Filed under: Etc., GM, Green Daily, USA
GM to save electricity by shutting off lights, escalators
Although the move is really intended to save money for America's largest automaker, General Motors' announcements that it would be turning off the escalators at its corporate headquarters between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. and for the weekends will, of course, have another desirable effect, that of reducing the building's energy usage. In another environmentally-sound cost cutting move, the automaker has also requested that its workers shut off the lights after they are done working and to turn the thermostat down to 66-degrees at night. Hm, were they not doing this before?
Sure, this is a good move, but it should have been standard practice for, um, ever. Regardless of how much market share your company has managed to gobble up, simple things like turning out the lights and conserving electricity are no-brainers. To put a finer point on it, a lack of cash should not need to be cited as the reason these changes had to be made ... common sense should.
[Source: The Truth About Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ryan 10:40AM (10/28/2008)
Great, what has been common sense at other automakers for years is finally becoming a novel idea at GM.
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1985 Gripen 12:07PM (10/28/2008)
They're also shutting-off voice mail! But I don't know if that's to save money or not. In fact, I don't get the motivation behind that one at all.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/gm-voicemail-cuts-explained/
Regarding the escalators and lights being shut-off after-hours, what took them so long? I mean, these are simple conservation techniques that shouldn't require a company to be in financial distress to implement. Think how much money GM will save in energy costs. That was money being wasted previously.
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chad 1:58PM (10/28/2008)
Many office buildings need to do the same thing.. GM's still ahead of most on this (although they shouldn't be -- these savings are obvious and easy).
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Bolen 2:09PM (10/28/2008)
Well duh! In the office tower where I work in Atlanta, the lights automatically shut down to just the emergency lights around 7pm. If you are still in the office, you can switch them back on again in your area, but guess what? An hour later, they switch off again! Not until morning do the lights stay on for the duration of the business day, but even then they do not automatically turn on. Early arrival employees must manually turn on the lights. This way, unoccupied floors do not unnecessarily have lights on.
It's been that way for years. Why is it taking GM this long to figure it out? No wonder US automakers are tanking.
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cwj 3:25PM (10/28/2008)
Preach!
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s10 4:59PM (10/28/2008)
The amount of energy wasted in the US is beyond comprehension. So many offices and shops leave lights, aircons on after business hours, so many people have cars running while parked, just to get the airco running (even when it is cool outside)... Yesterday I was in an airport waiting area, the airco made it so cold people where freezing, but none of the airport staff seemed interested in lowering the Airco...
In the US so many people are just not educated about energy waste, they simply don't think about it.
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TX CHL Instructor 10:34AM (10/29/2008)
GM has been doing the financial equivalent of burning the family furniture for heat for so long that they now have negative net worth so large that they can't possibly recover without a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.
While the collapse of GM would hurt a lot of people, the taxpayer-funded prop-up of an obviously failed business model will guarantee that many more people will get hurt, and much worse.
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Bill 4:58PM (10/29/2008)
A trivial amount of savings compared to their obligations.
Get ready to have their pension and health care costs dumped onto the U.S. taxpayer.
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