Honda Release Environmental Report

Honda have released their fourth annual North American Environmental Report that you can read online. But why should you care?

It’s a report that (almost) regardless of content I’m very pleased a vehicle manufacturer produces. They are quite proud of it, in fact sending me a copy and asking for my opinion on it. Besides making me feel special (along with hundreds of others no doubt) it is actually quite interesting. Admittedly I haven’t read many others to compare it to but it’s an easy read. Divided into three sections, it gets good in section three – Reducing Honda’s Environmental Footprint. Admittedly corporate rhetoric and unnecessary language is abound but these days I found myself getting used to it a little too easily.

Clearly the best thing Honda could do for the environment is stop producing cars. However that’s not a practical or realistic solution, and while I found the Powersports vehicles section strangely amusing there have been some nice advances made, and planned for the future (from the parts I read at least). Some points that Honda were keen to highlight if you don’t want to read it yourself:

- The U.S. corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) for model year 2007 Honda and Acura cars and light trucks rose to 29.5 miles per gallon, the highest level in five years, based in part on the expanded application of fuel-efficient technologies like i-VTEC® variable valve control for 4- and 6-cylinder engines, and second-generation VCM™ (Variable Cylinder Management™) for V-6 engines.

- Three Honda facilities in North America attained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in FY2008, joining two existing green buildings. Three additional facilities – two in the United States and one in Canada – will seek LEED certification in FY2009.

- An industry-high 81% of automobile were shipped by rail, the most fuel-efficient means of product transportation. CO2 emissions from automobile transport were reduced by 5,493 metric tons through the use of more fuel-efficient Auto-Max rail cars.

- A $7 million renovation of Honda’s Ohio product distribution center improved efficiency and reduced consumption of diesel fuel by more than 500,000 gallons.

- Promotion of “green factory” practices to more than 650 North American OEM supplier partners helped lead 85% of suppliers to be third-party certified to ISO 14001 environmental management standards in FY2008, up from 80% in the previous fiscal year.

You can read Honda’s North American Environmental Report report here.

Green Cars and Green Claims – Part 2

This is part two of a three-part series. For the first part go here, or follow this link for all Detroit Auto Show 2008 articles.

Toyota

Toyota is well known for their Prius, but this is a purpose built hybrid, not an exisiting model with a hybrid option. They hope to have all models with a hybrid option by 2020, however seem to be falling behind the competition in this respect, perhaps as a result of resting on the success of the Prius. They will have 400 demonstration plug-in hybrids by 2010 but not models for sale. It plans to offer diesel engines on the Tundra and Sequioa, though these are still pretty inefficient vehicles.

Their stand was made of eco-friendly materials and incorporated energy efficient elements such as using LEDs. They also unveiled the Toyota A-BAT concept runs on the same hybrid powertrain as the Prius (below left), and had an excellent cutaway of a fuel cell hybrid, demonstrating how it worked (below right).

Lexus didn’t have much of a green angle (like most of the luxury manufacturers) with only their RX 400 SUV on show, to my eye at least.

Ferrari

Yes, even the great gas guzzler Ferrari had a F430 Spider bio fuel vehicle on display, even though it’s just a concept. It runs on E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline for those who don’t know), and has actually slightly more horsepower than the current version.

Honda

Honda have the Accord ES is a “near zero” emission vehicle yet I don’t know whether it was because I was tired or they hadn’t yet put all the vehicles out for the public show, but I couldn’t find one on display.
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