Nissan wants to talk about more than a way to drive at its soon-to-be-finished headquarters in North America.
The Japanese automaker is showing off "green" features of the US$100 million project as a kind of image signpost for car and truck buyers increasingly focused on environmental concerns.
The 10-story, S-shaped, headquarters opens in July, eventually for approximately 1,500 employees. Nissan North America, which increased annual sales by 4.5 percent to more than 1 million vehicles and a market share of 6.6 percent last year, is moving about 32km from a Nashville high-rise to a 20-hectare campus with a restored wetland.
PHOTO: AP
After relocating to the south from southern California, Nissan's own facilities engineers developed the headquarters with features aimed at showing a concern for the environment beyond stretching miles per gallon and cutting exhaust emissions.
A sci-fi sounding "light harvesting system" automatically dims or turns off interior lights in the 43,000m2 of offices. Sun shades outside -- sort of like reflective visors -- with computer-designed blades direct sunlight to reduce glare and heat in the southern summer.
Air conditioning and heat are controlled through outlets at each work station.
"You heat the people and not the space," said Rob Traynham, the company's director of corporate services.
Nissan engineers say the headquarters should consume about 35 percent less energy than a conventionally designed building. Citing fluctuating energy costs, the company declined to estimate how long it will take for savings in energy bills to offset the cost of the environmental features.
Outside the glass-covered building, Nissan is restoring a 1 hectare wetland. Tens of thousands of native Tennessee plants, including iris, button bush and rushes, are already growing there.
And there's greenery almost everywhere else on space that would have been paved if not for a parking deck tucked at one end of the 100m-long building.
David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan, says carmakers share a zeal to show customers they are "green" on and off the road and a new headquarters is a good place to show their commitment.
"Particularly in the current environment, where it is much more fashionable to be green in everything you do, that's a big deal," Cole said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he