IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Nissan has
established itself as the global leader in zero emission vehicles
with more than 75,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars on the road today.
As Nissan adds plants and jobs increasing production capacity
throughout the Americas, its operations are continually getting
greener as well.
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A set of collective efforts reflects Nissan's broader global
environmental initiative, Nissan Green Program 2016, which focuses
on reducing environmental impacts of corporate activities and
pursuing harmony between resource consumption and ecology by
promoting and widening the application of innovative green
technologies, energy management and fuel-efficient vehicles.
Mexico
In
Mexico, Nissan has expanded a
green energy program so that 50 percent of the energy used by the
Aguascalientes Vehicle Assembly Plant comes from renewable sources
including wind power and landfill gas. For more than a year, the
plant has used a wind farm in southern Mexico and methane from garbage at the city
dump, which combined have cut the plant's utility costs by more
than 10 percent.
Nissan's program leverages Mexico's largest wind farm, which consists of
35 large wind turbines about 600 miles away. The wind replaces
about 5.3 million gallons of fuel oil. Nissan also currently gets
about 5 percent of its power from generators that run on methane
from a local landfill with aims to almost double that. The biogas
that is produced from the breakdown of organic matter is used as
fuel. One of the limiting factors is the availability of trash. "If
we had access to more, we'd use it," said Marco Antonio Rivera, senior manager for energy
and environment at Nissan Mexico.
The plant is looking at other renewable sources as well to
balance the mix of sources required to offset variables with
renewable energy that can't be controlled such as the wind.
Additionally, nearly 100 percent of recyclable materials at the
plant are recycled.
The green energy program will be extended to the Cuernavaca
Vehicle Assembly Plant and to the new Aguascalientes 2 assembly plant scheduled to
open later this year.
United States
Energy conservation
In the U.S., Nissan is a leader in
energy performance with three new U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® accolades on the shelf, including the
2013 Partner of the Year -- Sustained Excellence Award, the
highest honor given to select organizations that are dedicated to
protecting the environment through energy efficiency.
"Since becoming an ENERGY STAR partner in 2006, we have saved
more than 800 billion BTUs (British thermal units) in our vehicle
assembly process," said Bill
Krueger, Nissan's senior vice president of Manufacturing,
Purchasing, Production Engineering and Supply Chain Management.
"That's enough energy to power the all-electric Nissan LEAF for
more than 750 million miles."
This award closely follows two other ENERGY STAR achievements
for Nissan's powertrain plant and vehicle assembly facilities.
Nissan's powertrain plant in Decherd,
Tenn., recently achieved the EPA's ENERGY STAR Challenge for
Industry recognition for reducing the amount of energy needed to
assemble engines by 7 percent in just 12 months by investing in
more efficient equipment and establishing a compressed air leak
reduction program.
Nissan's vehicle assembly plants in Smyrna, Tenn., and Canton, Miss., were recently awarded the
ENERGY STAR Certification for the seventh year in a row, signifying
Nissan's spot among the top 25 percent of the automotive
manufacturing industry for superior energy management.
Nissan has implemented several energy-savings programs in recent
years -- including a program to identify and repair air leaks in
the Nissan Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant and the debut of a new and
more efficient paint plant in Smyrna, which brought the plant above the 75th
percentile in energy performance, according to ENERGY STAR
metrics.
Nissan debuts efficient paint plant
With the recent additions of Infiniti QX60 and Nissan LEAF, and
with production of Nissan Rogue on the way to the Nissan vehicle
assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn.,
the company has added its most advanced paint plant in the world
that sets new standards for quality, efficiency and environmental
impact. In fact, the new paint plant is capable of reducing energy
consumption by 30 percent, carbon emissions by 30 percent and
volatile organic compound (VOCs) emissions by 70 percent.
The plant uses an innovative three-wet paint process that
applies all three paint layers in succession before the vehicle
goes into the oven. Previous processes required a dehydration
process to take place between the primer application and the
topcoat layers. Implementation of this new technology reduces
energy consumption, cost and emissions while increasing production
efficiency.
"Nissan is committed to increase energy efficiency as we reduce
the environmental impact of manufacturing the highest quality
vehicles sold in North America,"
said Susan Brennan, Nissan's vice
president of Manufacturing in Smyrna. "These efforts align with our global
strategies of zero-emission leadership and corporate social
responsibility to employees, stakeholders and customers."
The plant is Nissan's "Showcase Project" as part of the
Department of Energy's Better Buildings Better Plants Challenge,
where Nissan has committed to reducing energy in its three U.S.
plants by 25 percent by 2020.
Nissan is a proud ENERGY STAR® Partner and was awarded ENERGY
STAR Partner of the Year in 2010 and 2011 and Sustained Excellence,
ENERGY STAR's highest honor, in 2012. The Smyrna plant has received the ENERGY STAR
distinction for the past 7 years.
In May 2012, Nissan's Smyrna
Vehicle Assembly Plant became the first passenger vehicle
manufacturing facility to attain ISO 50001 and Superior Energy
Performance (SEP) certifications. Accredited under the American
National Standards Institute and National Accreditation Board,
these certifications recognize the Smyrna facility as a leader in energy
management.
Brazil
Brazil builds green into
growth plans
Brazil anticipates opening its new
Resende manufacturing plant in the first half of 2014 as one of the
most sustainable facilities in the world. The plant features a
"Green Belt" that circles the entire facility and is designed to
help neutralize CO2 emissions while also reducing noise levels of
the factory for the surrounding environment. Construction of
wetlands also will help to balance the area ecosystem.
The Resende plant, which will build Nissan March and Versa when
it opens, will boast integrated production methods, modern and
efficient equipment and waste management methods that together will
significantly enhance the plant's environmental
friendliness.
Nissan also expects the new Resende plant to have the one of the
lowest rates of CO2 emissions in the world among automotive
companies. This feat will be accomplished in part by sourcing raw
material near the plant, which reduces CO2 emissions in transport.
Use of state-of-the-art equipment and production technologies
including the most modern robots will provide greater energy
efficiency. The plant's design also allows for natural light to
reduce energy use.
The plant will use water-based ink, which is more
environmentally friendly and will use ink cartridges in painting
robots, which significantly reduces the waste based on the lower
discharge of ink and solvent. The process also increases the
average efficiency of ink usage from an average today of about 30
percent and Nissan's new plant will be at 80 percent
efficiency.
Based on significant recycling and efficient use of resources,
Nissan's Resende plant is designed to achieve one of the lowest
rates of landfill use by June 2015.
The goal is to have less than 0.5 percent plant resources become
unusable waste.
The future
Nissan Green Program 2016 promotes activities not only in
development and manufacturing departments associated with the
production of automobiles, but also in sales, service and all other
departments of the company. Even with its plans to increase sales
volume globally, Nissan forecasts that through the initiative CO2
emissions from its new vehicles and corporate activities will peak
in the 2020s and then subside while the volume of new natural
resources used will be maintained at the level of the 2010s.
SOURCE Nissan Americas
