CSR

[ISO 26000 Core Subject] The Environment

In fiscal 2011, in order to reduce per-unit CO₂ emissions at its production bases and offices in Japan and overseas, the Fujikura Group worked to improve its energy efficiency by 3.5% at production bases and by 1.5% at its offices relative to fiscal 2010 levels, and as a result, was able to decrease its total CO₂ emissions in Japan by about 3,000 tons.
Despite increased energy use in the telecommunications business caused by increased production, we were able to achieve this reduction because of decreased energy use from the entire Group overall thanks to energy conservation efforts made across other business segments and at domestic Group companies. Also, in Japan, we restored our manufacturing system to its normal state soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake, thereby minimizing the drop in energy efficiency at our domestic manufacturing bases, while overseas, CO₂ emissions decreased by 26% due to the suspension of our manufacturing bases in Thailand as a result of the flooding disaster. From these efforts, per-unit CO₂ emissions from the entire Group decreased to 60.7 tons for each 100 million yen in sales. Relative to fiscal 2009, total CO₂ emissions from the Group in fiscal 2011 also dropped by 2.7% in Japan.

For fiscal 2011 to 2015, we will continue our efforts to improve the per-unit energy use of our manufacturing bases and offices annually by 3.5% and 1.5% respectively. In fiscal 2011, we introduced the ECO-PASS environmental information collection system, which is designed to "visualize" energy use, to our overseas bases, in addition to the domestic bases where the system has been implemented since fiscal 2010. We are also sharing more information between our bases, including examples of energy conservation, while curbing our per-unit energy use by fostering the exchange of energy conservation technologies between bases through mutual visits by employees in charge of energy conservation.

In fiscal 2011, the entire Fujikura Group began implementing measures against blistering summer heat as early as April out of concern for rolling blackouts that might be implemented due to the power shortage caused by the nuclear accident that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake. Specifically, plant seedlings (morning glory, Ryukyu morning glory, bitter gourd, passion fruit, etc.) were distributed to Group employees who grew them into "green curtains" both in the workplace and at their homes. At sites with buildings that were too tall for the seedlings to grow into "green curtains," sunshade nets were installed as curtain substitutes.

DDK, one of the Group companies, decided to quadruple its "green curtain" area, planting bitter gourd, morning glory, grape tomato, cucumber and other species both on the ground and in planters. This resulted in a room temperature in the summertime that was three to six degrees Celsius lower than before. Moreover, green curtains proved to be very popular among employees because they are friendly to the eyes and invoke a pleasant restorative feeling.

As a means to conserve energy, Fujikura's head office, Suzuka Plant and Numazu Plant as well as DDK, Yonezawa Electric Wire, and Tohoku Fujikura replaced mercury and fluorescent lamps used at their sites with LED lamps. All these sites have responded promptly whenever it has been deemed necessary for them to make improvements in environmental protection, occupational safety and health, or legal compliance.

At the peak of summer in 2010, the indoor temperature at the C factory rose to as high as 39 degrees Celsius, and to improve the work environment, the Sakura Plant decided to apply heat-blocking and heat-insulating coating to the roof during the next regular roof recoating opportunity. Subsequently in fiscal 2011, the coating was applied to the south side of the roof (11,000 m2), which resulted in a temperature decrease of up to 16.4 degrees Celsius on the reverse side. The coating will eventually be applied to the entire roof surface in a planned manner and is expected to help increase the energy efficiency of the factory's clean room air conditioning system.

Pursuant to Article 27 of the Electricity Business Act, the Japanese government asked large customers of Tokyo Electric Power Company and Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. to reduce their power use by 15% in principle from July 1, 2011. In response to this request, relevant bases of the Fujikura Group introduced measures to run their manufacturing systems with limited power supplies, resulting in the achievement of a 15% reduction for all bases.

By implementing these measures, the Group as a whole achieved a 6.5% reduction in total power use in Japan during the period from July to September. As a result, total CO₂ emissions also decreased by 2,056 tons compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The Fujikura Group implemented a "turning off lights" campaign on June 22 (summer solstice) and July 7 (Star Festival and also Cool Earth Day). On these two days, participants turned off lights at both their workplaces and homes at 7:00 p.m. to give a "small consideration" to the Earth. In this campaign, about 20 of Fujikura's bases including head office, plants, and sales offices participated. Also, we asked about 80 Group companies in Japan and overseas to participate in the campaign, and many companies and employees did so. In this campaign, participants were encouraged to have quality time by communicating with their families and friends in addition to considering the global environment.