Yamaha to expand use of green aluminum
Yamaha Motor Company reached an agreement with an aluminum supplier to procure green aluminum and began using it as a raw material for motorcycle parts in February. Based off Yamaha research, this is the first time for green aluminum to be used in Japanese motorcycles and the company plans to gradually expand its usage in models going forward.
Green aluminum is aluminum that is refined using renewable energy sources to emit less CO2 in its manufacture. Aluminum parts account for 12% to 31% of the total vehicle weight of a motorcycle, so adopting green aluminum is an effective approach to reduce CO2 emissions from the raw material manufacturing part of a product’s life cycle (falls under Scope 3 Category 1 emissions for supply chains).
Through the development of its engineering and production technologies and expertise, Yamaha Motor has actively pushed the use of recycled aluminum, which now comprises about 80% of the company’s aluminum usage. The introduction of green aluminum is meant to complement this and will be employed for parts that still cannot be manufactured with recycled materials.
As a first step, Yamaha Motor will utilize green aluminum for certain parts in its large-displacement and off-road competition motorcycles, and the company plans to expand the number of models using the material in the future as available supply volumes allow.
In line with the Yamaha Motor Group Environmental Plan 2050, the company is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality throughout all its business activities—including its entire supply chain—by 2050. To realize this, the Yamaha has set a goal of switching to 100% sustainable materials by 2050, such as adopting more plant-derived resin materials, developing recyclable polypropylene and adopting green materials and other recycled materials for its motorcycles manufactured in Japan and overseas.
