Honda claims leadership in 'greening' Formula One
Tue 27 February 2007
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Honda's Formula One team has announced that its 2007 car, the RA107, is replacing all commercial logos with a giant image of the earth. Honda says this gesture has great power to raise environmental awareness amongst over 150 million race viewers. Honda says that it is "to rewrite the rule book in terms of sponsorship and communication, while drawing attention to one of the greatest challenges facing the world – climate change and environmental responsibility".
Following the launch at London’s Natural History Museum, Nick Fry, Chief Executive of Honda Racing, said: "Climate change is probably the single biggest issue facing the global community and F1 is not immune from it...The FIA (Motor Sport's governing body) recognises the opportunity for F1 not only to raise awareness, but also to showcase innovative technologies for the benefit of society for the long term. For example, by 2009, devices for energy recovery will be in place on the cars.”
Honda says that its Formula One team has already started to investigate ways to make a difference in-house at its factory in Brackley and is working towards "becoming a carbon positive organisation". It says that a raft of new initiatives have been introduced following an environmental audit by a carbon emission consultancy.
Some environmental groups were unimpressed by Honda Racing's announcement. Aat Peterse of Transport and Environment (T&E) said: "We're not sure what painting an F1 car green will do for the planet - but it sounds rather like the definition of greenwash. What we do know from our own research is that Honda is far from reaching its EU fuel efficiency target for new cars sold. In other words, we'd rather they concentrated a bit harder on the day job."
T&E estimates that a Formula One car emits around 1500g/km of CO2. This compares with the voluntary target for the average new car of 140g/km that Honda and other Japanese manufacturers committed to reach by 2009.
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