TOKYO, Japan, December 4, 2013 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today announced that the company's Saitama Factory has been honored with the 2013 Environment Minister's Award for Global Warming Prevention Activity. The awards ceremony will be held at 13:00 today at the KKR Hotel Tokyo.
The Japan Ministry of the Environment has been giving the Environment Minister's Award for Global Warming Prevention Activity since 1998 to honor individuals or groups that have made significant contributions toward preventing global warming.
The Award consists of the following five categories:
- 1)Technological Development and Commercialization
- 2)Countermeasure Technology Introduction and Dissemination
- 3)Implementation of Countermeasures
- 4)Environmental Education/Dissemination and Enlightenment
- 5)International Contribution
The proactive environmental initiatives implemented at the Yorii Plant at Saitama Factory, which became operational in July of this year, and significant outcomes from such initiatives are highly regarded under the "Countermeasure Technology Introduction and Dissemination" award category.
<Key initiatives being implemented at the Yorii Plant>
Introduction of the "Honda Smart Ecological Paint (Honda S.E. Paint)" process, the industry's first* 3-coat/2-bake painting process for all exterior paint colors:
- Through the introduction of the shorter water-based painting process, which eliminates the middle coating process from the commonly used 4-coat/3-bake painting process to create the 3-coat/2-bake process, the amount of CO2 emitted during the painting process will be reduced by approximately 40%.
Increased efficiency of energy supply and recycling of energy
- Introduction of LED lighting for 88% of all lighting used at the Yorii Plant led to the reduction of CO2 emissions by 1,520t annually.
- Introduction of a cogeneration system reduced the peak amount of electricity usage by 45% and CO2 emissions by approximately 3,000t annually.
- Applying the heat pump technology, heat that used to be wasted is being utilized effectively as a heat source for the heating unit. As a result, CO2 emissions were reduced by approximately 60% compared to the conventional boiler heat source.
- The amount of energy used for air-conditioning was reduced by approximately 40% by changing the airflow system from conventional air-conditioning of the entire indoor space to a limited space where people work.
- Introduction of a Factory Energy Management System (FEMS), which monitors energy use and facility/equipment operation, enabled a stable supply of energy and timely management of CO2 emissions, which led to the reduction of CO2.
Honda has proactively worked to solve environmental problems since the 1960s. In 1992, Honda released the Honda Environment Statement to organize and articulate the basic stance Honda had developed to reduce environmental impacts at every stage of the product life cycle. While continuing to offer environmentally-responsible products, Honda will proactively conduct various activities which contribute to the development of the local community and protection of the global environment.
- *Honda internal research