2011/09/28

Honda Canada headquarters office earns LEED-Gold Green-Building certification

HONDA CANADA – Honda Canada announced that it has received LEED Canada -Gold green-building certification from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) for its new headquarters office in Markham, Ontario. Completed in May 2010, the facility is Honda's eleventh LEED-certified building in North America. This achievement puts Honda in the lead with the most 'green' buildings of any auto manufacturer on the continent.

"Honda's environmental vision is to help preserve the global environment for generations to come, and includes broad-based efforts to minimize our company's environmental footprint," said Jerry Chenkin, executive vice president, Honda Canada Inc. "Achieving LEED-Gold certification for our facility in Markham demonstrates our commitment to this vision."

The four-story, 138,000-sq.-ft. office building is one of three buildings on Honda Canada's 54-acre campus. The other two buildings include a Parts Distribution Centre and Technical Building. The campus is now home to about 500 Honda Canada associates and represents an investment of nearly $100 million (land and buildings only).

"The campus was designed with extra care to limit the ecological impact, keeping LEED-certification top of mind," said Gordon Stratford, director of design, HOK Canada. "Employee health and comfort were particularly important. Workstations are no more than eight metres from natural light and views. Thermostats throughout the building give tightly-zoned control over airflow and temperature; materials and finishes are low-VOC. All these features are recognized by the LEED system."

During construction of the campus, the company used locally sourced materials where possible, and diverted construction material from landfills, recycling or reusing 75 per cent of total construction materials. By incorporating energy-saving features such as north-south building orientation and a heat-reflective white roof, Honda Canada's head office uses 33 per cent less energy than that of a traditional office building of the same size. Through innovative site water management, potable water consumption in the facility has been reduced by 44 per cent compared to the LEED baseline and rainwater is collected and stored for use in the campus' irrigation system.

Additional green building features of the campus include an energy-efficient underfloor air distribution system and a parking lot outfitted with bio-filters that filter rainwater before it is released into the public sewer system.

"There were many environmental elements to consider throughout the design and construction process," said Mr. Chenkin. "It was definitely worth the investment to have a highly efficient office that Honda can call home in Canada."

In addition to the LEED-Gold certification of Honda Canada's headquarters office, Honda Engineering America's Powertrain Division in Anna, Ohio, also recently earned LEED Version 2.2 Silver certification. The facility provides manufacturing tooling design and engineering support for the production of engines at the adjacent Anna Engine Plant, the largest automobile engine plant in Honda's global production network.

Honda introduced a global environmental slogan that draws directly from Honda's environmental heritage - "Blue Skies for Our Children" - as an expression of the company's proactive commitment to make progress in its environmental efforts on a global basis. With this slogan, Honda will strive to become the leader in the area of environmental and energy technologies. The new global environmental slogan and symbol will be used with Honda's internal and external environmental activities and communications around the world.