Facilities in Ohio and Canada are Honda's latest LEED(R)-certified "green buildings"
TORRANCE, Calif., Sep 28, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Honda Engineering North America, Inc.'s Powertrain Division in Anna, Ohio, and Honda Canada, Inc.'s new head office in Markham, Ontario, have each earned LEED "green-building" certification, bringing to eleven the number of LEED-certified Honda facilities in North America, the most LEED-certified buildings of any automaker. Honda Engineering North America's Anna facility has earned LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, while Honda Canada's head office has earned LEED-Gold certification from the Canada Green Building Council.
Honda Engineering North America's Powertrain Division, in Anna, Ohio, provides manufacturing tooling design and engineering support for the production of engines at the adjacent Anna Engine Plant, the largest automobile engine plant in Honda's global production network.
"Our environmental efforts extend well beyond the products we make and include the facilities that support Honda's manufacturing, R&D, sales and service operations across North America," said David Strelow, facilities manager for the Anna Engine Plant, who was involved in the construction of the new facility. "This is part and parcel of our commitment to being good neighbors in the communities where we do business and good stewards of the environment and our finite natural resources."
During construction of the expanded facility, the company used locally sourced materials where possible and diverted more than 185 cubic yards of construction material from landfills, recycling or reusing more than 50 percent of total construction materials. The expanded facility is now equipped with cool-roof materials, more energy-efficient lighting controls and advanced indoor-air-quality management systems.
Water conservation measures in the facility include the use of low-flow toilets and bathroom fixtures, which have reduced the building's water use by approximately 30 percent from earlier levels. Annual CO2 emissions from the facility have been cut by approximately 470,000 pounds.
"In order to serve the needs of Honda manufacturing facilities, we needed additional engineering resources," said Mark Starrett of Honda Engineering North America's Powertrain Division. "While building out these new capabilities, we also identified an opportunity to further Honda's environmental goals and to reduce our environmental footprint."
Honda Canada's new 138,000-square-foot head office, one of three buildings on the company's 53-acre campus in Markham, Ontario, utilizes a north-south orientation along with an energy efficient underfloor air-distribution system and a heat-reflective white roof to reduce energy consumption. Innovative water management at the new facility has reduced potable water consumption by 44 percent, compared to the company's previous facility. Also, landscape design provides for on-site storm water treatment through the use of bioswales and water collection. During construction of the campus, the company used locally sourced materials where possible, and diverted construction material from landfills, recycling or reusing 75 percent of total construction materials.
"Honda's environmental vision is to help preserve the global environment for generations to come, and includes broad-based efforts to minimize our company's environmental footprint" said Jerry Chenkin, executive vice president, Honda Canada. "Achieving LEED-Gold certification for our facility in Markham demonstrates our commitment to this vision."
Honda has been steadily expanding its portfolio of LEED-certified green buildings in North America since 1999, when the company's Gresham, Oregon, parts warehouse and service training facility became the first mixed-use industrial building in America to achieve LEED-Gold EB (Existing Building) certification.
In addition to the new Markham, Ontario, and Anna, Ohio, facilities, the company's green building portfolio in North America includes:
-- American Honda parts warehouse and training facility in Gresham, Oregon, now LEED-Platinum certified
-- American Honda data center in Longmont, Colorado, the first LEED-Version 2.2. Silver-certified data center in the U.S.
-- American Honda parts consolidation center in Troy, Ohio (LEED-Gold);
-- American Honda Finance Corp.'s Mid-Atlantic Region facility in Wilmington, Delaware (LEED-Gold CI for Commercial Interiors)
-- Honda R&D Americas, Inc.'s Acura Design Studio in Torrance, California; its Marine Engine Research Facility in Grant-Valkaria, Florida; and its central plant facility in Raymond, Ohio (all LEED-Gold)
-- Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC's welcome center at its auto plant in Greensburg, Indiana (LEED)
-- Honda Aircraft Company, Inc.'s world headquarters, R&D facility and the home of the HondaJet very light jet, in Greensboro, North Carolina (LEED-Gold)
Green building features at Honda facilities in the U.S. include such items as conservation easements; low-flow bathroom and kitchen fixtures; more energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning systems, lamps and lighting controls; Energy Star-rated appliances; cool roof materials; and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Honda Engineering North America
Honda Engineering North America, Inc. (EGA) researches, designs and develops manufacturing equipment and tooling for use in Honda production plants. EGA maintains facilities near Honda plants in Marysville and Anna, Ohio; in Lincoln, Alabama; and in Alliston, Ontario, Canada.
Honda Canada
Honda Canada, Inc., was founded in 1969 and currently employs more than 15,000 people across the country. Honda Canada has produced more than 5 million cars and trucks since 1986. Honda's two auto plants in Alliston, Ontario, produce the popular Civic Coupe, Sedan and Si models along with the Acura CSX, ZDX and MDX. An adjacent engine plant produces fuel-efficient 4-cylinder engines for Civic. Honda Canada has invested more than $2.6 billion in Canada and each year it sources nearly $1.1 billion in goods and services from Canadian suppliers. Honda Canada has sold more than 3.4 million Honda and Acura passenger cars and light-duty trucks in Canada.
U.S. Green Building Council
The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for the nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. With a community comprising 79 local affiliates, 16,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 155,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, the USGBC leads a diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.
Honda Environmental Leadership
Honda is a leader in the development of leading-edge technologies to improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, including vehicles powered by advanced gasoline engines and natural gas-powered engines, as well as gasoline-electric hybrid, battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles. Honda's comprehensive portfolio of advanced environmental products includes Honda CIGS thin-film solar cells, now being installed in select Honda facilities in the U.S. and Japan, and a solar-powered hydrogen refueling station on its campus in Torrance, CA, intended for refueling of fuel cell electric vehicles such as the FCX Clarity.
Honda has led the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) rankings of overall vehicle environmental performance since 2000, and a Honda vehicle has topped the list of America's greenest vehicles, from the America Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), for eleven consecutive years.
In 2006, Honda became the first automaker to announce voluntary CO2 emissions reduction targets for its global fleet of automobile, powersports and power equipment products and its global network of manufacturing plants. Today, the company is striving for even greater reductions in CO2 emissions that contribute to global climate change, while also working to minimize waste, water use and the total environmental footprint of its operations worldwide.
Wait, what? Well this was no ordinary parade. Sure, it had all those things, but the occasion wasn't Thanksgiving or Memorial Day. It was another milestone altogether: Joe LoCicero hit one million miles on his 1990 Honda Accord. It's been an event that people have been monitoring on millionmilejoe.com. You see, while the average driver clocks around 14,000 miles on the odometer every year, LoCicero does more than four times that. He started keeping track when he reached 300,000 miles, so when he hit the big seven digits, it was a cause for celebration. So Joe's town of Saco, Maine, put together a surprise parade, complete with an airplane banner and a float with a giant odometer made up of six people spinning giant hamster wheels. And at the end, Miss Maine herself gave Joe the keys to a brand-new 2012 Accord, courtesy of American Honda. Nice work if you can get it. 
