Resources
Promotion of Circular
Economy
Promotion of Circular Economy
Alongside changes in customer lifestyles, there is a growing global trend for customers to use only specific functions of a product, rather than using or owning the whole product. In Europe, building a circular economy for sustainable economic growth has become a major economic strategy, in a move away from continuous resource consumption.
This trend is spreading around the world along with the change in customers' sense of values. In compliance with the Circular Economy Group Policy, the Panasonic Group is moving forward in efforts to promote effective utilization of resources and maximization of customer value.
The circular economy activities we promote have two aspects: 1) creation of circular economy businesses, and 2) evolution of recycling-oriented manufacturing.
In order to realize the new value of using only product functionalities, instead of using or owning the whole product, we will strive to create circular economy businesses. These include a "Sharing service", where multiple users use the same individual product, a "Product as a service" where services are fulfilled based on functions, and "Repair and Maintenance, Refurbish and Remanufacturing", where functions, values, and the lifecycle of a product are utilized in the most efficient manner by recycling or reusing the product itself or the components used in the products.
Alongside this, we continue to implement recycling-oriented manufacturing by reducing the total amount of resources used, utilizing sustainable resources, and striving towards zero waste emissions. Furthermore, we will develop recycling-oriented manufacturing to a higher level by using innovative materials and the latest digital technologies.
With all these activities, we aim to realize both "A better life" and a "Sustainable global environment" towards Panasonic GREEN IMPACT PLAN, based on an ecodesign concept which maximizes customer value in use by increasing resource efficiency at each process in design, procurement, and production.
[Concept for the Actions toward Circular Economy]
We will promote effective utilization of resources and maximization of customer value by creating circular economy business and evolving recycling-oriented manufacturing.
As specific activities, we have worked towards achieving the resource-related targets listed in GREEN IMPACT PLAN (GIP) 2024.
We are using the above concept in the transition to circular economy which include the development of new businesses and establishment of circular economy business models. Our Concept for Actions towards a Circular Economy comprises several elements. We broke down these elements according to the six major circular economy businesses based on the insights gained through actually running these businesses, and we re-established these elements as a practical business framework. As a result, we have managed to start 15 circular economy businesses by fiscal 2025. This exceeded the GREEN IMPACT PLAN (GIP) 2024 target, which aimed to establish at least 13 new circular economy business models by that year.
As for recycled resin, its cumulative usage since fiscal 2023 reached 45,000 tons in fiscal 2025.
However, this did not reach the target figure of 90,000 tons. The use of recycled resin did not spread quickly enough to meet the target due to a number of reasons, such as complications in producing resin parts that satisfy different characteristics suitable for different usages, difficulties in securing a stable supply, insufficient adaptability in production sites to use recycled resin, and a lack of recycling technologies. We plan to accelerate our efforts to address these problems and steadily increase the use of recycled resin. Still, our factory waste recycling rate in fiscal 2025 resulted in 99.2%, maintaining an above 99% level.
We will further concentrate our efforts to achieve our resource-related targets stated in GIP2024+1. In concrete, we plan to increase our circular economy businesses to 16. We also aim to increase the usage of recycled resin to at least 25,000 tons within fiscal 2026 to cover the unattained GIP2024 target.
We established the Global Circular Economy Project in April 2020, led by Panasonic Europe, with the aim to accelerate conversion of the Group's business into a circular economy model.
In 2023, the project was reorganized into a new system due to the increasing necessity of applying the principles of a circular economy throughout our business management, driven by a deepening understanding of such principles. Understanding of the principles of a circular economy penetrated through our businesses and established an important foundation to formulate the Circular Economy Group Policy in November 2023, as well as to integrate the Circular Economy business into Panasonic GREEN IMPACT.
