Head of Nissan's eMotor Production Pledges Zero Waste at Home and Work

DECHERD, Tenn. – It isn't everyday that you find a 30-year-old engineer leading a first-of-its-kind sustainability project for one of the world's leading automotive brands.

Coral Kanies, manager of electric motor production at Nissan, has a personal passion for sustainable living. Her penchant to live sustainably is just one of the reasons that she was selected to lead the team tasked with producing Nissan's first-ever U.S.-built fully electric motor and she's given herself an ambitious goal: to recycle 100 percent of what is used in the production of Nissan's forthcoming eMotor.

Kanies has plenty of practice recycling waste. Her home is built almost completely from recycled materials. Using scrap materials other homebuilders deemed waste, Kanies built her small, but efficient home outside of Franklin, Tenn. using old doors and fixtures, as well as locally harvested wood from Tennessee.

"Coral is very passionate about the environment and taking care of our natural resources. It's in her heart and that's not something you take notes and learn," said Decherd plant manager Rick Youngblood. "She is an outside the box thinker which works well when tasked with bringing LEAF's new motor to life."

Kanies attributes her unique, fiercely sustainable point of view to her progressive parents. Her father is a bamboo farmer, and her mother, "Tye Dye Mary," is a renowned local artist in middle Tennessee. Kanies says her parents taught her to think about how her actions affect the bigger picture.

"I take pride in knowing that Nissan is committed to zero emissions leadership and that I'm helping them reach that goal," said Kanies. "I immediately sort and reuse materials at home and we are taking this same approach with the production of the eMotor." said Kanies.

Nissan's eMotor will soon be built in Decherd, Tennessee, and will power the next generation 2013 Nissan LEAF.

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