Kristen Siemen

As the Vice President of Sustainable Workplaces and the Chief Sustainability Officer at General Motors, Kristen Sieman is responsible for driving the company’s sustainability strategy into all aspects of the business. She also heads up GM’s energy procurement, traditional environmental work and all construction and facility management. 

Recently celebrated in Sustainability Magazine’s Top 100 Women 2024, Sieman has spent the last 30 years at GM. An innovative titan of the sustainable automotive space, she shared her expert insight on the panel The Future of Electric Cars in a Net Zero World at Net Zero LIVE London 2024 and previously delivered a keynote address at Sustainability LIVE New York 2023.

Please introduce GM’s sustainability and electrification journey 

General Motors set some pretty bold goals back in 2021. Our first goals were to be carbon neutral in our products and operations by 2040, and to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty US vehicles by 2035. We originally aimed to power 100% of our US sites with renewable energy by 2050, but we’re proud to be on track to achieve that by 2025, a full 25 years early, and we’re on track to meet our global target of 60% globally by 2035. We’ve done a lot of work on sustainable materials, energy efficiency and water efficiency – for us, it is about driving sustainability into all aspects of our business.

GM is working towards carbon neutrality in its global products and operations by 2040. How does carbon neutrality play into GM’s wider sustainability strategy?

The biggest part of our carbon footprint at General Motors is the customer usage of our vehicles, so we are focussed on making the transition to electric vehicles, which will reduce our carbon footprint the most. With that said, part of that is also ensuring that those electric vehicles are ultimately charged with green energy. 

The work that we're doing is not only on reducing energy usage in our own facilities and our transition to renewables, but also collaborations with organisations like the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance, that really helps make this transition a reality.

There's a number of other things that we need to work on: partnerships with our suppliers and their own decarbonisation strategies, clearly logistics and all of the other aspects of our footprint, but we're trying to do everything we can on what we control, whilst influencing and collaborating on the areas that we can't do by ourselves.

As Chief Sustainability Officer, how do you engage the wider business with the sustainability strategy and how does it connect with GM’s business strategy?

I've been with GM for almost 30 years, mostly spent in product development. As an engineer by degree, I grew up in the electrical space and have worked in a number of the different areas of the company. So I'm very fortunate to understand our business, what it takes to build a sustainability strategy and what it takes to put a product into production. Starting from the design phase, we consider things like designing for disassembly and designing for recycling, choosing the right sustainable materials, working with our purchasing partners to make sure that we're procuring what we need for the future. My ultimate goal would be that we have sustainability weaved into our culture just as much as we have safety and quality. Sustainability is not a choice – it really is part of our business strategy.

How does renewable energy fit into GM’s wider sustainability strategy?

Having reliable access to enough energy for consumers is extremely important and making the transition to a green future and decarbonising the grid is extremely important. 

The US has a very ageing infrastructure, so as that transition occurs we need to make sure that we're focused on making it green so that consumers can really get the benefit.

What is the First Movers Coalition and why did GM join?

The First Movers Coalition is about collaborating and sending a supply signal to the industry that there's a demand and that we really need to make decisions. GM signed on for concrete, cement, steel and aluminium – all areas where there's a lot of progress being made, but more can be done. 

By collaborating with peers across many industries and showing that there's demand for green products and the green transition, I think is encouraging sectors to accelerate their transition even faster. We want to be part of that solution.

Why is sustainability important to you personally? 

I'm an engineer by degree and engineers are trained to solve problems. Frankly, there's no bigger problem that we have than climate change and how we can make sure that our company is resilient to all of those outside factors. 

I'm also a mum of three boys and I want to make sure that their future is as bright as possible. I believe that an incredibly important part of that is ensuring that we leave a green and sustainable planet for them and their children.

What are you most proud of achieving in your role as CSO at GM?

I've been with GM for a long time, so I can come up with a number of things that I'm proud of! 

I've seen our company embrace sustainability. I've seen it weaved into our business, to our culture and our objectives, and really become seen as an opportunity for growth and value for the company. 

Sustainable decisions are not just good decisions from a sustainability standpoint, they're good business decisions, and anything we can do to make the future of EVs a reality is something that we can all be proud of.

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