On Jun 4th, 2015, Sony Corporation (hereafter “Sony”) announced the establishment of its “Green Management 2020” group environmental mid-term targets that will take effect from fiscal 2016 through 2020. Based on the following three pillars, Sony will implement various initiatives to reduce the Sony Group’s environmental footprint:
- Formulate targets and implement initiatives that leverage the distinctive characteristics of Sony’s businesses, from Electronics to Entertainment. Among these, reduce annual energy consumption by an average of 30%* in electronics products, and in entertainment, continue to look to use its contents to raise awareness of sustainability issues and inspire environmentally-conscious actions.
- Enhance efforts to reduce Sony’s environmental footprint across its entire value chain, including manufacturing partners and suppliers, by calling on them to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water consumption.
- Accelerate the use of renewable energy.
Sony’s long-term vision is to achieve a “zero environmental footprint” throughout all stages of its product lifecycles and business activities by 2050.
The Green Management 2020 mid-term plan has been backcasted (calculated backwards) in order to determine the necessary intermediate steps on the way to this long-term goal. Sony expects to achieve all of the targets set forth in its previous plan, “Green Management 2015,” which covers the five-year period up to and including fiscal 2015.
With Green Management 2020, Sony will further accelerate its various initiatives directed towards its ultimate goal of a “zero environmental footprint.” Sony will also continue to participate in the WWF’s Climate Savers Programme, which aims to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, from fiscal 2016 onwards. Climate change targets are verified by WWF and a third-party verification body for their degrees of difficulty and progress.
Major focus areas of the Sony Group’s “Green Management 2020”:
1. Setting targets and implementing initiatives for each business area
In Sony’s electronics business segments, the company will target a 30%* reduction in average annual energy consumption of its electronics products by fiscal 2020. In order to achieve this, Sony will incorporate environmental considerations right into the initial product design and development stages, and substantially reduce the energy consumption of its TVs and other major electronics products. Furthermore, Sony will strive to reduce the environmental footprint of its manufacturing sites, where production is increasing in its Devices segment, by utilizing highly efficient manufacturing equipment and promoting other environmental initiatives. As a result of these efforts, Sony will target to achieve a 5% reduction in GHG emissions by fiscal 2020 across all of its manufacturing and non-manufacturing sites, compared to fiscal 2015 levels. Sony will continue to look to use its entertainment businesses to raise awareness of sustainability issues and inspire environmentally-conscious actions. Sony Entertainment will seek to use its worldwide content creation and distribution infrastructure to reach hundreds of millions of people globally.
2. Enhance engagement of entire value chain
In addition to measures it will implement across its own operations, Sony will also work to reduce environmental impact across its entire value chain including stakeholders such as manufacturing partners. Sony will request its major manufacturing partners and component suppliers cooperate by monitoring their figures for CO2 emissions, water usage and waste, and will call on them to reduce these levels. In particular, Sony will ask for a 1% reduction in GHG emission and water usage intensity* per year. Additionally, Sony will request that major component suppliers set independent targets for CO2 emissions and water usage, in order to further reduce their environmental impact.
*Environmental impact relative to the gross sales of product supplied to Sony
3. Accelerate the use of renewable energy
Sony has been a global frontrunner in reducing the environmental footprint of its operations by utilizing renewable energy sources in the most suitable ways for each region, such as by installing solar panels and utilizing Renewable Energy Certificates.
In Japan, Sony jointly established a Green Energy Certificate System with an electric power company in 2001. And in Europe, Sony production sites have been running on 100% renewable electricity since 2008. By fiscal 2020, Sony will utilize renewable energy equivalent to reducing 300,000 tons* of CO2 emissions for its sites through the use of renewable energy certificates.
*790,000 MWh (Calculated from the fiscal 2000 emission coefficient announced by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan and the Japan Business Federation).
For further details regarding Green Management 2020：
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr/SonyEnvironment/
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