New global slogan for Honda

Honda has adopted a global environmental slogan -- Blue Skies for Our Children -- to inspire our company to achieve new targets we have established to reduce CO2 emissions from our products and the operations that produce them. These words arouse strong emotions in Honda engineers, and take me back to a time four decades ago when the same phrase served as the rallying cry for Honda's first effort to tackle a challenging environmental issue.

I joined Honda as a young engineer in 1976. What attracted me, as with so many Honda customers and fans, was a brand that showed a can-do spirit in creating something the rest of the auto industry argued couldn't be done - a vehicle with cleaner emissions and high fuel economy that was also fun to drive.

This vehicle was the Honda Civic - and it had something else that was truly revolutionary -- CVCC engine technology, for Compound Vortex Combustion Controlled. That's a mouthful of complex engineering, but what CVCC helped create is simpler -- a lean burn engine that made Civic the first car to meet the stringent tailpipe emissions standards of the U.S. Clean Air Act without the need for after treatment of the exhaust. The Civic CVCC was also #1 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) very first list of the most fuel efficient vehicles in America.

I am excited that Honda's environmental vision to pursue the joy of mobility and a sustainable society where people can enjoy life continues to be inspired by the original rallying cry of Honda engineers - something that Honda associates throughout our company embrace on a daily basis. Once again, our effort to achieve a challenging target to reduce CO2 emissions is guided by our mission to leave "Blue Skies for Our Children.