Global Warming Mitigation: Reduction of CO2 (SCOPE 1,2) and Energy Saving
Among our efforts to mitigate climate change, we are implementing mitigation measures in line with the Japanese government and global trends in our business activities. As part of these efforts, we have set SBT (science based targets) and are promoting initiatives to reduce CO2 in order to achieve our targets. We are improving productivity and enhancing to the use of renewable energy.
As a risk of climate change, we expect tightening regulations of CO2 emissions from the use of energy. And the cost would be increased as responding to it. Accordingly, we continued to implement energy-saving activities, such as reviewing production processes and introducing energy-saving equipment when upgrading facilities, while at the Gotemba Division, adding solar power generation facilities and installing new solar power facilities in Ushio Philippines, Inc. As for the Harima Division, all electric power has been changed to renewable energy plan.
As our material issues, starting in fiscal 2021, we continue to address CO2 reduction and energy conservation as a key issue. To facilitate these investments, we introduced Internal Carbon Pricing*. By setting 5,000 yen/t-CO2, it is used for investment decisions in solar power generation facilities and energy-saving equipment. To this end, we proceed with the installation of solar power generation facilities, and we not only purchase green power certificates, which we have been doing so far, but also purchase and switch renewable energy power. In terms of energy saving activities, we have worked to improve energy use efficiency through business unit energy consumption management, but for further improvement, we will upgrade our business unit definition to match the actual situation. In addition to implementing new measures, we strive to protect the global environment through our business activities, such as reviewing our target values.
* Internal Carbon Pricing is a mechanism by which companies can put a value on their greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions in a way that drives positive change in their business.
Plans for CO2 Reduction and Power saving at sites in fiscal 2021 and beyond
| Key Issue as 4th Management Focus Plan for FY2021 |
Reduce Scope 1+2 CO2 emissions from business sites by 8% in absolute terms compared to FY2017 *. |
|---|---|
| Key Issue as 4th Management Focus Long-Term Targets |
Long-term target: Scope 1 + 2 carbon neutrality by FY2050 |
Note: The SCOPE 1 and 2 and energy saving initiatives in the 6th Environmental Action Plan were also evaluated as important issues in the materiality identification.
Therefore, we will continue to work on them as one of the themes of Focus 4 of the management from FY2021.
Initiatives for SCOPE1, 2
The Global Warming Countermeasures Committee is under the direct control of the CSR Committee, and are promoting activities to achieve SCOPE 1 and 2 targets set by the committee.
At each business site, in order to incorporate the environmental action plan into the activities of the business site, we run a PDCA cycle by utilizing the ISO system.
Breakdown of SCOPE1, 2（Fiscal 2020）
| SCOPE | SCOPE2 （Power procurement） |
SCOPE1 （Direct emission） | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | City gas | LPG | LNG | Gasoline | Light oil | Kerosene | A heavy oil | ||
| Amount of Emission(t-CO2) | 29,798 | 3,580 | 1,968 | 61 | 396 | 231 | 4 | 919 | 1 |
| Ratio to SCOPE1+2(%) | 89.3% | 10.7% | 6.4% | 0.2% | 1.2% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 2.8% | 0.0% |
Contributing to Industry Organization Activities
Ushio promotes active participation in reporting to the Carbon Disclosure Project*.
* The Carbon Disclosure Project is a project through which institutional investors collaborate and request that companies announce their strategies regarding climate change and specific greenhouse gas emissions. The Carbon Disclosure Project is also the name of the non-profit organization headquartered in London that operates the project.
Initiatives at Main Business Sites
Harima Division
The Harima Division accounts for about 37% of the Ushio Group's total CO2 emissions. The Harima Division reduced CO2 emissions by 24-CO2 in fiscal 2020 as a result of autonomous efforts such as to evaluate and reduce standby power consumption in all buildings and life tests of lamps, as well as activities to conserve energy regarding the power consumption at production facilities, to install new air-conditioning, and to restructure manufacturing lines.
Every summer and winter, Ushio cooperates with energy conservation initiatives in the Kansai region by reducing electricity usage during peak demand periods based on demand projections for production facilities and the power usage of life tests of lamps.
Gotemba Division
Since the end of June 2020, the Gotemba Division has added solar power generation to supplement 6% of the Gotemba Division's electricity consumption, reducing CO2 emissions by 350 tons per year (November 2020 to October 2021). In the future, we plan to reduce CO2 emissions by switching to LED lighting and further installation of solar power generation facilities..
Ushio Philippines, Inc.（UPI）
The solar power generation facility started operation in July 2021. In the Philippines, the amount of electricity generated varies between the rain and dry seasons, but it provides approximately 5% to 8% of Ushio Philippines' total power consumption.
Award for Excellent Plant Energy Management (Gotemba Division)
The Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry bestowed on us an award from the Director-General of the Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry in recognition of our excellent plant energy management. We had originally planned to upgrade aging constant temperature and humidity air conditioning systems. Taking a different approach, we instead installed radiators that take advantage of low-temperature industrial water at Gotemba to remove equipment waste heat. This allowed us to lower the required specifications for air conditioning systems and sharply reduce initial outlays and running costs. This also reduced CO2 emissions by 240t-CO2 annually.
