For the ninth consecutive year, two of Honda's Ohio automobile manufacturing plants have earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) ENERGY STAR certification, while Honda Manufacturing of Indiana achieved the designation for the third year in a row.
The ENERGY STAR certification signifies that the facilities perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meet strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. On average, ENERGY STAR certified plants consume 35 percent less energy and contribute 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than similar non-certified operations.
"Every Honda facility makes special efforts every day to improve the energy efficiency of our manufacturing operations, as we continually strive to reduce the environmental impact of our operations," said Karen Heyob, who leads Honda's environmental sustainability initiatives in North America. "This culture is only achieved by involving every associate in the process, not just delegating the task to certain specialists. When everyone on the job is considering energy efficiency and how they can help the environment, progress is more quickly achieved."
Despite earning eight consecutive ENERGY STAR certifications, Honda of America Mfg.'s auto assembly plants in Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio both continued to find new and innovative ways to conserve energy in 2014. The Marysville plant used LED lighting when constructing a new 138,000-square foot consolidation center and began installing the infrastructure of a groundbreaking new process to use hydrogen fuel cells on its tow motors and fork lifts. The East Liberty plant also installed new LED lighting and also began replacing its 1350-ton chillers with high-efficiency units.
Honda Manufacturing of Indiana LLC, which at six years of operation is Honda's newest plant in the United States, has been ENERGY STAR certified for each of the last three years. The plant, located in Greensburg, Indiana, has been focusing on tracking non-core energy use through a real-time energy monitoring program that allows associates to identify equipment that can be turned off during breaks or between production shifts. All departments at the plant now use a website that shows them how they are performing against their energy targets.
ENERGY STAR was introduced by EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. Today, the ENERGY STAR label can be found on more than 70 different kinds of products, 1.4 million new homes, and 20,000 commercial buildings and industrial plants that meet strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the EPA. Over the past twenty years, American families and businesses have saved more than $239 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 1.9 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions with help from ENERGY STAR.
For more information about ENERGY STAR Certification for Industrial Facilities: www.energystar.gov/labeledbuildings.
About Honda
Based on its vision of "Blue Skies for our Children," Honda is working to advance technologies that address society's environmental and energy concerns through a diverse lineup of products and technologies, including more fuel-efficient gasoline engines, natural gas, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
Today, Honda is targeting a 30-percent reduction in CO2 emissions from its U.S. automobile product lineup by 2020, compared to 2000 levels. In pursuit of its vision for a zero-carbon future, the company is advancing electromotive technologies in many forms, and will introduce an advanced new fuel cell car in 2015.
In keeping with its commitment to produce vehicles with the lowest CO2 emissions at plants with the smallest environmental footprint, the company is broadly addressing emissions, energy, water use and waste in all phases of its products life cycles. In the manufacturing realm, this includes a 95 percent reduction in waste sent to landfills in North America. Honda is working to extend its "green factory" and "green purchasing" initiatives to its more than 650 parts suppliers in North America and is also pursuing more environmentally responsible business practices among its U.S. dealers.
Honda is also demonstrating its vision for zero-carbon mobility and living with the creation of the Honda Smart Home US, in Davis, California, which was opened in early 2014 and is designed to operate with half the energy use and CO2 emissions of a typical home in that region.
