Indiana Auto Plant (IAP) has joined a pair of Ohio Honda facilities in earning the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR certification for 2014, marking the third consecutive year that the Greensburg plant has been honored for its energy and environmental performance.
The ENERGY STAR certification signifies that the facilities perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meet strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. On average, ENERGY STAR certified plants consume 35 percent less energy and contribute 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than similar non-certified operations.
“Every Honda facility makes special efforts every day to improve the energy efficiency of our manufacturing operations, as we continually strive to reduce the environmental impact of our operations,” said Karen Heyob, who leads Honda’s environmental sustainability initiatives in North America. “This culture is only achieved by involving every associate in the process, not just delegating the task to certain specialists. When everyone on the job is considering energy efficiency and how they can help the environment, progress is more quickly achieved.”
IAP, which at six years of operation is Honda’s newest plant in the United States, has been ENERGY STAR certified for each of the last three years. The plant, located in Greensburg, has been focusing on tracking non-core energy use through a real-time energy monitoring program that allows associates to identify equipment that can be turned off during breaks or between production shifts. All departments at the plant now use a website that shows them how they are performing against their energy targets.
Despite earning eight consecutive ENERGY STAR certifications, Honda of America Mfg.‘s auto assembly plants in Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio both continued to find new and innovative ways to conserve energy in 2014. The Marysville plant used LED lighting when constructing a new 138,000-square foot consolidation center and began installing the infrastructure of a groundbreaking new process to use hydrogen fuel cells on its tow motors and fork lifts. The East Liberty plant also installed new LED lighting and also began replacing its 1350-ton chillers with high-efficiency units.
ENERGY STAR was introduced by EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. Today, the ENERGY STAR label can be found on more than 65 different kinds of products, 1.4 million new homes, and 20,000 commercial buildings and industrial plants that meet strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the EPA. Over the past twenty years, American families and businesses have saved more than $230 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions with help from ENERGY STAR.