Yamaha Adopts Green Aluminum for Motorcycles
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has recently signed an agreement with an aluminium ingot supplier to procure green aluminium, which it has started to use as a raw material for parts in its motorcycles since February 2023.
This marks the first time that green aluminium is being used in Japanese motorcycles, and the company aims to increase its usage in future models.
"Green aluminium" refers to aluminium that has been refined using renewable energy sources, resulting in lower CO2 emissions during production. Aluminium components typically make up 12-31% of a motorcycle's total weight, making the adoption of green aluminium an effective approach for reducing CO2 emissions in the raw material manufacturing stage of the product life cycle (classified as Scope 3 Category 1 emissions for supply chains).
Yamaha Motor has been actively promoting the use of recycled aluminium, which now accounts for around 80% of the company's aluminium usage, through the development of its engineering and production technologies and expertise.
The addition of green aluminium is intended to complement this effort and will be utilised for parts that cannot be produced using recycled materials. Initially, Yamaha Motor will incorporate green aluminium into certain components of its large-displacement and off-road competition motorcycles, with plans to expand its use to other models as supply volumes increase.
Yamaha Motor Group's Environmental Plan 2050 outlines the company's objective to achieve carbon neutrality (emissions as a direct result of business activities (Scope 1 and 2) and emissions outside of these (Scope 3)) across all its business operations, including the entire supply chain, by 2050.
To accomplish this, the company aims to transition to 100% sustainable materials, such as plant-derived resin materials, recyclable polypropylene, and green materials, for its motorcycles produced in Japan and internationally. These measures are part of the company's efforts to promote the use of recycled materials and reduce its environmental impact.
Source: Yamaha
