Mighty Earth calls on General Motors to cut carbon and human rights abuses in national campaign
It comes as new analysis reveals GM as one of the lowest ranking manufacturers on new Auto Scorecard
Mighty Earth has recently launched a nationwide advertising campaign calling on General Motors (GM) to stop sourcing steel and aluminum made from coal and other fossil fuels and to end any connection to human rights abuses in Chinese steel and aluminum plants.
Mighty Earth’s ad blitz includes billboards, TV trucks, newspaper ads, and digital buys in target markets across the country, including outside the Superbowl stadium in Glendale, Arizona as well as in Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Washington DC.
GM has pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2040, but beyond shifting to electric vehicles, has yet to announce how it plans to decarbonize the materials that go into its cars. In 2020 materials used in the production of autos accounted for 18% of total embodied emissions, but By 2040, materials used for vehicle production will account for 60 percent of life-cycle emissions. Key solutions include shifting to green steel and aluminum, used for car frames, wheels, brakes and other components. A report by Sheffield Hallam University last year linked GM to dirty coal-powered aluminum and steel producers in China’s Xinjiang region connected to forced Uyghur labor.
New analysis by Mighty Earth’s coalition partner, Sunrise Project, also reveals that GM is failing in every major category on an industry-wide Auto Scorecard, which measures the environmental and social impacts of car manufacturers’ supply chains. On climate and the environment GM scored only 5%, including scoring zero on transitioning to fossil-free and sustainable steel and aluminum. GM also received a ranking of 23% on human rights.
GM’s roll out of its “Everybody In” campaign during the Super Bowl, an initiative to get us to switch to electric vehicles was met with broader pushback from the environmental community that going electric is just the start. This means in addition to going electric the auto industry must shift material supply chains to include green aluminum and steel, deforestation-free and sustainable leather, rubber, and other materials to be truly carbon neutral.
Mighty Earth’s CEO Glenn Hurowitz said:
“It will be hard for GM to get ‘everybody in’ on electric vehicles without first figuring out where the steel and aluminum in their cars comes from. GM is helping move the world towards electric vehicles, but the materials that make up those vehicles are currently made with coal.”
“As the largest American auto company, GM has a unique opportunity to push its suppliers to shift to clean energy. Right now, GM is still a lemon when it comes to climate action, but it has shown it can change.”
“Cleaning up the materials that go into making its cars should also allow GM to tackle some serious human rights issues in its supply chain. There’s simply no reason an American company should be using aluminum or steel that comes from forced Uyghur labor in China.”
