM earned $5 billion on sales of $183.3 billion. It employs about 372,000 people globally. GM also operates one of the largest and most successful financial services companies, GMAC, which offers automotive, mortgage and business financing and insurance services to customers worldwide. GM is investing aggressively in digital technology and e-business within its global automotive operations and through such initiatives as e-GM, GM BuyPower, OnStar and its Hughes Electronics Corp. subsidiary. More information on General Motors' progress in the areas of environmental stewardship and sustainability can be found at www.gmability.com.
The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), a scientific technical and awareness-building organization, contributes to international efforts to combat the escalating global water crisis by facilitating research, raising understanding and stimulating action on world water issues. SIWI administers the Stockholm Water Prize, Stockholm Junior Water Prize, Stockholm Water Symposium and Stockholm Water Initiative. For more information about the Stockholm Industry Water Award, please visit www.siwi.org.
Here are the major contributors for the GM de Mexico Water Management Program:
| Larry Krzesowski | WFG Project Mgr/Process Engineer |
| Arnulfo Berlanga | GM de Mexico Project Mgr |
| Roberto Camp | GM de Mexico Program Mgr |
| Gloria Garza | GM de Mexico Program Mgr |
| Delores DeValle | GM de Mexico Water Treatment Plant Supervisor |
| Kamesh Gupta | WFG Program Director |
| Gustavo Martos | GM de Mexico Purchasing Mgr |