The
World Environment Day is just another day at the Nissan Technical Center North
America (NTCNA). Everything that is done here, has an element of green in it. Inside,
a thermal ice storage system efficiently reduces greenhouse gas emissions and
lowers costs. Translucent skylights energise employees and simultaneously
reduce energy consumption, helping trap heat on cold days. In the summer, white
roofs provide the opposite effect, cooling the building. Outside, a massive
recycling centre salvages unused plastics, aluminum, steel, wood, cardboard and
other vehicle parts no longer in use, while in the parking lot sits the only
public electrical vehicle charging stations in Farmington Hills.
Now,
if that is not a great green initiative, then what is? As they say at the
technical centre, at NTCNA, every day is Earth Day. “We encourage every one of
our 1,200 employees to be environmentally conscious on a day-to-day basis,
while always keeping an eye on what we can do to improve,” said Kunio Nakaguro,
senior vice president, Research and Development, Nissan North America. ”For
Nissan, Earth Day is a celebration of what we do on a daily basis to ensure
we’re saving energy and avoiding unnecessary pollution, and we take pride in
this accomplishment,” he added.
Just
yards in front of the facility – which houses production engineering, research
and testing, purchasing, quality and administration – the campus pond conserves
water and aids irrigation. Not far is the organic garden, a beneficiary of the
irrigation system, where employees plant vegetables each spring and donate the
finished product to a local charity. Employees are also encouraged to carpool
to work, evidenced by a line of “Car Pool Only” parking spots at the front of
the company lot.
The
brains behind many of the employee initiatives is the NTCNA “Green Team,” a
group of 22 company employees who meet monthly to brainstorm green ideas. For
Earth Day, the team organised a “Zero Waste Lunch” with a goal of recycling or
composting every bit of leftover components.
NTCNA undertakes several initiative in its ‘Green’ direction. Unusable
wood pallets and old tyre are chipped and made into mulch. Wheels and other
metals are turned into various auto parts and other products. Usable computer
parts are refurbished and reused, while unusable parts are broken down and
recycled. Recycled cardboard is converted into paper for brown paper bags.
These are just a few. A lot more initiatives are undertaken at this centre.
Source: Nissan