Environment : Eco-conscious Products and Factories
Initiatives for Eco-conscious Products (Green Products)
Panasonic Group conducts an environmental assessment to evaluate the product in advance in terms of its possible detrimental effects to the environment from the development stage. In the product environmental assessment, the five environmental issues specified in the Environmental Action Guideline have been set as assessing items for the whole product life cycle.
For global warming in particular that has been a big issue these days, we are working on eco-conscious products to achieve a target set to achieve 'an impact from our emissions reductions of more than 300 million tons by 2050' under our long-term environmental vision, 'Panasonic GREEN IMPACT'.
As for CO2 emissions in our Group value chain, it is important to enhance energy-saving performance of products during product use, since most of the emissions are discharged when the products are in use. In the Energy Conservation Grand Prize 2023, Panasonic group companies won awards for three themes in the Product and Business Model category; e.g., a METI Minister's Award, which is the highest award, for the GX compatible Refrigerator 9X Series, and an award for the household air conditioners that is a three consecutive years winning following the 2021 METI Minister's Award and the 2022 ECCJ Chairperson's Award.
| Category | Award | Recipient | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product/ Business Models |
METI Minister's Award (Energy conservation field) | Panasonic Corporation Living Appliances and Solutions Company | Cloud-controlled GX compatible Refrigerator 9X Series |
| ECCJ Chairperson's Award | Panasonic Corporation Heating & Ventilation A/C Company | Development of individual air conditioning system 'Hybrid GHP' to maximize use of renewable energy. | |
| ECCJ Chairperson's Award | Panasonic Corporation Residential System Equipment Business Division, Heating & Ventilation A/C Company | 'Eolia 24XS/HX Series' air conditioner that pursues both energy conservation and user comfort |
Products Assessment System
*1 Life Cycle Assessment: Method of quantitatively assessing the environmental impact of products at each life cycle stage.
In B2B businesses that Business Divisions for Automotive Systems, Connect, Industry, and Energy that engage in, we are receiving more and more requests to provide data for our customer companies to achieve their sustainability targets.
We also conduct a carbon footprint (CFP) assessment that is a quantitative analysis and an assessment using conversion of GHG to CO2 emissions discharged from the each stage of the product life cycle upon request from our customers.
Initiatives for Eco-conscious Factories (Green Factories)
Panasonic Group We are leading Green Factories (GF) activities in its efforts to cut down the environmental load caused by manufacturing. On the assumption of compliance of laws and regulations in each factory, concretely we formulate a plan to reduce environmental loads in manufacturing activities, such as amounts of CO2 emission, generated wastes and valuables, water consumption, and discharged and transferred chemical substances, conduct Progress management for total reduction amount with intensity of discharged amount and the like, and improve the activities. Thereby, we intend to achieve reduction of environmental loads and increase of our business at the same time. In fiscal 2011, we started the GF assessment system*2 aiming to further improve GF activities by visualizing the progress status in each factory.
In addition, Panasonic Group shares information on global activities for reducing environmental loads, relevant laws and regulations, and social trends through the Manufacturing Environmental Information Sharing Group.
In Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and Latin America, we hold information exchanges and competitions on best practices by region to reduce environmental impact (presentation of awards for best practices and roll-out of good examples to other regions). By doing so, we promote GF activities suited to the issues in each region to expand and accelerate the activities.
As measures to strengthen the group-wide foundation aiming at improving the structures with energy efficiency, we have developed a BA (Before/After) chart search system to share and spread knowhow across the world on the Internet. With the system, each factory can register and share their best practices concerning managing CO2, waste, chemical substances, water, etc.
In addition to the above, in response to environmental regulations, as a new activity to further ensure regulatory compliance in our sites, particularly those in China and Southeast Asia where we have numerous productions sites, we conduct a Cross-Company Mutual Environmental Audit that is carried out by our factories located in the same region, crossing the operating company's boundary. In India, full-scale introduction of the CCMEA started in 2023. The CCMEA were carried out in our 27 sites across the world in fiscal 2023, and has been rolled out to other sites. We had continued these activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, combining online meetings taking account of infection status in different regions, and were thus able to reduce risks and improve interactive skills. As the pandemic is settling down, we conduct the CCMEA effectively utilizing both online and offline, e.g. our Group members from Japan participated in the regional on-site audits. We aim to further enhance the environmental activities by accelerating to carry out the mutual audits worldwide, and encouraging mutual learning among members through ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations, as well as utilizing expertise accumulated in our Group companies.
*2 The GF assessment system enables factories to evaluate themselves on a five-point scale across 19 environmental activity items, classified into six basic groups: emissions reduction; environmental performance enhancement; reduction activities; risk reduction; human resource development; and management. Factories then compare their self-assessment results with the results from other factories to obtain a relative assessment to identify issues to be addressed and determine corrective measures. The system was improved in fiscal 2014, in the way that items to assess could be added to the standard 19 items as required by each operating company. For example, a Company may implement tasks concerning compliance with environmental laws and compliance management to strengthen risk management in its factories. Then, in the assessment questionnaire, they can set questions with their own standard values stricter than the legal requirements, for example, for their ventilation systems or other facilities that control air and water quality.