Nissan Honored by U.S. EPA for Second Consecutive Year
-- Nissan's top environmental officer receives this year's EPA award
for exceptional leadership in protecting the Earth's climate --
WASHINGTON, DC (Oct. 31, 2000) For the second consecutive year, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (NML) received top honors from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) as the recipient of the prestigious 2000 Climate Protection Award.
The individual award honors were given to Mr. Nobuo Okubo, executive vice president of NML and chairman of Nissan's Environmental Management Committee. He was given the award for his leadership in developing advanced vehicle technologies that have contributed to significant improvements in fuel economy of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, climate protection and environment protection.
The U.S. EPA presented 19 awards at the 2000 Earth Technologies Forum in Washington. The awards recognize individuals and companies that demonstrate their commitment to the environment through exceptional leadership, personal dedication and technical achievements.
"I am honored to have been selected by the EPA and an international panel of judges to receive this award," said Okubo. "The award gives tremendous encouragement to the engineers and production teams to continue in their past-breaking efforts to address the environmental impact of transportation on climate change."
Nissan's most recent and significant environmental accomplishments include:
- The first automobile manufacturer in the U.S. to install the equipment for recovery of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-12) refrigerants at all its U.S. dealerships.
- Among the first automakers worldwide to eliminate the use of CFCs as a foaming and cleaning agent in manufacturing processes.
- Nissan was the only automaker in 1997 to receive the EPA's "Best of the Best" award for protecting the stratospheric ozone layer.
- Nissan was the only automaker in 1999 to receive the EPA Climate Protection Award for its leadership in global warming, HFC reduction and fuel economy improvements.
- Nissan was one of the first automakers in 1999 to demonstrate a fuel cell vehicle with hydrogen supplied by an on-board methanol-reforming system.
- Nissan is curbing HFC emissions in Japan where there is no government regulation regarding HFCs.
- The first automobile manufacturer in the world to introduce a powertrain system combining direct-injection gasoline (DiG) engine with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The DiG-CVT technology was honored with the Energy Conservation Prize from the director general of Japan's Agency of Natural Resources and Energy.
- Development of the Nissan Sentra CA, a gasoline-fueled Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) which emits about one-fourth of the unburned hydrocarbon and one-tenth of the oxides of nitrogen as the cleanest gasoline-powered car now sold in California. The California Air Resources Board certified the technologies used in the Sentra CA last fall.
# # #
NISSAN'S ENVIRONMENTAL MILESTONES
| 1970s | Environmental Management Department established in Japan Corporate Environmental Management Rules developed Establishment of an in-house waste treatment system in Japan |
|
| 1980s | Promotion of the installation of facilities and equipment for recycling waste into reusable resources | |
| 1981 | March | Presented with Chairman's Award by the Clean Japan Center recognizing the Tochigi assembly plant's recycling efforts |
| 1989 | February | CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) Committee formed with worldwide membership |
| November | CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Committee formed with worldwide membership | |
| 1990 | June | Discontinuation of all use of CFC foaming agents |
| 1991 | June | Commercialization of an ozone-safe air-conditioning system |
| December | Nissan is the sole automaker to be presented with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award for introduction of vehicles with ozone-safe air conditioning systems | |
| 1992 | February | Bumper recycling program begun in Europe and Japan |
| April | Discontinuation of all CFCs in washing agents | |
| May | Electric Vehicle Committee established with worldwide membership | |
| 1993 | February | Environmental Management Committee established in Japan |
| October | Nissan presented with Chairman's Award by the Recycling Promotion Council recognizing Nissan's bumper recycling programs | |
| December | Cedric EV goes on sale in Japan | |
| 1994 | May | Commercialization of lean-burn engines |
| April | Nissan received third Global Environmental Award by the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan recognizing Nissan's manufacturing plants' reduction and recycling of waste into reusable resources | |
| July | Commercialization of non-CFC air conditioning retrofit kits | |
| 1995 | March | Discontinuation of all use of trichloroethane |
| June | Establishment of worldwide Environmental Network Meeting | |
| 1996 | May | Recycling Promotion Department established |
| 1997 | February | Launch of Prairie Joy EV in Japan |
| September | Only automaker to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Best of the Best" award for efforts to protect the stratospheric ozone layer | |
| 1998 | January | The Nissan Altra EV, the only electric vehicle with lithium-ion batteries, is introduced. |
| June | Commercialization of a direct-injection diesel engine (NEO Di) | |
| September | Commercialization of a direct-injection gasoline engine mated with HYPER CVT | |
| 1999 | March | Obtain ISO 14001 certification for product planning and development process |
| April | Hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle demonstration fleet begins in Japan | |
| May | Fuel-cell vehicle demonstration fleet begins in Japan | |
| September | Only automaker to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 1999 Climate Protection award for its leadership in global warming, HFC reduction and fuel economy improvements | |
| November | California Air Resources Board certified the 1.8-liter gasoline-fueled 2000 model year Sentra as the first Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle. |