Announcer: Welcome to business l three 60 with Kristi K, where we get to know thought lea and innovators, trends and impac in the world of business and we see firsthand how busines and life have evolved.

And now helping us all learn, le and grow is our host, Kristi K. Kristi K.: Welcome to Business Live three 60.

I'm your host, Kristi K. On this episode, we're learning about actions we can all take for environmental sustainability.

And we'll focus on clean air, water and land.

It goes without saying.

Daly.

Many of us enjoy clean drinking water in our homes, breathing cl taking a scenic drive or a boat ride to view and play in our most magnificent parks, lakes and beaches.

Yet, if we as corporate leaders, owners and citizens don't right consistently and intentionally c to taking action to sustain our our waters.

Those things that we take for granted and enjoy today coul as we know them.

The time is now There are organizations and individuals such as those will meet on this The US Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, the head General Motors global sustainabi manager in Detroit, Michigan, and the CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes in Chicago, Each has goals to develop systemic solutions to stop the environmental declin meet the challenge of a clean en So kick back, relax and come along with me.

Let's learn together this is business life.

Three 60.

Announcer: Businesslike.

Three 60 with kristi K. is made possible by Medica, a local Joan nationally recogniz not for profit health care netwo That has a strong commitment to clinical excellence, providin high quality patient care and ad social issues that impact health The John B and Lillian NF College of Business and Innov at the University of Toledo, dev lifelong leaders for the world o and by the Greater Toledo commun Foundation, also by viewers like Thank You.

Kristi K.: With me now on This Business Life three is someone who has a never stop and an acute focus on initiatives and challen affecting our water, air and lan I welcome the longest serving wo in the history of the United Sta of Representatives, U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur joining us from Washington.

D.C.. Congresswoman Kaptur, welcome to Business Live three 6 It's always a pleasure and an honor to be in your prese Thanks for being here.

So let's dove in and talk about the Great Lakes region for decad There are eight states surrounding the five Great Lakes have accumulated, shall we say, environmental chan Congresswoman Kaptur, and frankly, the state of our wa our land and our air is maybe not so heal So rather than enduring a steady you have introduced and champion and a comprehensive that can truly help change that.

So if you would, can you encapsu for us the Great Lakes Authority and give us a little more detail on its mission.

Marcy Kaptur: We are in the fres kingdom of the world.

And but what's happened over the years, because of increasing population because of industrial pollution, because of agricultural runoff?

What's happened to Lake Erie in particular, because it's the of all the Great Lakes, is that we have more algal bloom that are making themselves felt year after year after year.

The waters are warming, which induces more growth.

And the existing programs like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which we've been abl to place up a little bit in the simply isn't enough to deal with the accumulated environment that cities like Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee.

Every single one of them have for environmental mandates with And so we have formed something in the form of legislation right that we hope to make the law to place an umbrella over our re not a real umbrella, but a development umbrella that would permit us to relieve some of the debt of our communit that have the responsibility for producing clean water for their citizenry, as well as a mechanism to deal with region improvements, both environmental as well as ec Kristi K.: Have we abandoned our environment in the past and really now we're kind of doing the catching And are we too late?

Marcy Kaptur: Kristi, that's a really good question.

And the answer is in the past hundred years, maybe people didn't realize what they were doing.

They had a kind of a heady human that no matter what they did, you know, nature would forgive t Well, it doesn't.

So whether you have polluted sites and Lucky Ohio that leach fresh waters or into the streams that are even underground in our or you have rivers like the Blac that flows into Lake Erie through Lorain County.

That was a major Superfund site.

It was a major area of concern.

And it has taken over a decade.

We've been at this now for many I think people were careless or they didn't know what people that if they breathed in diesel they wouldn't get cancer wrong.

Kristi K.: So do you see this then, Congresswoman Kaptur, something that will help our nat water supply?

Or do you think that it's really in jeopardy at this point Marcy Kaptur: It definitely will And it will help us install new technology.

