Honda’s Gresham, Oregon And Davenport, Iowa Facilities Earn U.S. EPA Energy Star Awards

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. today announced that its regional parts distribution centers in Gresham, Oregon, and Davenport, Iowa, each have earned a U.S. EPA Energy Star award for energy-efficient operations. The Oregon and Iowa parts centers join two Honda automobile manufacturing plants in Ohio that recently received Energy Star recognition from the U.S. EPA.

The Gresham facility, which in 1999 became the first mixed-used industrial building in America to earn LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, is one of eleven LEED-certified Honda “green buildings” in North America. The 211,000 -square-foot facility was upgraded to LEED-Platinum status in 2008, the first building in the U.S. automotive industry to reach platinum status

The Davenport, Iowa facility now utilizes more energy-efficient T8 lamps in office areas and T5 lamps with motion sensors in the warehouse. Exterior lighting is controlled by a state-of-the-art digital lighting management system connected to the building automation system. Since the completion of these upgrades, annual energy consumption at the 291,600-square-foot facility has been reduced by more than 922,000 kWh, or 31 percent, from previous levels, cutting yearly CO ₂ emissions by an estimated 766 metric tons.

Employing a number of innovative design features including rainwater harvesting, passive heating, and an air-conditioning system that can be driven by roof-mounted wind turbines, the Gresham facility also has an east-west orientation to reduce solar loading, radiant in-floor heating, and sensor-controlled lighting and air-conditioning systems that turn themselves off when people are absent. Recycled and recyclable materials are used throughout the facility. Chair seats are made from recycled seatbelts; conference table tops from crushed sunflower seeds; flooring from recycled automobile tires; and wallpaper from recycled telephone directories.

Since receiving LEED-Platinum certification in 2008, Honda has completed several projects to further reduce energy consumption at the Gresham facility. These include more energy-efficient, sensor-activated warehouse lighting; zone lighting controls in the office area; a sub-metering electricity monitoring system to track energy consumption in the warehouse, office, training center and mechanical equipment areas; and intelligent control of exterior lighting. Since 2008, average yearly energy consumption at the facility has been reduced by 384,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for a total reduction in CO ₂ emissions of approximately 150 metric tons over the past five years.

More than 2,200 individuals have toured the facility since 2002, including visitors from the Harvard Business School, the U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and General Services Administration, and various private companies, and from as far away as Japan, China and India.

1 2 3 Next › Last »