American Honda earns gong from MIT group
Honda in the US has met and exceeded self-imposed environmental targets -- a result validated by a respected scientific bodyHonda's North American operation has released its sixth annual report detailing its environmental footprint across the US and Canada. The report also outlines the company's endeavours at minimising its adverse effects on the region's environment.
It's a strategy that's paying dividends in kudos, too, with American Honda taking the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) award for 'Greenest Automaker' for the fifth consecutive year. UCS, a nonprofit advocacy group founded 40 years ago in the science faculties of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), based the award on assessments of eight automakers contributing 92 per cent of US vehicle sales in 2008.
Rankings were based on real-world environmental performance, lending equal weight to average per-mile smog and global warming emissions of each maker's entire fleet of vehicles. The lower the participants limboed in beneath an industry average score defined as 100, the greener they were. Honda came in at 86, making it 14 per cent cleaner than the other car manufacturers combined.
The North American operation is tracking well according to its internal environmental audit and scorecard, too. The latest report reveals progress on a number of fronts...
- The company's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) for MY2009 rose to 31.3 mpg (7.5L/100km), a 3.3 per cent improvement on MY2008, and up 7.2 per cent on MY2005. This, the report says, exceeds the company's self-imposed target of a five per cent increase in 2010 CAFE levels over MY2005.
- A concerted effort to reduce waste to landfills from manufacturing continues to pay off, with waste down 65 per cent year on year and 87 per cent from the project's inauguration in FY2001. With a target of all 14 Honda plants in North America achieving zero waste to landfill by April 2011, eight have made it so far.
- Total energy consumption for manufacturing is down eight per cent on MY2008, although GFC-induced reductions in production volumes has seen energy consumption per vehicle produced rise 2.4 per cent year on year.
- Average manufacturing plant CO2 emissions per unit produced rose one per cent -- creditable considering an eight per cent drop in production volume.
- The company rolled out 'intelligent' paint booth technology across all its North America plants, cutting energy consumption in its paint booths by up to 25 per cent. It also managed to cut emissions of volatile organic compounds from its paint booths by 9.8 per cent from FY2008 levels. At 13.8 g/m2, this comes well inside Honda's target of 20 grams/m2.
- The North American Purchasing Division launched an initiative to cut CO2 emissions wherever possible along its entire supply chain. In-house, this saw it consolidate its parts distribution business into two new centres at its Ohio and South Carolina plants. It estimates this will cut parts shipment CO2 emissions by about 1,300 tonnes a year. The company anticipates a new port facility in Richmond, California, will help cut truck travel by about 4.3 million kilometres a year, reducing CO2 emissions in turn by about 4500 tonnes annually.
Future reports will doubtless highlight benefits from the recent arrival of the hybrid Insight and CR-Z models; from the PHEV the company has announced will arrive in the US in 2012; and eventually, perhaps, from the FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell car (pictured), currently on trial through lease programs in the US and Japan.
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