HONDA

Our environmental commitment

Determined to be the world's most environmentally
responsible global automotive manufacturer

As the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines, Honda has long accepted that minimizing the impact of our operations and the usage of our products upon our world's increasingly fragile environment is our overriding responsibility to our customers and society.

Honda has been leading the world in developing and manufacturing ever-cleaner and more fuel-efficient internal combustion engines since the early 1970s when our CVCC low-emission engine became the first in the world to comply with the U.S. Clean Air Act

In 1992 we articulated our commitment to conserving resources and minimizing our impact on the global environment in the Honda Environmental Statement which said that

"as a responsible member of society whose task lies in the preservation of the global environment, the company will make every effort to contribute to human health and the preservation of the global environment in each phase of its corporate activity. Only in this way will we be able to count on a successful future not only for our company, but for the entire world."

In 1999 Honda became the first global automotive manufacturer, and to date the only one, to establish its own numerical targets to lower the exhaust emissions and improve the fuel economy of its products. Our performance in meeting these targets is reported in the annual environmental report along with detailed information about our production system which we intend to have the smallest environmental footprint in the world. (http://world.honda.com/environment)

Honda sets its own environmental performance targets for its manufacturing systems and products because it recognizes that national and international environmental regulatory regimes tend to lag behind what is technologically feasible. For Honda, going beyond regulatory requirements to the ever-expanding limits of the possible is the only way to meet our environmental responsibilities.

In early 2002 Honda established its Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) system which assesses and analyses the measurable environmental impact of our corporate activities today using fiscal year 2000 data as a baseline.

The areas of corporate activity and major policies being implemented to reduce their environmental load in all Honda's operations around the world are as follows:

Honda LCA chart. Click for enlarge