1.The Current Situation and Prevention of Global Warming
In February 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment Report. The report says, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, ……Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, …” and substantially concluded that anthropogenic global warming is now taking place. These greenhouse gases, largely the result of large scale emissions of such gases as CO2, by the industrially advanced countries, are severely affecting all of Earth's species, including mankind, and beyond that attention must be paid to the fact that they will seriously impact on the lives of future generations not yet born. Corporations that have achieved continuous economic growth over several decades must now take the initiative in becoming involved in this global issue and address the problems of “mass production,” “mass consumption” and “mass disposal.”
As countries and people around the world are step up their efforts and commence new activities to prevent global warming, Japanese companies too must adopt effective countermeasures and engage in feasible activities based on a long-term perspective. As a producer of manufacturing equipment, Shibaura Mechatronics Group has given considerable thought to the things we are able to do and the things that we must do as part of our business activities, and we fully realize that we must also take action.
2.Group Initiatives
Specific initiatives that Shibaura Mechatronics Group is embracing include activities related to our products and operations, guided by a basic policy of seeking to reduce the amount of natural resources we use in carrying out our business activities, and reducing our burden on the global environment and cutting back on the volumes of CO2 and waste we emit as a result of such activities. As a product-related approach, we hope that offering environmentally conscious products (ECP) will generate some benefits by alleviating the burdens that our customers place on the environment when using our equipment. We are endeavoring to secure improvements in our own business operations by measuring the amount of resources we use for our business activities and the volume of our emissions, and by assessing the environmental impacts of those resources and emissions.
In addition, we are advancing the implementation of new projects that utilize the various core technologies of the Group to contribute to the prevention of global warming. With the application of laser and automation technologies, Shibaura Mechatronics Group is currently pushing ahead with the development of devices for the manufacture of solar and rechargeable batteries, which will be of great benefit to the prevention of global warming.
3.Formulating Medium and Long Term Strategies
As part of our voluntary action plan for environmental initiatives, we are promoting activities that reduce our amount of CO2 emissions per unit of production output. However, in consideration of the global environment, it is also important that we reduce our CO2 emissions in absolute terms. On the basis of future changes to our business structure, Shibaura Mechatronics Group aims to draw up a plan for reducing CO2 emissions with a long-term perspective, at the same time as moving forward with efforts to curtail emissions on the level of production output.
It is no simple task for a company to change its CO2 emissions reduction target from a unit based on internal production output to one that is based on total amount (absolute volume). We are currently investigating issues such as target levels, time frames and methods, and although the installation of high efficiency equipment or the adoption of clean energies number among possible approached, we may need to implement a radical overhaul of our corporate structure, business operations, manufacturing methods and how each and every employee goes about work activities. In the future, in our environmental management, we will need to establish objectives that accurately identify what we must achieve as an individual entity in order to take our place in an ideal society. The key here is not about whether or not we have the ability to do this, but rather, whether we do it or not. Instead of continuing to employ our present business model, we must visualize an ideal society and the kind of company we want to be, based on a long-term and ultra long-term perspective. From there, we must follow an approach of backtracking to where we are now, and understand the actions we need to take. This will require us to be innovative.
The Shibaura Mechatronics Group Environmental Charter states that, “humankind has the duty to hand on the irreplaceable global environment to the next generation in a sound state.” Accordingly, we seek to show leadership in putting forward proposals and taking action. Based on this approach, Shibaura Mechatronics Group will continue to promote its long-term environmental management plan.
