RAYMOND, OH (July 13, 2006) /PRNewswire/ –The United States Green Building Council presented Honda R&D Americas Inc. (HRA) with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification—marking the first time this certification has been awarded in the state of Ohio. The 14,400-square-foot central plant facility in Raymond, OH, supplies the multi-building HRAOhioCenter with highly efficient utilities and has several innovative sustainable concepts incorporated into the construction and operation of the facility.

Honda's facility uses water and energy conservation systems as well as emissions reducing tactics. One application that helped the building achieve Gold certification is an air conditioning system that generates cool air using an ice chilling system that is a more efficient and less costly, and has the capacity to cool additional buildings in the future. In addition to energy savings, the central plant employs emissions-reducing tactics. The emergency generator, for example, is operated using bio-diesel, a plant-based renewable fuel source, which reduces emissions up to 75 percent when compared to mineral-based diesel.

"Every year we introduce new Honda and Acura models that are designed and engineered to reduce emissions and fuel consumption and to eliminate waste in the production process," said Hirohide Ikeno, president of Honda R&D Americas. "Building green facilities is another important part of Honda's environmental commitment and our effort to be a company that society wants to exist."

HRA announced in March of 2006 that it will be building a new Acura Design Studio in Torrance, CA. This building will also be constructed as a certified green facility.U.S.GreenBuilding Council and LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is the nation's foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to advance buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Driving its mission to transform the built environment is the Council's LEED Green Building Rating Systems™, which is now accessible online, and supported by a robust LEED Workshop program and LEED Professional Accreditation™ program. The LEED Rating System is a voluntary building certification program that defines high-performance green buildings, which are more environmentally responsible, healthier, and more profitable structures. LEED serves as a design guideline for green building and offers third party validation of a building's green features. LEED evaluates buildings in the following areas: sustainable sites; water efficiency; energy & atmosphere; materials & resources; and indoor environmental quality. Within these credit areas, points are available, and the level of a building’s certification depends on the number of points a project earns. There are four progressive levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.