Automotive News - August 11, 2008 - (Page 36h) 36H • AUGUST 11, 2008 INSIGHT Are greenfield factories really green? New plants reduce lands for crops, wildlife, critics say Harry Stoffer hstoffer@crain.com In a few weeks, Civic sedans will start rolling off the line at Honda Motor Co.’s new assembly plant near Greensburg, Ind. Less than two years ago, the site was green with crops of corn and beans. The dramatic transformation of 1,700 acres of fertile Midwest farmland into an industrial complex came with barely a whiff of public protest, says John Richards, a commissioner of Decatur County, Ind. The county is home to about 25,000 people — and now Honda Manufacturing of Indiana. Most people thought that “what everybody was going to benefit far outweighed what they were going to lose,” Richards said in a telephone interview. But environmental and farmland preservation groups, among others, tell Automotive News that the calculation, while understandable, is shortsighted and unwise. They say that automakers’ site selection decisions often contribute to the sprawl that is gobbling up irreplaceable green spaces. These are places Toyota’s assembly plant near Princeton, Ind., formerly was farmland that produced crops of corn and beans. that produce food, harbor wildlife and offset the emissions from human activities that cause global warming. past 25 years. Most were on greenfield sites in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas. General Motors contributed to the trend with its Saturn plant in Tennessee and Lansing Delta plant in Michigan. Ironically, the same import-brand automakers that have been spreading plants across rural and small-town areas have been widely credited with building fuel-efficient vehicles and developing environmentally sensitive production processes and facilities. Take Toyota Motor Corp. It gets kudos from consumers for its highmileage Prius sedan. But in the past quarter century, Toyota has poured more concrete over more farmland to build on more greenfield sites than any other automaker — 12 of them. see PLANTS, Page 36I Land misuse policies The criticism hits hardest at import brand automakers, which have built nearly all the new plants during the Toyota stands by decisions to build U.S. plants on greenfield sites In the small towns of northwestern Pennsylvania where Dennis Cuneo grew up, homes were close enough to factories for his father and grandfather to walk to their jobs. Cuneo and his daredevil boyhood friends rode their sleds down the snowy street to a busy railroad crossing, he recalls. As charming as all that sounds, the former high-level Toyota executive doesn’t believe Americans again are willing to have heavy manufacturing close to residential neighborhoods — and some would sue to stop it. There are “potential liability problems, both real and imagined,” he says. So, despite growing societal interest in smart growth and preservation of green spaces to combat climate change, Toyota stands by its decisions on U.S. plant locations, he tells Automotive News. Dennis Cuneo: “If you’ve got some very toxic stuff in that soil and in the groundwater, you don’t want to have people working above that.” In the past quarter century, Toyota Motor Corp. has built on more greenfield sites than any other automaker — 12 of them. As senior vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. and then of Toyota Motor North America Inc., Cuneo had a big hand in some of those decisions. He continues as an adviser to Toyota. Cuneo and other executives like to say Toyota’s first U.S. assembly plant — its joint venture with General Motors in Fremont, Calif. — was a brownfield site. They have considered brownfields elsewhere. The candidates included the former military base near Chattanooga, Tenn., that Volkswagen AG chose last month as the location of its U.S. plant. But brownfields are challenging, even if the government indemnifies new owners for past contamination. “If you’ve got some very toxic stuff in that soil and in the groundwater, you don’t want to have people working above that,” Cuneo says. “It’s a key issue.” At the same time, he says, Toyota is sensitive to greenfield development, avoiding locations where residents object and providing environmental offsets in others. In Mississippi, for example, to compensate for a new plant on a formerly wooded site, Cuneo says, “There are going to be 500,000 trees planted throughout the state.” — Harry Stoffer Toyota executives have considered building U.S. plants on brownfield sites, including the former military base near Chattanooga, Tenn., that Volkswagen AG chose last month as the location of its U.S. assembly plant, shown in this artist’s representation. http://WWW.ANX.COM http://WWW.ANX.COM
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