And I think depending on the man in which we do it, we also will create revenue streams to help t In other words, it won't be a si It will actually be a public pri sector partnership that will help us retool our reg Kristi K.: Later in the show, we have the head of global sustainability from General Moto who's coming on.

And I wanted to ask you, Congres Kaptur, if in fact, you've seen corporations and businesses in t Lakes region rising to the occas in terms of fostering, innovating for cleaner power, reducing carbon emissions, electric vehicles.

What is your experience, Ben?

Marcy Kaptur: We are at the dawn of a new energy age, and we see General Motors, we see it in Stellantis Fiat, we see it in Fo We see them investing not millions, billions of dollar That's with a B in new technolog We are now working with Energy H to build a hydrogen hub.

We just hope we can be successfu and draw down national funds in order to make it larger as we move into new fuels, fuels like hydrogen that we're not heavily used in t But we are working very, very hard on ethanol and biodies We had our first truck come through a class, a truck th powered by ethanol, which is a b to all of our farmers in the reg We are looking at biodiesel crop that we can reproduce, that do not pollute the land or pollute the water, but move America into a renewable energy age.

In the automotive and trucking i they're looking at various techn right now because they don't kno which one will be the best for t We think hydrogen fuel cells wil first be used on the big trucks before they're reduced to the smaller vehicles and so f And of course, with the electric stations and the new electric ve that are being manufactured by all of the automotive compani now, they are they are moving into a new era.

But I'll tell you something, if you go to the Toledo History you will see some of the work th they've done and the displays th One of the first electric cars, battery powered cars, was produced in Toledo, Oh by Milburn Wagon Works before the First World War over 100 years ago.

So people were already thinking then if I could have a race in all the regions of the United we are young mechanics and our young machinists to have them build a race car powered by new fuels right I would do it in a heartbeat.

I've been talking about that in and urging the next generation to help us build the cars.

That will be the cars of the fut Don't be wed to the 21st century Move into the 21st century with a robust energy.

And I hope that this will happen around the country.

Kristi K.: Congresswoman Kaptur, when you're with us on business three 60, you get to participate in quick to help our viewers and listener get to know you better.

We're coming back to you at the end of the show to hear more from you on Quick H Our next guest is focused on the energy side of General Mo the Global Automotive Manufactur Corporation headquartered in Det Michigan.

Rob Throe called is the global m of sustainable energy for Genera which is now focused on an all electric future.

Welcome to Business Live.

Three Rob Threlkeld: Thanks, Christine I'm looking forward to our conve today for sure.

Kristi K.: So, Rob, now more than ever, corporations are to develop and implement energy efficient o So as kind of an old powerhouse industry manufacturer.

Operationally speaking, how has GM shifted and rolled ou a sustainable energy platforms specifically as it ties to the manufacturing process its and plant emissions?

Rob Threlkeld: Yeah, that's a great question.

And we've really been focused you know, on our energy efficien within our facilities, whether i energy savings program implement which is kind of our funding mec to drive energy efficiency effor into our facilities.

Or focus even on the new technol that's coming out and how fast some of the technology is changi And I remember back in the day when we had our overhead factory lights, we transition those to fluorescent lights and now to LEDs on the last mass it just last 15 years.

And so it's really understanding what technology is on the horizo figuring out how we implement it and then ultimately fund that so that we can drive efficiency into our operations.

Kristi K.: Mm hmm.

And drilling down then what goal set that are tied to air quality And how do you benchmark that or the percentage of impact that GM is having on air quality And can you actually quantify th Rob Threlkeld: Yes, we've got a goal to reduce by 35% the energy intensity of our operations by 20, 35.

Some of the ways that we actually look at that and we we've implemented this year working with a company called Ti and the regional transmission op PJM, which runs a lot of the grid within the wel I should say mid-Atlantic all the way to the Midwest.

