Dive Brief:
- General Motors is now powering all its sites and facilities in the United States with 100% renewable energy, a milestone the company said it reached last year. The company claims it is the first U.S. automaker to achieve this goal.
- GM announced the breakthrough in an April 21 release ahead of Earth Day, held annually on April 22. The car manufacturer said its investments in domestic renewable energy have generated around $1.9 billion in gross domestic product since 2015 and that projects contracted through 2026 will likely bring in an additional $333 million.
- The company matched 70% of its global electricity consumption with renewable energy in 2025, nearly doubling what it sourced in 2023, according to the release. GM aims to completely power its global facilities with renewable energy by 2035.
Dive Insight:
The automaker has several sustainability targets in addition to its clean energy aspirations. These include goals to achieve carbon neutrality in global products and operations by 2040; reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 72% by 2035 compared to a 2018 baseline; cut scope 3 emissions from the use of sold products by 51% per vehicle kilometer by 2035 compared to a 2018 baseline; and decrease water intensity by 35% by 2035 compared to a 2010 baseline.
GM said in the release it had reduced its scope 1 and 2 emissions — or operational emissions — by 52% since 2018, and that its shift to clean energy was also “advancing its vision of a zero-emissions future.”
“Our energy transition is making a difference,” GM Chief Sustainability Officer Cassandra Garber said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, pointing to how the company was able to more than halve its operational emissions while growing its revenue by 26% since 2018.
“We know that our electricity choices matter — for communities and the long-term health of its business,” she added. “We’re going to keep pursuing our zero-emissions vision and showing that decarbonization and economic growth can, and do, move together.”
GM appointed Garber as its sustainability head last year. At the time, Garber — previously CSO for Dell Technologies — said her role would allow her to help GM accelerate towards its decarbonization and net-zero goals but added that the automaker was already helping boost the transition to electric vehicles and encouraging the adoption of renewable energy.
The automaker — which houses car brands Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC under its umbrella — said it contracts enough clean energy to match every kilowatt-hour it pulls from the grid for its U.S. operations. These include power purchase agreements with Hilltopper Wind Farm and NorthStar Clean Energy, the latter of which GM inked in 2024 to support operations across three U.S. assembly plants. The deal allows GM to source renewable electricity from NorthStar’s 180-megawatt solar project in Newport, Arkansas.
GM said it relies on a diverse mix of renewable energy sources to power its operations. In 2025, the bulk of renewables were sourced from clean-energy utility programs (40%), followed by virtual power purchase agreements (37%), unbundled renewable energy credits (14%), default delivered renewable energy (8%) and on-site generation and landfill gas (1%), according to the release. The company said it expects its use of renewable energy credits to decrease as more of its long-term clean energy projects become operational.
