Honda has released its third annual report on the company's environmental performance in North America, with a special emphasis on global warming and energy sustainability as two of the most critical environmental challenges Honda is seeking to address through its many product, manufacturing and facilities initiatives.  

The 2007 North American Environmental Report primarily covers the company's operations during the period April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007 (FY 2007).  The report looks at the environmental performance of the company's automobile, power sports and power equipment products, its 14 major manufacturing plants in North America, and the corporate activities of 15 Honda group companies in the region.  

 "We are pleased to provide this report on Honda's ongoing efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of our operations in Canada and the North American region," said Hiroshi Kobayashi, President and CEO of Honda Canada Inc.  

"As Honda's largest region in the world for automobile sales and production, North America plays an important role in contributing to our company's global initiative to advance its environmental performance."

The 2007 North American Environmental Report is available for viewing and download at www.honda.ca/HondaCorp/En.

Following are highlights of the 2007 report:

Honda and Acura Automobiles

• Honda maintained its position as a leader among North American vehicle manufacturers for best fuel efficiency of its Honda and Acura cars and trucks.
• The company has committed to the introduction of new, more efficient gasoline, gas-electric hybrid, and clean diesel powertrain technologies over the next several years.
• Fully 100 per cent of model year 2007 Honda and Acura automobiles sold in North America met or exceeded both the stringent Canadian and U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 exhaust emissions standards, without the use of fleet averaging.

• The company has applied cleaner, quieter and more efficient 4-stroke engine technology to the breadth of its North American power sports product lineup and is expanding the use of programmable fuel injection (PGM-FI) for further improvements in emissions and fuel efficiency.

• The company has applied 4-stroke engine technology to its complete North American power equipment line.

• Thirteen of the 14 major North American manufacturing plants operating during FY2007 were third-party certified to the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management standard.
• Total energy used for each automobile produced fell 4.5 per cent to 6.6 gigajoules from an FY2001 baseline of 6.9 gigajoules, due to ongoing efforts aimed at improving energy efficiency, as well as more efficient utilization of production capacity.
• Emissions of volatile organic compounds from auto body painting (accounting for roughly 60 per cent of all manufacturing-related VOC emissions) continued their decline.
• Auto-specific chemical releases, reported to the TRI and NPRI inventories for Canadian and U.S. manufacturing facilities, declined 45 per cent on a per-auto basis from FY2000 levels. Total chemical release fell 27 per cent in the same time period.
• As a result of Honda's "Green Purchasing" program, 80 per cent of Honda's more than 600 North American OEM suppliers are now third-party certified to the ISO 14001 environmental management standard.