If you look at our Ohio operatio a real time carbon tracking.

And really what that means is that at any point in time we understand what the carbon footprint of our facilities are.

And with that, we can then deter how do we efficiently operate those facilities with the renewa that we've got coming to our fac as well as just the overall operations of the plant so that we can make decisions of how to reduce the overall car footprint going forward.

And then taking some of that inf and understanding how we can then transition the facility to operate more eff going forward in the future.

Kristi K.: General Motors President Mary Barra has announc General Motors will become carbo and global products and operatio transitioning to 100% zero tailp emissions for new light duty vehicles by 2 and general Motors also is planning to introduce 30 or more electric vehicle models by the year of 2035.

So tell us more about this.

Rob Threlkeld: So yeah this is g We have been very aggressive in this space and electrificatio it obviously goes back to the Vo that launched.

You know it really part of the l to the Volt that launched made t half of the last decade as well as you noted 30 electric vehicle or potentially more.

You never know as we move forwar aggressively in the electrificat investing over $35 billion as you noted in this sector.

And so it's really it's exciting and really just just to see the broader transformation as a as we go through our facilities Kind of the earlier conversation of the energy efficiency compone where now we've announced severa our facilities are going to beco our electric vehicle hubs, wheth our Detroit Factory Zero facilit at Hamtramck and Detroit, Michig to Springfield, Tennessee, that' and just really launched last we the Cadillac Lyriq to the Orient Assembly plant just north of Detroit that's goi producing electric vehicles as w and making significant investmen not only in the products, but in our facilities to be able to transform our futu Kristi K.: So when we look at the big picture of energy, pa in the corporate automotive worl which is of course your expertiz in the US and global corporate environments, what do you deem t the greatest challenge that you Is it speed to market, for examp Rob Threlkeld: I would say speed market is a good one, but the sp that the change has to happen kn if you think about the automobil and really the utility sector as it's been that way for 100 years When you think about the big dis fossil generation plants, you drive down the highway, you see the smokestacks, you see the power plants.

Similarly, as you're driving you it's all been that way for 30 ye The efficiencies improved on the and miles per gallon, but it's now the transition to really moving from a pipeline that you move the fluids to fill your vehicle today to th that are ultimately charge your going forward into the future.

Kristi K.: List for us some of General Motors initiativ pillars kind of what you adhere and how you set these huge sort corporate strategies to impact c as it relates to environmental i Rob Threlkeld: A great question and one way I would actually loo that is in 2016 we did announce to get all of our manufacturing operations by 2050 to be 100% renewable ele Fast forward as costs have come you know as we thought about our a lot differently.

Know we've now accelerated that to be 100% renewable electricity in the United States by 2025 and globally 2035.

And how we're going to accomplis that is really a plethora of por solutions whether it's it's it's really across four pillars it's is energy efficiency as we talke you know pillar two is sourcing renewables.

We've sourced a significant amou of renewables from our utility p across a number of states or don some of our own purchasing of re through power purchase agreement including one in northwest Ohio.

That's just down the road from our Defiance Casting Mentio and transmission facility to pil which is energy storage.

Addressing the intermittency that renewables do bring to the grid and finding so that allow it to operate and dri in resiliency and pillar forward gets to our earlier comment arou around policy and scale.

How do we leverage the scale of General Motors to help move t arena faster by leveraging the w that we do with some of the asso like the Clean Energy Buyers All that we're actually going to be hosting in Detroit, which has been probably be nearl some of the largest energy buyer in the United States from a renewable energy standpoi some of the largest renewable energy developers.

So how do we leverage that scale to move the industry forward?

Kristi K.: Terrific.

Now, as we look to the future, reducing carbon emissions, moving to cleaner, fresher air quality and decarbonizing th General Motors is an American and global company committed to clean energy and sustainable transportation for the long term For that, we thank you.

Rob Doyl Thanks for sharing your sustaina knowledge with us and all that you do at General M We appreciate it here on busines 30.

