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.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
WARNING SHOT: The US president has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imported vehicles, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that a trade deal with China was “possible” — a key target in the US leader’s tariffs policy. The US in 2020 had already agreed to “a great trade deal with China” and a new deal was “possible,” Trump said. Trump said he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit the US, without giving a timeline for his trip. Trump also said that he was talking to China about TikTok, as the US seeks to broker a sale of the popular app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動). Trump last week said that he had
RSS