Honda’s all-conquering offroader, the CR-V, has been praised in the latest What Car? Green Awards. At the ceremony, which took place at the 2008 British International Motor Show, the Honda CR-V picked up the award for the greenest 4x4.

Despite negative public feeling towards 4x4s, sales of the low emissions CR-V continue to increase and the Honda remains at the top of the charts as the UK’s favourite SUV. The result comes in the wake of Honda’s ‘Not all 4x4s are the same’ campaign, which highlighted the fact the CR-V is cleaner and smaller than most other SUVs on the market – as well as some saloons and hatchbacks.

As well as being cleaner and smaller than other SUVs, the CR-V also has an enviable safety rating from Euro NCAP, with four stars for occupant safety, two for pedestrian and four stars for child safety.

Proving that not all 4x4s are gas-guzzling monsters, the CR-V emits just 171g/km; that’s less than many mainstream hatchbacks. The CR-V was far ahead of the Land Rover Freelander 2.2TD4 (194g/km), Nissan X-Trail 2.0dCi (190g/km) and BMW X3 2.0d SE (172g/km).