60.

Great.

Thanks for having Kristi K.: So pleased to welcome our next g He's the president and CEO of th for the Great Lakes.

Joel Brockmire, headquartered in Illinois, is with an organizatio that's focused on the protection the waters in the Great Lakes si Joel welcome so nice to have you here on busi three 60 and we have so much to Joel Brammeier: Very glad to be Kristi K.: So let's start with the big picture of the five inspiring Great Lakes.

How much freshwater do they have and how much surface do they cov Joel Brammeier: So this is the most incredible u freshwater system in the world.

In fact, there's so much water in the Great Lakes region that i drinking water to more than 40 m people in the United States and There's really no where else in where this many people live this close to this much easily accessible f So it's pretty incredible.

And it's a big place to the Great Lakes region, if you think about it as coverin states, two provinces and two co from Duluth, Minnesota, in the f west to Montreal on the Saint La River is more than a thousand mi And the freshwater system keeps even after that.

So it's enormous.

It serves tens of millions of pe and it's really just a globally unique resource that is very much worth protecti Kristi K.: Absolutely.

Now, what about those who work n the Great Lakes?

Do you have any quantification on businesses and those who are working along those kind of those borders?

Joel Brammeier: So historically, the Great Lakes economy is really built on three It's it's agriculture, it's manu and it's tourism.

The last one is the one I enjoy because I get to get outside and enjoy the Great Lakes but re these big parts of the Great Lak are just critically important to the present and the future of th So there's been a lot of economi on the Great Lakes over the last couple of centuries, and we've felt the impacts.

You know, frankly, there's been pollution and damage done to the We're in the process of cleaning and kind of rebooting what it me a business oriented near the Gre and making this a very attractiv and welcoming place for people who are here now and for who may want to come here in the Kristi K.: So talk to us a little bit more about those bu that you previously brought up a the Great Lakes.

Has there been initiative or reg to curtail the toxic runoff at the end of their pipes and the things that they've historically been doing and kind of dumping into the Gre Joel Brammeier: Well, often when people think about pollutio the first thing they think of is the end of a pipe.

And so here in the Great Lakes r there's a pretty incredible industrial legacy.

You know, we manufactured steel for the co You know, we see it manufactured cars for the countr And that legacy brought with it a lot of economic vitality.

It also brought with it a lot of environmental damage.

And so much of the pollution that went into the lakes as a re of that manufacturing legacy sat there for decades in hot spots of pollution at the bottom and harbors and lakes across the And fortunately, after many deca a lot of that pollution is in th of being cleaned up.

And a lot of the manufacturers that are still here are pretty tightly regulated in to being a manufacturing hub.

We are an incredible center for farming here in the Great Lakes because of gr and easy access to fresh water that's relatively cheap for farm With that, though, comes overload of fertilizer and manure that gets washed off the land and washed into the wat And unfortunately, that leads to blooms, some of which can be tox some so toxic that in 2014 a who areas, Toledo's drinking water system was actually shut d because it couldn't supply safe nontoxic drinking water to its r And that was a big wake up call for the region.

We're kind of in this process of cleaning up the old pollution from the 20th century manufactur and then realize we actually sti always provide safe drinking water to our residents because o algal blooms and pollution from That was a big red flag, as are the other challenges you mention Kristi K.: So as we talk about that inciden how far have we come since then in terms of making adjustments and enhancements and assuring, if you will, that that will neve again to our drinking water?

Joel Brammeier: A couple of things have happened We've realized how widespread th toxic algae bloom problem is.

It's not just a Lake Erie proble but it's happening across the Great Lakes region in big and small.

So Green Bay, Saginaw Bay, upstate New York and lots of oth water bodies throughout the Grea Lakes are experiencing these alg There's still a lot of work to b and a need for more, more resources and but also more protections and re Kristi K.: Well, let's shift gears and talk now about invasiv that are in the Great Lakes righ So in terms of invasive species, how did they get into the Great Lakes in the first pla And how do we get them out of th or do we get them out of there?

