Super Eco-Factory & Office certifications are given to facilities that have achieved an industry-leading environmental load reduction. We certify those facilities as Eco-Factories & Offices that have both met their targets for the fiscal year under our GREEN 21 system for comprehensively evaluating environmental action and have performed above the given criteria in areas such as energy efficiency, improvements in resource recycling, and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions reduction. Our target was to bring up to 30 facilities, or 10 percent of the approximately 300 facilities eligible for certification, to the level of Super Eco-Factories & Offices by fiscal 2010, and the facilities themselves have worked hard to achieve a high level of load reduction in order to be certified. As a result, three more facilities were named Super Eco-Factories & Offices in fiscal 2010, bringing the total to 35 (23 in Japan and 12 outside Japan).
To encourage environmental conservation, information on initiatives at these facilities are shared within the Group, along with energy-saving and water-processing technologies that are relevant to other Group companies. Facilities yielding outstanding results after introducing Hitachi Group energy-saving products conduct factory tours to demonstrate these products to people within Hitachi and to others.
Super Eco-Factory & Office Certification Criteria
As part of our Third Environmental Action Plan, we will review Super Eco-Factory & Office certification criteria and mechanisms, launching a new designation: Eco Factory & Office Select. Certification criteria will be developed individually according to the characteristics of our manufacturing (factory) and non-manufacturing (office) divisions. For factories, standards will be raised for energy efficiency, renewable energy use, as well as water recycling and other Super Eco-Factory & Office certification criteria used to date. For offices, evaluation criteria will be established in areas such as energy saving for lighting, renewable energy use, and a building’s overall environmental protection.
To maintain and raise the level of environmental activities in Eco Factories & Offices Select, certified facilities will be re-evaluated every year to check whether their performance for that fiscal year still meets the certification criteria. Our goal is for every in-house company and Group company to have at least one facility certified by fiscal 2015.
Facilities already certified as Super Eco-Factories & Offices will be re-evaluated based on the new criteria.
Hitachi Elevator Motor in Guangzhou, China, makes hoists, a core component of elevators. To save energy, production efficiency has been boosted on production lines, which use many types of machine tools. The plant has also promoted introducing high-efficiency air conditioners, LED lighting, and other energy-saving devices. For example, all 1,360 ceiling lights are now LED. Also, a new building which was added due to the need for production growth is designed for optimal use of natural light inside the building to reduce power consumption. As a result, the five-year average energy consumption rate per unit for fiscal 2010 was improved by 10 percent. Other environmentally conscious manufacturing initiatives include changing the type of forklifts used in the plant from diesel engines to electric (battery) motors, and using adsorption instruments to lower VOC emissions during the painting process.
The Hamura Works designs and manufactures wireless communications systems, and has many production areas to accommodate manufacturing of a wide range of the products. Hamura Works has cut power usage by improving the layout of assembly areas and by sharing facilities with other Group companies located nearby. Adoption of energy-saving machinery and equipment, such as high-efficiency Hf inverter fluorescent lights and air conditioners, enabled Hamura Works to improve its five-year average energy consumption rate per unit by 8.2 percent for fiscal 2010.
Waste paper, including documents on specifications and other confidential documents, accounts for more than 20 percent of the Hamura Works’ total waste. In fiscal 2010, the Works achieved zero final waste disposal rate through rigorous sorting and recycling, including using wet shredders so that waste paper can be recycled into copy paper.
The works has more energy-saving plans, including using LED lamps on employees’ desks, and shifting the responsibility of switching on and off the fluorescent lights in the work area from the managers to individuals. The amount of power used across the whole Works will also be monitored using a demand controller.
