CSR

In fiscal 2013, 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 as a whole decreased use by 1.3% in Japan, and by as much as 8.8% outside of Japan. This is because we made efforts to conserve energy, despite an increase in the amount of production following the recovery of the Group's business in Thailand, where we suffered damage due to the 2011 flooding. At offices, the Group achieved an 8.0% reduction in per-unit energy use by making investments to increase the energy efficiency of air conditioners used at the head office. "CO₂ emissions reductions" were temporarily excluded from our environmental targets following the revision of the relevant governmental policies, which provided the basis for our activities.

In fiscal 2014, we will set a new target for CO₂ emissions based on the government's new policies and will increase our productivity by 2% at our plants in Japan and by 1% at our offices in the country, while decreasing per-unit energy use by 1% outside of Japan, and thereby reducing our CO₂ emissions.

In fiscal 2010, the Group began to use the ECO-PASS environmental information collection system. We fostered the use of this system also at overseas Group sites, in order to further visualize our energy use.

We are also fostering the sharing of information on energy conservation examples and other data between our bases, conducting environmental surveys, and encouraging the employees in charge of facility management to visit the bases to check the status of energy conservation, thereby proactively reducing our energy consumption.

Following the setting of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 standard in 2011, there are stringent requirements under the CDP and GRI-G4 for companies to disclose information about CO₂ emissions from their entire supply chains in addition to CO₂ emissions from their own business activities. In response, Fujikura Ltd. participated in the project to support the calculation of supply chain CO₂ emissions implemented by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in fiscal 2013 and made simplified calculations for all the GHG Protocol Scope 3 categories. The following shows the Scopes 1, 2 and 3 calculation results for fiscal 2012 and 2013.

In fiscal 2013, we had a very hot summer, during which Japan's highest temperature record was broken. The Fujikura Group began to conduct a campaign to grow seedlings into green curtains in around May, and many of our bases had completed their green curtains by July, before the sun became very strong. These curtains contributed to a decrease (by three to five degrees Celsius) in the room temperature. Green curtains help decrease the room temperature and are friendly to the environment. They are also kind to the eyes and mitigate the fatigue caused by work. Green curtains have become an indispensable item for us to get through the hot summer season.

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 23 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.

In 2013, The Fujikura Group implemented its fourth "Turning off lights" campaign to mitigate global warming as much as possible and reinforce how important lighting is.. In the campaign, employees turned off lights both at their workplaces and homes.

DDK's plant in Mooka has been proactively conducting environmental activities to protect the Earth. In fiscal 2013, the plant received a special commendation (certificate and medal) as an eco-friendly establishment from Tochigi Prefecture, which has been fostering the creation of eco-friendly communities in the prefecture. The award was made in recognition of the fact that the plant discontinued the use of boilers for heating and plating by replacing them with electric systems and introduced inverter-type air conditioners, thereby achieving great results in the reduction of CO₂ emissions.