Dr Narito Shibaike, head of the Environmental Strategy Research Centre at Panasonic Corporation in Japan, provided his views in the run up to the recent Singapore International Energy Week on the corporate sector’s role in energy management.
He is presently involved in the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development & Climate (APP), International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) as a Japanese industry representative. Dr Shibaike spoke at the Panasonic ‘eco ideas’ Forum that was held on 2 November 2011 during SIEW 2011.
Q1. You recently commented that going green is fast becoming a must for business survival. What are some of the strategies for incorporating energy management solutions into business processes?
Dr Narito Shibaike: Environmental stress and signs of the environment losing its balance globally have become increasingly apparent and businesses have to step up in establishing sustainable management to prevent further deterioration of the same space we all exist in. Going green is a must for survival in general. If we each do our part, whether as companies, governments or individuals, to address the environmental issues, this will enable a longer, sustainable world for all of us.
For businesses, a serious consideration is to make environmental management central to all business activities, whether it is the manufacturing processes or the goods you manufacture. It is necessary to consider a top-down approach where the management walks the talk, to encourage all in the company to uphold the same vision. For Panasonic, it means reducing the environmental impact such as CO2 emissions, and improving productivity in all business activities from designing eco products to production, sales and service. At the same time, we also want to encourage a ground-up approach and promote resource recycling initiatives and a green culture among our employees.
There needs to be a shift of perspective on how businesses think about performance. One recommendation is to have environmental targets as key management indicators, alongside sales and profit. This would also mean that there must be an operating system to collect environmental performance data, such as CO2 emissions, to monitor progress.
Q2. How, in your view, do organisations in the East and West differ in adopting energy savings policies?
DNS: As a general observation, western countries do tend to take a more top-down approach in adopting energy savings policies, for example, by setting a framework and targets and enacting clear rules and regulations. The setting of a final goal at the outset, in other words taking a backcasting approach, enables employees to understand the activities leading to the attainment of the final goal within the organisation. However, goals set may be too idealistic and it would be difficult for the organisation to realise the actual situation and make changes. On the other hand, countries in the Asian region tend to evaluate and accumulate best practices even if they are small, resulting in a practical bottom-up approach. They are more likely to make steady progress, but the final goal may not be clear and the organisation may not be able to achieve the end results they want. Personally, I believe it is important to effectively fuse good aspects of both approaches and to promote environmental activities globally.
It is important to note that these days, with globalisation, a company that engages in business activities worldwide is not as largely influenced by geographical differences in the location of the headquarters as they were in the past. Hence, even for a multinational company with a global footprint, there is no one-size-fits-all solution in adopting energy savings policies for different countries or regions. Any formulation or development of environmental strategies and measures must be done through identifying and analysing the situation of each country and region first.
Q3. What do you see as the top three sustainability issues facing the Asia-Pacific region today?
DNS: The Asia-Pacific region has many emerging economies such as India and Indonesia, and the increase in environmental impacts caused by rapid and explosive economic growth will potentially develop into serious social issues and irreversible environmental degradation. Environmental management has not kept up with economic growth.
The first issue is the insurance of a stable supply of energy to sustain rapid economic growth and improved living standards. As energy sources are limited, it is a constant challenge to secure energy sources and maintain a stable price of energy.
The second issue is the challenge to promote energy savings in industries and households to reduce energy consumption. The reduction in energy demand will help to reduce the risks that arise from the first issue.
The third issue is the availability of resources for high-tech industries, especially rare metals. These resources are unevenly distributed in the world and an unstable supply of these resources may impede the progress of high-tech industries, including the electronics industry.
Q4. As one of the leaders in eco-innovation, what are some of Panasonic’s environmental programmes that have resulted in significant cost savings that you would recommend for other organisations to implement?
DNS: As a market leader in the electronics industry, manufacturing forms a large part of our activities. As such, in our vision to become the number one Green Innovation Company in the electronics industry by 2018, we believe that energy savings activities at manufacturing sites are of utmost importance as these will directly lead to cost reductions and a strengthened manufacturing structure.
For example, we have incorporated CO2 reduction as one of the key management indicators for our manufacturing sites, and this then requires each site to make an investment to promote energy savings.
Some concrete activities promoted at our production frontlines include the implementation of a “CO2 meter and gauge” activity to visualise the energy consumption of each production equipment and the reduction effect of measures. We have introduced more than 40,000 measurement systems and Factory Energy Management Systems (FEMS) at all our global manufacturing sites. This initiative enables us to drastically reduce energy wastage. We also conduct energy conservation diagnosis for factories, where internal experts review the manufacturing processes and propose concrete reduction measures at production frontlines. In addition, we share information on excellent reduction activities among our companies via the intranet.
Apart from our own activities, we have started the Factory Energy Conservation Support Service using the knowledge we gained through our own initiatives in April 2010 to provide comprehensive guidance for energy conservation activities in factories. These include the visualisation of energy use, energy conservation diagnosis, practical measures for energy savings, human resource development and financing.
Q5. What are the factors that make some cities more adaptable to energy savings policies and systems?
DNS: For any environmental policy or system to work, it is important that people from various fields share information, understand the issue correctly and discuss solutions jointly. In order to realise this, there is a need to develop human resources with high environmental awareness through education and set up platforms where people can communicate freely with one another.
Similarly, for energy savings policies and systems to work, it is essential that all stakeholders, in particular government, businesses, autonomies and residents, are involved. This also means involvement at various levels—from discussion and decision-making processes to the development of high-level information systems, secure securities, renewable energy systems and energy storage systems.
Cities with administrators who have the political will to adopt and commit to energy savings policies and systems are definitely advantageous. However, this must be met by conditions that will incentivise businesses, autonomies and residents to adopt them without incurring substantial costs.
The hope is for improving the cost competitiveness of energy savings systems such that it will be affordable for as many cities as possible. Many companies and governments are already looking into research for such solutions.
One example is our “Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town” project. Located in Fujisawa city in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, the Smart Town is due to open in the fiscal year ending in March 2014. It is the first smart city project for Panasonic to introduce comprehensive energy solutions for homes, buildings and towns consisting of energy-saving products, energy creating and storing devices, as well as energy management systems. We will be looking at ways to overcome the challenges of adapting such energy solutions with the hope of developing the Smart Town into a model smart city that can be replicated in other parts of Japan and overseas.
This interview was originally published for Singapore International Energy Week and has been reprinted with permission from Singapore’s Energy Market Authority.
