Saving and Recycling Resources

The issues of water and resource scarcity, triggered by increasing water demand and population growth—resulting in higher volumes of resources collected, extracted, used, and eventually emitted as waste—are common concerns for the entire world. Uncertainty concerning natural disasters and geopolitical situations is on the rise as well. Hitachi’s business operations will respond to these issues by working with our customers and society to help build a society that uses water and other resources efficiently.

Building a Water Efficient Society

Responding to Water Risks

Since Hitachi’s exposures to water risks in its businesses vary by region and the type of business, it is important to identify their respective risks and implement countermeasures. To facilitate risk response, we have compiled the procedures for water risk identification and countermeasures into Water Risk Guidelines,^*1 which are followed by some 140 manufacturing sites around the world that are classified as category A in our environmental management classification.

We use our Environmental Data Collection System (Eco-DS) and various globally recognized tools for water risk assessment as well as region- and operation-specific water risk identification checklists to identify and evaluate the water risks for each business unit and Group company, per country and region, and for the entire Group once a year.

Management of Water Use at Business Sites

Fiscal 2021 was the final year of the Environmental Action Plan for 2021 (fiscal 2019–2021), which set out a target of a 26% reduction (over the base year of fiscal 2010) for water usage per unit in manufacturing processes. We achieved the target with a 36% reduction. The volume of water used declined by 30.9 million m³, equivalent to 59% from the base year. Our measures to reduce water usage include more stringent management of water intake using flowmeters, leakage control by installing above-ground water pipes, circular use of cooling water, and reuse of purified waste water.

Building a Society That Uses Resources Efficiently

To help build a recycling-oriented society, Hitachi will advance a shift from the conventional linear economy to a circular economy. We strive to realize this goal with a dual approach of pursuing effective and sustainable use of resources and assets in Hitachi’s business activities and achieving the circularity of resources throughout the value chain.

Beyond the issues of the long-term use of products, and the reuse, repair, refurbishment, repurposing, and remanufacturing of products that are no longer needed in the course of our business activities, our customers’ needs are changing from goods to experiences, or from ownership to leasing. Responding to such a society, we will promote the effective use of resources and assets, such as with leasing, pay-per-use systems, subscriptions, products as a service, reuse, and models for sharing.