Late in 2010, automaker GM’s Chevrolet division committed to spending up to $40 million on various carbon reduction projects. Its hope is to help cut up to 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next five years, which not coincidentally is the same amount of emissions produced by the estimated 1.9 million vehicles it will sell between Nov., 10, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2011.
Now the company has defined 16 of the projects that will get some of that money.
The projects, which are being highlighted in an ongoing video series, are distributed among investments on energy-efficiency and renewable energy. Here are three examples:
- The Metrolina Greenhouse in Huntersville, N.C., which is converting from natural gas to biomass to heat greenhouses
- Crow Lake Wind Farm in Mitchell, S.D., a 108-turbine wind farm
- Heat recovery projects at natural gas pumping stations in Culbertson, Mont., and Garvin, Minn.
Each project will be regularly reviewed for its actual carbon-reduction contribution; those results will be verified before an investment will be considered complete.
Yes, it is easy to be cynical about a car company getting involved in projects like these, but $40 million is nothing to sneeze at, and I’m sure its partners don’t mind.
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