Going green after 50 years and 600,000 trucks

Nissan Platinum II series forklift
 
Nissan Forklift Corp North America (NFCNA) and its parent, Nissan Motor Corp, have introduced an environmental initiative to coincide with its 50th anniversary of forklift manufacturing.

Dixie Jirak, Nissan’s senior marketing manager, told Forkliftaction.com News launching the initiative in 2007 was a “natural fit” with increasingly stringent US Environmental Protection Agency emissions regulations for engine-powered forklifts.

“Also Nissan Forklift was combining efforts with those of our automotive parent company in this pursuit.”

In January, NFCNA launched the Platinum II series of forklift engines in North America. The engines have increased fuel efficiency and release reduced emissions. Jirak says the redesign of the cylinder head and pistons helped achieve a more complete combustion while an enhanced cooling system and new electronic control systems increased fuel efficiency (Forkliftaction.com News #294).

NFCNA is working towards achieving ISO 140001 certification by March 2008 and has drafted an environmental policy. A team of Nissan Forklift experts is reviewing current manufacturing processes to identify the forklift manufacturer’s environmental impact, which will be controlled through an environmental management system. An internal audit process of Nissan’s plants will start in December 2007.

The US is Nissan’s largest overseas forklift market. Over 400 people work in the 400,000 square foot (37,161 square metre) Marengo facility, the largest of Nissan’s three forklift production operations in the world.

Recognising the company as one of Marengo’s largest employers, mayor Donald Lockhart and the city council gave Prospect Street, on which the NFCNA plant is located, the honorary name “Nissan Way”.

The first Nissan forklift was made in Japan in August 1957 and introduced to the US market in 1965 under the “Datsun” brand.

By 1984, Nissan Forklift was leading the sales of Japanese forklifts in the US. In the late 1980s, the company bought Marengo, Illinois-based Barrett Industrial Trucks. Barrett was established in 1914 and the acquisition was made to complete Nissan’s range. Nissan became the first Japanese-owned forklift company to sell all five truck classes to the North American market.

Consolidation of Barrett and Nissan was finalised in 1993 and NFCNA was established. Today, Nissan has produced over 600,000 forklifts for global distribution.

A dealer network covering about 200 locations in North and South America sell the Nissan and Barrett forklifts.

Nissan Motor’s industrial machinery division employs over 1,700 people in Japan, Europe and the US, supplying nearly 30,000 forklifts annually to over 75 countries.