Two years ago, Honda announced its direction toward the year 2020: to provide “good products to customers with speed, affordability, and low CO2 emissions.” The Honda Environmental Vision—to realize “the joy and freedom of mobility” and “a sustainable society where people can enjoy life”—was established based on this direction. Providing the joy and freedom of mobility has been Honda’s aim in the development of personal mobility products since the company’s founding. The joy of mobility is not just the pleasure of driving your own car or motorcycle. It’s also the excitement of making discoveries and realizing dreams through the freedom of mobility. Realizing a sustainable society where people can enjoy life, on the other hand, will require us to focus corporate resources on addressing climate change and energy issues as top priorities. To realize the two components of our Environmental Vision, we will lead the industry in offering outstanding environmental and safety performance with products and technologies that proudly bear Honda’s identity.

A company society wants to exist

Last year, we undertook extensive efforts to recover and rebuild following the massive disasters that struck twice during the year: the Great East Japan Earthquake in March, and the major flooding in Thailand in October. The year provided a fresh reminder of the inherent dangers posed by nature and the importance of engaging in environmental and energy conservation activities. Honda was seriously affected by both events. Our plants in Japan implemented a three-shift schedule and rotational plant operation to meet the government’s guidelines to cut power consumption after the disaster, and our production operations around the world were forced to adjust repeatedly to limited supplies of parts from Thailand.

Nevertheless, these temporary delays had no bearing on our direction for the years leading up to 2020: to provide good products to customers with speed, affordability, and low CO2 emissions. In fact, it is more clear than ever that customers around the world prefer quality products with a strong brand identity, brought to market at reasonable prices and in a timely manner. These events have only reinforced our confidence in the direction of our management and environmental initiatives.

To be “a company that society wants to exist,” we believe Honda must be quick to offer products with low CO2 emissions that provide new value that customers worldwide want and enjoy.

Honda’s perspective on environmental issues

It is a top priority for Honda to respond to the global environmental challenges of climate change and energy issues. The repeated disasters of the previous year helped confirm this view. Improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines is essential as it contributes the most to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, said to be the primary cause of climate change. To do this we will continue to roll out high-efficiency products equipped with advanced environmental technologies. Besides greenhouse gas emissions, we also must control water use, waste, and chemicals on a global level. We will work with all of our regional operations to set ever-higher targets for reducing our environmental impacts.

Another important theme for Honda is creating a society that creates virtually zero waste and emissions by making advances in electromotive technologies. We are working to develop and expand these technologies for automobiles and motorcycles. We are also making an effort to generate our original clean energy, using photovoltaic and cogeneration systems we have developed ourselves. We will install 2.6 megawatts of solar capacity—the largest of any automotive factory in Japan—at our Yorii Plant, scheduled to begin production in 2013, and an additional 1.0 megawatts distributed across some 100 dealers in Japan by the end of fiscal 2014.

With increasing public expectations for companies to disclose their environmental footprint data, we are working to measure and disclose our environmental footprint across our value chain by expanding the Honda Life Cycle Assessment System to include what is called Scope 3 (indirect greenhouse gas emissions, excluding emissions from consolidated subsidiaries and affiliated companies). In the future, we also want to actively disclose information on biodiversity initiatives done in collaboration with local communities.