EPA Names Nissan 'Best of the Best' for Ozone Protection Programs
9 September 1997
EPA Names Nissan 'Best of the Best' for Ozone Protection Programs
TORRANCE, Calif., Sept. 9 -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., a leader
in automotive industry efforts to protect the Earth's protective ozone layer,
has been honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its
ongoing, worldwide atmospheric protection programs.
Nissan will receive the EPA's first ever "Best of the Best Stratospheric
Ozone Protection Award" during a dinner Sept. 14 held to commemorate the 10th
anniversary of the Montreal Protocol. The dinner is organized by the United
Nations Environment Programme Technology and Economic Assessment Panel,
Environment Canada and the EPA.
Nissan is the only automaker which will receive the award. In 1991,
Nissan was the first automaker to receive the EPA's Annual Stratospheric Ozone
Protection Award.
"We are extremely proud to be recognized by the U.S. government for our
environmental program," said Nissan Chairman Yoshifumi Tsuji. "We believe
that as a good corporate citizen, Nissan has a responsibility to make every
effort possible to protect and improve our environment.
"This award gives us confidence that our past efforts have been on track,
and encourages us to continue to develop and implement new ways to fulfill
that responsibility," he added. Tsuji will be one of three keynote speakers
at the awards dinner in Montreal.
"We are pleased to honor Nissan with the 'Best of the Best' award, and we
are honored to have Mr. Tsuji as one of the speakers at our dinner," said Mary
D. Nichols, Assistant Administrator for the EPA's Air and Radiation Department
(November 1993 to August 1997). "Nissan has demonstrated a willingness and
ability to analyze and to move decisively on environmentally beneficial
programs."
Only past winners of the EPA's Annual Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award
were eligible for the "Best of the Best" award. Seventy corporations,
associations, military organizations and individuals were selected to receive
the award from the 320 winners of the EPA's annual award, which began in 1990.
Nissan will be recognized in Montreal for being among the first automakers
in the world to phase out ozone-damaging materials from its manufacturing
processes and its vehicles. Beginning in the 1980s, Nissan set ambitious
goals to phase out all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from air conditioning units
of its vehicles and to develop methods of recovering and recycling CFCs,
identified as a possible cause of atmospheric ozone layer depletion.
Those goals were met in the early 1990s. Nissan then expanded the program
to include elimination of ozone-depleting substances from all of its
manufacturing processes worldwide. A variety of CFCs and 1-1-1 trichoroethane
had been used as foaming agents or cleaning fluids in automotive
manufacturing. That goal also was achieved.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is the sixth-largest automaker in the world, and is
the parent company of Nissan North America, Inc.
In North America, Nissan's operations include styling, engineering,
manufacturing, sales, consumer and corporate financing, and industrial and
textile equipment. Nissan in North America employs more than 20,000 people in
the United States, Canada and Mexico, and generates more than 70,000 jobs
through more than 1,500 Nissan and Infiniti dealerships across the continent.
More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan
and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at http://www.nissan-na.com.
SOURCE Nissan Motor Corporation
