Business & Education News - December 22, 2004

Honda named greenest brand

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has ranked Honda as the 2004 “Greenest Automaker” and dubbed General Motors “Public Polluter #1” in a report that compares vehicle emissions of the six largest U.S. auto manufacturers. The nonprofit research group’s analysis found that Honda vehicles sold in 2003 emitted less than half of the industry’s average smog-forming pollutants and only 82% of the average greenhouse gases. UCS says that auto manufacturers spend more than $18 billion annually on advertising in an attempt to persuade buyers that their vehicles are environmentally sound. But “when the rubber meets the road, only Honda really stands out,” says the report’s coauthor, David Friedman. He claims that every automaker has the technology to improve environmental performance but that they fail to modernize because upgrading cuts into profits. The full report is available at www.ucsusa.org/documents/autorankings2004.pdf.