Nissan has long understood the importance of being a responsible part of the global community and practicing more efficient means of manufacturing to reduce our carbon footprint. With initiatives like NESCO (Nissan Energy Saving Collaboration), which seeks to provide a “symbiosis of people, vehicles and nature,” Nissan is well on its way to doing its part to reduce CO2 emissions.
The last decade has been particularly successful for Nissan’s environmental initiatives. With changes being made in plants from Japan to China to Mexico and around the world, Nissan Motor Co. has managed to lower their emissions of CO2 by an astronomical 22.4 percent. There are a variety of factors that have led to that success, with some of the most significant including increasing their use of recycled material, particularly in new car models, greater use of renewable power sources and the increase in the production of electric vehicles.
While most auto manufacturers have made strides in reducing their carbon footprints – and we certainly applaud that success across the industry – the Carbon Disclosure Project found Nissan to be the best performing auto company in terms of reduced CO2 emissions. Nissan has beaten their own already-ambitious carbon footprint goals.
Nissan Chief Sustainability Officer Hitochi Kawaguchi has made clear that Nissan’s Green Program is a high priority for the company and that they have no intention of being content with the progress already made. According to Kawaguchi, the aim is to continue making strides in environmental progress. Key ways that will be accomplished are by improving Nissan’s already impressive fuel economy, continuing to promote electric vehicles and making use of recycled materials when possible. He further emphasizes that the effort to reduce the global footprint is company-wide, encompassing the efforts of all of Nissan’s partners and employees.
NESCO is an important component in the company’s efforts and is used to measure the loss of energy at Nissan plants in an effort to help Nissan gain insight on how to prevent energy loss, leading to more efficient means of production. Special focuses of the NESCO team include increasing recycled material usage and making improvements to the way water is used and preserved during the manufacturing process.
Nissan’s Green Program was launched in 2002. The current iteration, NGP2016, had the ambitious goal of slashing emissions and improving the consumption of resources by 2016. Some of the measures taken to accomplish this included increased use of solar power (Nissan had already been making significant use of wind power). Over 31,000 vehicles per year are manufactured using solar power.
Currently, at our Sunderland Plant, wind and solar power provides 7 percent of the plant’s power usage. While we believe there is still room for improvement, that amounts to an enormous reduction in our company’s environmental impact. Our manufacturing facilities in Mexico have also significantly increased their usage of renewable energy. Biomass and wind currently provides half of the energy used at one Mexican plant and has since 2013. Even our oldest plants in Japan – some of which have been operating since 1933 – have doubled their use of clean energy.
These days, everyone is concerned about environmental concerns, and they should be. But Nissan was a forerunner, tackling environmental issues long before most automakers jumped on board. We will continue to promote low and zero-emissions vehicles while continuing to improve the efficiency of our manufacturing processes, offering programs like our “No Charge to Charge” program which makes electric vehicles more attractive by providing free charging stations in major cities. We will also continue to improve the design of both electric and fuel-consuming vehicles, providing better value to our customers while also ensuring that their children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy the planet that we all share.
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
Connect with us
