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People leading rich lifestyles in harmony with the Earth—this is the ideal situation envisaged in 2050 as per Toshiba Group Environmental Vision 2050. Under this overarching vision, we consider our mission, as a corporate citizen of planet Earth, is to create new, enriched value while minimizing environmental impacts.
There are several major issues to be resolved to achieve the ideal situation of people leading rich lifestyles in harmony with the Earth by 2050, and these specific issues and evaluation results based on the relevant indicators are shown below:
To resolve these issues, we set Factor 10, namely a tenfold improvement in eco-efficiercy(2×1.5×3:4), as the goal to be attained by 2050.
What is the factor for 2050?Background of global environmental issues and issues to be resolved by 2050As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to increase eco-efficiency for the whole world by ten times by the year 2050. In order to contribute greatly to achieving this goal, Toshiba Group has set targets for Environmental Vision 2050 as the degree of improvement (Factor) for overall eco-efficiency, which covers all products and business processes, with FY2000 as the base year. Specifically, as indicated in the figure below, we are determined to raise the Factor for all products and business processes we are currently promoting to 2.3 in 2012 (2.0 in 2010), the final year of the Fourth Voluntary Environmental Plan, and to 5 in 2025, the midpoint of Environmental Vision 2050. And we will work in a responsible way to achieve Factor 10, the degree of improvement the world is required to attain by 2050.
The milestone for 2012 is set based on forecasts made through the implementation of the Fourth Voluntary Environmental Plan. We aim to make Environmental Vision 2050 a reality by backcasting medium- and long-term measures from the ideal situation in 2050 taking into account progress in Factor achievement and the advancement of scientific knowledge.
Simplified eco-efficiency can be expressed as the product of “energy efficiency per unit CO2 emission (E/CO2)” and the “efficiency of economic value per unit energy consumption (G/E),” taking energy consumption into account. In this formula, “energy efficiency per unit CO2 emission” is a requirement for energy suppliers to obtain a large volume of energy while minimizing CO2 emissions. The “efficiency of economic value per unit energy consumption,” on the other hand, is an important perspective for energy users, who are required to create large value while minimizing energy consumption.
Toshiba Group is one of the few corporate groups that can offer enriched value to society by providing products and services in a wide range of business domains from energy supply to energy use. On the energy supply side we will take what we call an “Energy approach,” which entails ensuring a stable energy supply and mitigating global warming, but on the energy use side we will take an “Eco Product approach,” which entails contributing to customers in terms of both value delivery and environmental impact reduction. Through these two approaches, Toshiba Group will promote efforts to increase eco-efficiency for the world as a whole.
When we create products and services through the Energy approach and the Eco Product approach and send them into the world, it is needless to say that it is important to pay attention to reducing environmental impacts in the production processes and throughout all of our business operations as well. In addition, the demand for communication activities for properly conveying our environmental initiatives and the environmental performance of our products to stakeholders is higher than before.
Toshiba Group positions these activities as Eco Process actions and Eco Program actions, each of which support our two approaches and we are taking comprehensive environmental measures from various angles.
This section discusses how far Toshiba Group can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in the world through the Energy and Eco Product approaches. The figure below indicates projections of energyderived CO2 emissions in the world, which were published in the International Energy Agency's publication “Energy Technology Perspectives 2008.” In this figure, the case of stabilization at 450 ppm shows the changes in maximum permissible CO2 emissions if we are to keep the global average temperature rise at 2°C or less as described in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the case of the baseline, which indicates that countries in the world will continue to pursue their current policy, the temperature is expected to rise by 6°C or more, and energy-derived CO2 emissions for the whole world in 2050 is estimated at 62 billion tons/year. In order to reduce them to 14 billion tons/year, 50% of the current level, it is necessary to develop the innovative technologies listed below on both the energy supply and energy consumption sides.
Toshiba Group's Energy and Eco Product approaches are believed to contribute greatly to technological innovation in almost all of these areas. The upper right figure is a calculation of the effects of reduction in CO2 emissions on a trial basis. The Energy approach aims to achieve the best energy mix, which utilizes diverse power generation systems in a well-balanced manner, including conventional energy such as nuclear and thermal energy and new energy such as renewable energy. In the field of power distribution, Toshiba Group promotes a stable energy supply chiefly by applying supply/demand control technology and reducing power loss on power transmission lines to zero. The CO2 emission reduction effects in FY2008 brought about by these approaches are estimated at 13.5 million tons/year. Toshiba Group intends to increase these effects to 27 million tons/year in 2012 and 82 million tons/year in 2025.
This section looks at Eco Products, which consume energy. The CO2 emission reduction effects brought about during the entire product life cycle if all products shipped by Toshiba Group in 2008 in a wide range of categories from home appliances, digital products, and semiconductors to social infrastructures that replaced all such products shipped in 2000 are estimated at three million tons/year. By continuing to create innovations in the future, Toshiba Group aims to increase CO2 emission reduction effects to 7.3 million tons/year in 2012 and 35.7 million tons/year in 2025 through its Eco Products, which achieve both creation of enriched value and coexistence with the Earth.
The Fourth Plan sets target Factors with 2000 as their base year from two perspectives: products and business processes (manufacturing). As indicated in the figure below, Toshiba Group achieved the goal for FY2008 with a planned Factor for products of 1.88 while actually achieving a Factor of 2.05. Similarly, the planned and actual Factors for business processes were 1.20 and 1.25, respectively. Toshiba Group achieved its goal in this area too. In 2012, Toshiba Group aims to achieve Factors of 2.55 and 1.30 for products and business processes, respectively.
If the impacts of products on the environment during their life cycle is taken into account, the impacts of business processes on the environment, or in other words, the impacts of products on the environment at the time of production, accounts for about 20% on average of the total environmental impacts of all Toshiba Group products during their life cycle. Therefore, the overall eco-efficiency is calculated in this section by assuming that product-related environmental impacts account for 80% of the total and then seeking weighted averages of product and business process Factors.
Toshiba Group achieved the goal for FY2008 with a planned Factor for the overall eco-efficiency of 1.74 while actually achieving a Factor of 1.89. In 2012, which is the last year of the Fourth Voluntary Environmental Plan, Toshiba Group aims to achieve a Factor of 2.30.
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