The Panasonic corporate slogan is "the company must contribute to society through its business as a public entity," and from that basis it is pretty clear that management must take the global environment into consideration.
Under our mid-term management plan for 2007-09, in addition to revenue and profit targets, we have also established three "eco idea" strategies designed to make a contribution to the global environment. These are eco ideas for products, eco ideas for manufacturing, and eco ideas for everybody, everywhere.
We are seeing real results: in manufacturing, for example, CO2 emissions by Panasonic overall dropped by about 500,000 tons, from 3.98 million tons in fiscal 2006 to 3.47 million tons in fiscal 2008. I think that the idea of ecological awareness will continue to gain credibility as a basis for management.
Production dropped after the "Lehman shock" in fiscal 2008, and no doubt some people will claim this is responsible for the CO2 emissions cut. While total emissions were reduced by about 500,000 tons, however, only about 80,000 tons of that was due to manufacturing cutbacks. The remaining 420,000 tons was the result of creative thinking and hard work at our production points worldwide.
We have installed meters, gauges and such on plant equipment to prevent waste. If there is a leak in a compressed air line, for example, the compressor will operate more frequently. By fixing that leak and making similar, small improvements globally, we were able to reduce total CO2 emissions.
We still face a very tough economic environment, but the economy is gradually improving. That will mean more manufacturing activity for us, but we hope to continue to reduce CO2 emissions through measures including a review of our logistics operations and expanded use of teleconferencing. There is an infinite number of ideas out there.
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