Nonitage

Japanese multinational giant Canon Electronics Inc. will transfer its United States headquarters from Lake Success to Melville, Long Island. But it won’t just put together brick and mortar. The project will utilize energy-efficient material.

Coming soon in 2010, Canon’s green nerve center will sit on a 52-acre farmland in LI, where it will be the biggest of its kind. The headquarters will be a verdant space of trees and vegetation crisscrossed by walking trails. Occupying 690,000 square feet — a third of the total land area, will be five-story structures of every environmentalist’s dream. The main office will feature a cavernous inner courtyard, designed to optimize daylight.

For its efforts, the firm will receive a silver ranking from the USGBC’s finicky Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Given that Canon is a world-famous maker of cameras, lenses, printers, photocopiers, fax machines, camcorders, and such, some people might be tempted to suspect its carbon footprint.

There should be nothing of that sort.

Quite the contrary, Canon was hailed last year as the most climate-friendly company by Clean Air-Cool Planet, a nonprofit group.

Certainly enough, any impact Canon has made on the environment would just be a microcosm compared to, say, Royal Dutch Shell’s or Chevron’s. No amount of green buildings will ever compensate for the carbon emissions sold by such companies. On the other hand, Canon sells to shutterbugs, scientists, and everyone else keen on exposing global warming as it really is.

CEMEX air quality commitment is shown in the company’s Ohio plant.

CEMEX is committed to improving air quality.

Cemex California was recently recognized for land stewardship.