Two wind turbines installed in Russell’s Point, Ohio, US.

Honda has installed two wind turbines at its plant in Russell’s Point, in Ohio, the US are now operational. The installation makes the plant the first major automotive manufacturing facility in the US to obtain a substantial amount of its electricity directly from wind turbines located on its property.

The turbines will produce 10,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year which equates to approximately 10 per cent of the plant’s overall electricity consumption.

These turbines are a step towards Honda’s voluntary goal to reduce the environmental impact of its products and manufacturing operations around the world, by 2020.

The goal includes a 30 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions from Honda products, and significant CO2 reductions from the company’s plants and other operations, compared with 2000 levels.

Another example of Honda’s commitment to CO2 reduction through the investment in wind power is the construction of a new automobile production plant and wind farm in Brazil, which is due to become operational in late 2014. The wind farm is expected to generate electricity equivalent to Honda’s current annual electricity consumption for automobile production in Brazil (approximately 95,000 MWh).

Honda strives to introduce low carbon manufacturing solutions across all of its plants, the best example of this is the sophisticated new automobile production plant in Yorii, Japan. Opened in July 2013 the plant has established many new technologies enabling the production of environmentally responsible products and the development of low carbon manufacturing. The Yorii plant features 2.6MW of solar panels which is the most of any automotive factory in Japan and will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 1,200 tonnes per year.

Honda’s European manufacturing plants are also working towards reducing CO2 emissions. Both the UK and Turkey automobile production plants utilise solar power to this end.