Nissan Goes Green in a Big Way for 2016

The automaker has reduced its CO2 emissions by an impressive 22.4% compared to 2005

In 2011, Nissan announced the Nissan Green Program 2016, a set of goals that exemplified the automaker's environmental philosophy. One of the Program's main pillars was cutting the corporate carbon footprint, specifically, trying to reduce the CO2 released by the production of vehicles. The goal was to to reduce that footprint by 20% by 2016 (compared to the automaker's 2005 numbers). By the end of its 2014 fiscal year, Nissan had done just that: reduced its CO2 emissions by 22.4%.

Here at Hall Nissan Virginia Beach, we know that Nissan is dedicated to its environmental philosophy of "A Symbiosis of People, Vehicle, and Nature". Whether it's promoting zero-emission vehicles (like the IDS concept vehicle pictured above) or saving energy at its manufacturing plants, Nissan is doing its part to go green, and it's succeeding in a big way. One of the big keys to its success is NESCO (Nissan Energy Saving COllaboration), a way for Nissan to monitor energy usage at its plants and see where changes need to be made.

Take the automaker's Yokohama plant in Japan, for example. The induction furnaces there, which heat metal to be forged into engine parts, use 87% of the manufacturing line's electricity. Before NESCO, every induction furnace used the same sized coil for material of different diameters, wasting energy. After the NESCO team made their recommendations (use different sizes of coils based on the diameter of the materials), the plant was able to reduce 380 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Nissan has NESCO teams operating in 11 countries, and thanks to the changes proposed by those teams, the automaker reduced CO2 emissions by 331,184 tons from 2005 - June 2015, equivalent to the amount of CO2 recycled by 23,656,000 cedar trees in that time.

As Hitoshi Kawaguchi, Nissan chief sustainability officer, says:

We aim to deliver further environmental progress in addition to promoting all electric vehicles and pursuing efficiency, on energy and resource diversity, efficiency and recycling in the current year, as part of the Nissan Green Program. This reflects the continued efforts of all Nissan employees and partners, in line with our mid-term corporate objectives.

To learn more about everything Nissan's doing to save energy, or to test-drive one of our energy-efficient Nissan models for yourself, don't hesitate to call, contact us online, or stop by and see us in person at 3757 Bonney Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452 today.

Image Credit: Nissan