Larry Burns - Mr. Environment for GM
#1
10-25-2007, 06:55 AM
Larry Burns - Mr. Environment for GM
I will TEMPORARILY suspend the tag line in my signature to post this thread.....It's from the October 24, 2007 New York Times (a publication that usually has little in the way of kind words for my company)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/au...l/24larry.html
Mr. Environment for General Motors
MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: October 24, 2007
DETROIT
IN a city where big personalities always make headlines, a modest engineer at General Motors may end up speaking louder than anyone.
Lawrence D. Burns, G.M.’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, has become the most visible executive at the American auto companies on green issues.
Here, Mr. Burns is to the environment what Robert A. Lutz, G.M.’s flamboyant vice chairman, is to automobiles. He has even won Mr. Lutz over to his point of view.
Speaking on the NPR program “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” earlier this year, Mr. Lutz declared the Chevrolet Volt, an experimental plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle, to be his new dream car.
That was a sweet moment for Mr. Burns, 55, who for years has championed G.M’s green efforts in a tireless and easy-to-understand way. He is eager for the company to claim a place next to Toyota as one of the world’s most environmentally conscious companies.
“Others have been telling our story for us,” Mr. Burns said. “It’s extremely important that people recognize that G.M. is part of the solution, not just part of the problem. We want to solve the problem, not just mitigate the problem.”
In a recent interview, Mr. Burns reached for a piece of paper to draw a graph that depicted the rise in gasoline use on one axis and the resulting increase in carbon dioxide emissions on the other.
If automakers did nothing, he explained, both emissions and energy consumption would continue to rise as developing countries like India and China add more vehicles.
But car companies can change consumers’ behavior by introducing vehicles that run on electricity and alternative fuels, and if customers could drive more efficiently, energy use could instead plateau at current levels, or even drop, according to the lines that Mr. Burns drew.
“We have the potential to go from gas to gasless,” he said.
Mr. Burns, who has a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, has spent his entire career at G.M., beginning in 1969.
He knows how hard it can be to persuade senior executives, particularly those with a finance background, to spend money on nature-friendly vehicles whose sales may be small, and which may not earn profits for their first, second or even third generations.
Having seen Toyota’s success with its hybrid-electric Prius, however, G.M. executives have seen the light, Mr. Burns said. In its new contract with the United Automobile Workers union, G.M. promised to make the Volt at a plant in Detroit starting around 2010.
“We’re going to build this car,” he said. “We’ve got our A-team working on it. These are some extraordinary engineers.”
Besides his patience, Mr. Burns is known for his candor about his hearing loss, a condition that an executive might ordinarily try to hide.
After going completely deaf in 1994, Mr. Burns received a cochlear implant, which restored his hearing, although he has said visitors sound like they are speaking on “a poorly tuned AM radio.”
That setback taught him to focus on what matters most. For him, that was environmentally friendly cars.
And unlike in past disappointments, Mr. Burns said he was certain he had the support of top G.M. executives, Mr. Lutz included, for his efforts. “The mind-set has changed across the board,” Mr. Burns said. “We recognize this is what needs to be done.”
Peace,
Martin
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/au...l/24larry.html
Mr. Environment for General Motors
MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: October 24, 2007
DETROIT
IN a city where big personalities always make headlines, a modest engineer at General Motors may end up speaking louder than anyone.
Lawrence D. Burns, G.M.’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, has become the most visible executive at the American auto companies on green issues.
Here, Mr. Burns is to the environment what Robert A. Lutz, G.M.’s flamboyant vice chairman, is to automobiles. He has even won Mr. Lutz over to his point of view.
Speaking on the NPR program “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” earlier this year, Mr. Lutz declared the Chevrolet Volt, an experimental plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle, to be his new dream car.
That was a sweet moment for Mr. Burns, 55, who for years has championed G.M’s green efforts in a tireless and easy-to-understand way. He is eager for the company to claim a place next to Toyota as one of the world’s most environmentally conscious companies.
“Others have been telling our story for us,” Mr. Burns said. “It’s extremely important that people recognize that G.M. is part of the solution, not just part of the problem. We want to solve the problem, not just mitigate the problem.”
In a recent interview, Mr. Burns reached for a piece of paper to draw a graph that depicted the rise in gasoline use on one axis and the resulting increase in carbon dioxide emissions on the other.
If automakers did nothing, he explained, both emissions and energy consumption would continue to rise as developing countries like India and China add more vehicles.
But car companies can change consumers’ behavior by introducing vehicles that run on electricity and alternative fuels, and if customers could drive more efficiently, energy use could instead plateau at current levels, or even drop, according to the lines that Mr. Burns drew.
“We have the potential to go from gas to gasless,” he said.
Mr. Burns, who has a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, has spent his entire career at G.M., beginning in 1969.
He knows how hard it can be to persuade senior executives, particularly those with a finance background, to spend money on nature-friendly vehicles whose sales may be small, and which may not earn profits for their first, second or even third generations.
Having seen Toyota’s success with its hybrid-electric Prius, however, G.M. executives have seen the light, Mr. Burns said. In its new contract with the United Automobile Workers union, G.M. promised to make the Volt at a plant in Detroit starting around 2010.
“We’re going to build this car,” he said. “We’ve got our A-team working on it. These are some extraordinary engineers.”
Besides his patience, Mr. Burns is known for his candor about his hearing loss, a condition that an executive might ordinarily try to hide.
After going completely deaf in 1994, Mr. Burns received a cochlear implant, which restored his hearing, although he has said visitors sound like they are speaking on “a poorly tuned AM radio.”
That setback taught him to focus on what matters most. For him, that was environmentally friendly cars.
And unlike in past disappointments, Mr. Burns said he was certain he had the support of top G.M. executives, Mr. Lutz included, for his efforts. “The mind-set has changed across the board,” Mr. Burns said. “We recognize this is what needs to be done.”
Peace,
Martin
#2
10-25-2007, 08:30 AM
Re: Larry Burns - Mr. Environment for GM
Hi Martin,
I wish Mr. Burns good luck but I wanted to share that I'm picking two of the following three:
Bob Wilson
Cheapie, Techie
. . .
In a city where big personalities always make headlines, a modest engineer at General Motors may end up speaking louder than anyone.
Lawrence D. Burns, G.M.’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, has become the most visible executive at the American auto companies on green issues.
. . .
In a city where big personalities always make headlines, a modest engineer at General Motors may end up speaking louder than anyone.
Lawrence D. Burns, G.M.’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, has become the most visible executive at the American auto companies on green issues.
. . .
- Cheapie
- Greenie
- Techie
Bob Wilson
Cheapie, Techie
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