Panasonic , the brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial is known, has issued its Environmental Data Book 2008 on June 26, 2008, which summarises the company's environmental activities in the business year from April 2007 to March 2008 (FY 2008).
This report, covering the Panasonic's environmental sustainability management initiatives, has been issued annually since FY 2005 at the time of the company's annual shareholders' meeting to outline one of its two business visions - coexistence with the global environment.
The coming issue will present the progress of the past year's environmental activities in accordance to the Panasonic Eco Ideas Declaration (consisting of three Eco Ideas) announced last October.
Principal contents in Environmental Data Book 2008
Eco ideas for products
Two products out of Panasonic's environmentally-conscious Green Products (GP) category, the DVC PRO P2 Series with solid-state memory and newsgathering systems for broadcasting, and the life security home system Lifinity ECO Management System, have been certified as Super GP, while another 124 products have been certified as Superior GP. Seventy-nine of these products were selected for their high energy conservation.
In product development, Panasonic endeavours to eliminate the use of chemical substances that may harm the environment (e.g. stepping up the reduction of vinyl chloride resin in digital audiovisual products such as plasma TVs).
In addition to developing a household fuel cell co-generation system with high level of power generation efficiency and durability, the company is also implementing its lighting business strategy based on energy-conserving fluorescent light bulbs.
Panasonic intends to actively increase the models certified as Superior GP including products sold in overseas markets, while promoting efforts to obtain energy conservation labels worldwide. Especially in China, where the company acquired a record of 217 eco labels authorised by the Chinese government in FY 2008, these initiatives will be widely continued.
Eco ideas for manufacturing
Panasonic has implemented various measures to reduce CO2 emissions by 300,000 tons within a three-year period. The company has certified 254 environmentally-conscious factories as Clean Factory (CF) and achieved an 85% CF certification rate on the corporate basis.
Among its factories, the nine named below have been certified as Superior CF, four in Japan, three in China, and two in Malaysia.
- Matsushita Home Appliances Company, Cleaner Business Unit
- Motor Company, Takefu site
- Matsushita Electric Works, Kurume plant
- Panasonic Semiconductor Opto Devices
- Panasonic Ecology Systems Guangdong, Beijing Branch
- Panasonic Home Appliances (Hangzhou)
- Panasonic AVC Networks Shandong
- Panasonic AVC Networks Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
- Panasonic Communications (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
With the China Eco Project, activity targets for each factory in China have been set up to reduce CO2 emissions, chemical substance usage and water consumption. Five factories in China have now passed the government's clean production audits.
Eco ideas for everybody, everywhere
Panasonic's Household Eco-Account Book Program now has approximately 51,000 participating households. Starting November 2007, the Eco Challenge designed to select energy-efficient products has been an effective way of urging employees to purchase such products.
Panasonic aims to transform its factories in Japan into ones that are more open to and can coexist with the local communities under the concept of Eco Ideas Factory. As the first step, the Kusatsu site of Home Appliances Company has declared its environmental initiatives at Eco Ideas Factory Biwako on June 5, 2008.
The environmental exhibition, Eco Ideas World, has already been displayed in six major cities in Japan to spread the three Eco Ideas concepts. The exhibition is scheduled to commence on June 28, 2008 at New Chitose Airport where the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit will be held.
In terms of overseas activities, the company declared in September 2007 that it would support the Yellow Sea Eco Region Support Project jointly with WWF and selected eight organisations last December to be funded in the first year.
In April 2007, the company set up the China Eco Project and held the Panasonic Group China Environmental Forum in September, announcing its declaration to be an environmentally contributing company in china.
In FY 2009, Panasonic intends to accelerate regional eco projects in other areas as well. In addition, the company will actively globalise its Love the Earth Citizens (LE) Campaign, and particularly in China, promote the Household Eco-Account Book, No-driving Day, and encourage the switch to energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs.