Initiatives for Preventing Global Warming Back Number (2014)
Back to Latest Initiatives for Preventing Global Warming
Basic Approach
The Minebea Group recognizes that the international issue of global warming, along with the related issues of soaring energy prices and abnormal climatic conditions, pose a significant threat to the sustainability of its business activities.
In response, each office and plant in the Minebea Group is proactively promoting energy efficiency initiatives in order to combat global warming after having completed formulating the main measures for their sites. Additionally, our Energy Conservation Promotion Committee, which is made up of representatives of all our business units, promotes the sharing of knowledge and technologies accumulated from past activities along with case studies on exemplary energy-efficient initiatives. The sharing of this wisdom among the Group's business units is bolstering the entire Group's approach to global warming prevention.
Results of FY2013 Initiatives
The Minebea Group's emissions of CO2 in FY2013 totaled 510,766 tons, 5% more than in FY2012. In terms of basic units of production, CO2 emissions declined 20% over FY2012 to 1.37 tons per million yen of production. The cause of this decrease was highly energy-efficient manufacturing activities amid strong business growth, as well as efforts taken by plants around the world to reduce CO2 emissions.
In FY2013, the Group's CO2 emissions generated from logistics operations totaled 71,148 tons, an increase of 19% compared with FY2012.
Initiatives in Office Spaces
In our office spaces, we strove to reduce CO2 emissions by thoroughly promoting casual cool business attire in the summer, minimizing lighting usage, and implementing "no-overtime days." In January 2013, we relocated the Tokyo Head Office to a new building purchased in Tokyo. At the new building and office spaces within, we are taking global-warming countermeasures and striving to raise the level of environmental consciousness.
Initiatives at Offices
Plant roof coated with heat shield paint (Hamamatsu Plant)
The roof of the Hamamatsu Plant is gradually being coated with heat shield paint in order to prevent temperatures from rising inside the plant during summer. A comparison of uncoated and coated areas of the roof found the uncoated surface temperature to reach 43.3℃ compared with a coated surface temperature of 27.0℃, reflecting the effectiveness of the paint at restraining temperature. In FY2013, 2,662㎡ of the roof was coated, reducing the generation of heat by 158,964 kcal/h, for an estimated annual cost savings of 1.3 million yen.
Portion of roof uncoated (black area on left)
Portion of roof coated with heat shield paint (white area on right)
Left: Uncoated area (43.3℃)
Right: Coated area (27.0℃)
Environment and Energy Exhibits (Thailand)
In November and December each year, Minebea Thailand promotes a travelling exhibit on the environment and energy at each of its plants to raise employee awareness on these issues.
In FY2013, the following exhibits and events were held.
- Communication boards exhibits promoting awareness of the environment, energy, food, and CSR
- Plastics invention contest
- Quiz games on the environment, energy, and CSR
- Sales of environmentally friendly products
- Distribution of books on the environment and energy
Exhibitions are held during environment and energy week
Future Issues and Goals
The Minebea Group will continue to advance itsmeasures to prevent global warming. As a medium-termgoal, by FY2015 we plan to reduce CO2 emissions perbasic unit of production by 5% compared with FY2010,or 1% annually.
In terms of long-terms goals for 2030 and 2050, wewill monitor the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) and policies in countries around theworld in formulating our initiatives.
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