CSR

[ISO 26000 Core Subject] The Environment

In fiscal 2012, the Fujikura Group worked to reduce its per-unit energy use by 3.5% at its plants and by 1.5% at its offices. As a result, the Group’s total CO₂ emissions decreased by 36,156 tons (9.6%) worldwide Specifically, CO₂ emissions increased by 5.0% in Japan, while the use of energy decreased by 19.5% in Thailand after the flooding. As a result, the entire Group’s CO₂ emissions per unit of sales came to 69.5 tons per 100 million yen, down 7% relative to fiscal 2009.

Group CO₂ emissions increased by 15.4% in Japan due to changes in the CO₂ emission factors set by power companies, while outside Japan the Group’s CO₂ emissions increased by 3.5%, influenced by the recovery of its business from the flooding in Thailand and the launch of the telecommunications business in China.

In fiscal 2013 we will continue our efforts to minimize our CO₂ emissions by reducing annual per-unit energy use by 3.5% at our plants and by 1.5% at our offices in Japan, while reducing the use by 1.0% at both our overseas plants and offices.

In fiscal 2012, the Group's overseas bases began to make regular use of the ECO-PASS environmental information collection system, which we introduced to the Group in fiscal 2010, to “visualize” energy use.

In order to further reduce our energy use, we are fostering the sharing of information on energy conservation and other measures between our bases, conducting environmental surveys, and encouraging employees in charge to check the status of energy conservation at their bases.

In fiscal 2012, the entire Fujikura Group began implementing measures against the blistering summer heat as early as April, out of concern over power shortages following the shutdown of nuclear power stations. Specifically, seedlings (morning glory, Ryukyu morning glory, bitter gourd, passion fruit, etc.) were distributed to Group employees, who grew them into “green curtains” at their workplaces and homes. At sites with buildings that were too tall for the seedlings to grow into “green curtains,” sunshade nets were installed as curtain substitutes. At some Group companies, the “green curtain” area was expanded to plant bitter gourd, morning glory, grape tomatoes, cucumber and other species both on the ground and in planters. This resulted in a room temperature in the summertime that was 3 to 5 degrees Celsius lower than before. Moreover, green curtains proved to be very popular among employees because they are also friendly on the eyes. The seeds of the bitter gourd grown at the sites were distributed to employees who wanted them.

The head office building of Fujikura Ltd. was completed in 1990, and equipped with advanced air conditioning equipment in which an ice thermal storage system, an innovative system at that time, was used as the heat source facility. During the summer of 2011, when the use of electricity by companies was subject to government regulation, we made maximum use of air conditioning equipment to reduce our peak electricity use and thereby contribute to society. Subsequently we replaced the old air conditioning equipment, which had been operated for 22 years, with new equipment, which is also equipped with an ice thermal storage system. We launched the operation of the new equipment in March 2013, aiming to reduce our peak electricity use in summer by the hybrid use of the equipment with a highly energy-efficient chiller for further energy conservation.

As a socially responsible corporate group, the Fujikura Group has been implementing the government “cool biz” and “warm biz” campaigns in summer and in winter, respectively. Through these campaigns, we encourage individual employees to conduct environmental activities at their offices, plants and homes while reviewing their energy use and reforming their work and private lifestyles toward the creation of a low-carbon society. The campaigns, which we implemented also in fiscal 2012, are becoming regular events.

In the summer of 2012, the Fujikura Group proactively responded to the power saving requests made by the government and power companies, who had been concerned about the possibility of power shortages due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants. At bases located in the service areas of Kansai Electric Power and Kyushu Electric Power, employees worked to limit peak electricity use to the prescribed levels based on their actual peak electricity use in the summer of 2010, while also making preparations against rolling blackouts. Similar efforts were made by employees at other bases, and as a result almost all the bases succeeded at keeping their peak electricity use below the upper limits set voluntarily by themselves and also achieved a reduction in their total use of electricity.

To reduce the use of electricity, the bases implemented the following core measures.

As a participant in the Challenge 25 campaign launched by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, the Fujikura Group implemented the “turning off lights” campaign for the fourth time this year. Specifically, about 20 bases of Fujikura Ltd., including the head office, plants, branches and sales offices located across Japan, as well as both domestic and overseas Group companies, participated in the campaign, in which employees were asked to turn off lights not only at their workplaces but also at their homes.

The Fujikura Group implemented the campaign on the following three days:

By implementing the “turning off lights” campaign as a corporate group participating in the Challenge 25 campaign, the Fujikura Group aims to save electricity and reduce its emissions of CO₂ , one of the greenhouse gases, while raising the public’s environmental awareness and encouraging as many people as possible to become friendlier to the global environment as well as to people.