Joel Brammeier: Unfortunately, since the 19th century, as the r opened up to other parts of the there were more opportunities for animals and plants that can survive in freshwater and other parts of the globe to and the Great Lakes have really known as ground zero for freshwater invasions globall We care about this because invas species by definition are able to do better at breeding and fee and taking over habitats than some native fish and wildli that we really rely on.

Kristi K.: And the Alliance for the Great L your alliance, has championed advocacy campaign I know it's everything from adapting a beach clean up to reducing plastic usage and even maybe focusing on marin What are some other ways that we all do so and really contribute Joel Brammeier: Well, first, I e anybody who wants to get involve in protecting water in the great Just look around locally and fig what the big issues are there.

And I will guarantee there's going to be a group of p in your community that's working to address that.

And I also just I encourage peop contact your decision makers.

And as long as we can continue to raise up those challenges and make sure that we're address those needs across the region, I think the Great Lakes will be for being this globally unique, really incredible freshwater resource that we all in our hearts that it is.

Kristi K.: Well, thanks so much for joining us and for your expertize and all y at the Alliance for the Great La you are doing great things to protect our precious lakes.

Thanks so much for being in busi life.

Three 60.

Joel Brammeier: Thank you.

Kristi K.: Now, when you're on business day 60, we do quick hits and tha we get to know you a little bit Are you ready for this?

Marcy Kaptur: Oh, boy.

I hope so Kristi K.: Okay, Congresswoman K Here we go.

Quick Hits.

One item on your bucket list.

Marcy Kaptur: To have time to do another paint Right?

I like I like to do water Kristi K.: I was just going to a if you have downtime, what do you like to do that might be and is it painting Marcy Kaptur: That's one of them Kristi K.: One word to describe you in high Marcy Kaptur: Bookish.

Kristi K.: Your biggest pet peev Marcy Kaptur: Drivers who are un Kristi K.: Your go to song on ka Night.

Marcy Kaptur: I like John Denver I go way back and loving the sunshine, loving the mountai loving nature.

Anything like that.

Kristi K.: L What is the last sporting event you attended?

Marcy Kaptur: Probably women's b Kristi K.: Your choice career.

If you weren't a U.S. congresswo Marcy Kaptur: I'm a city and reg planner by training, and I love But I'll tell you, it has perfectly trained me for the job I have now, particularly at this point in hi Kristi K.: Well, Congresswoman Kaptur, it is alwa and wonderful to have you on our Thanks so much for being in busi Three 60, and we welcome you bac Marcy Kaptur: Thank you, Kristi Thank you very Kristi K.: Sustainability, protection, action.

If ever there was a time to educ ourselves and care enough to tak regarding the quality and sustai of our water, our air and our la It's now and we just learned som the environmental issues we urge Why proactive action matters and how we can each begin or continue to be a part of the for our health, our quality of life, our families, and for future gen That's a wrap on this episode of Life Three 60, where we meet you at the intersection of business So glad to join us.

I'm Kristie Kaye, reminding you to take action and be the ch We'll see you on the next busine Announcer: Three 60 connect with Kristi K. on LinkedIn at Kristi K. Hoffman and hear the business li Three 60 conversation on FM, 91 on Thursday mornings.

To watch previous episodes and m our Web site at Morgan.

Be three 60.

Look for Kristi K. new podcast, Business Life After Coming soon business like three 60 with Kris is made possible by her medica, a locally owned, nationally reco not for profit health care netwo that has a strong commitment to clinical excellence, providin high quality patient care and ad social issues that impact health The John B and Lilly, an in-dept of business and innovation at the University of Toledo.

Developing lifelong leaders for the world o in the Greater Toledo Community Foundation.

Also by viewers like you.

Thank