• 1: Environmental Vision 2050
• 2: Performance indicators for our Vision
• 3: As a corporate citizen of planet Earth
• 4: Initiatives to realize a sustainable society
• 5: “Toshiba eco style”

Toshiba Group, aiming to become one of the world’s foremost eco companies, continues to ask how mankind should live in the future and what role we should play in society and for the Earth. As solutions for various environmental issues, including climate change, are called for, Toshiba Group has developed Environmental Vision 2050 to ensure that these environmental issues are solved and that all people can lead affluent lifestyles in harmony with the Earth. With the DNA of Toshiba Group, we endeavor to contribute to society with passion and determination and will create new value through revolutionary innovations.

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1: Environmental Vision 2050

2: Performance indicators for our Vision

Based on the concept of “eco-efficiency,” we have set goals to ensure that all people can lead affluent lifestyles in harmony with the Earth. Eco-efficiency can be expressed as a fraction, with the creation of new value as the numerator and environmental impacts as the denominator. The more enriched value created -or the more environmental impact is reduced and progress made toward coexisting with the Earth -the more eco-efficiency improves. We call the degree of improvement in eco-efficiency the “Factor,” and increasing the Factor leads to affluent lifestyles in harmony with the Earth.

Based on several predictions about the future shapes society may take, we examined how much we need to raise the Factor by 2050.

It is assumed that the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country reflects value that its people can enjoy. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the world’s average GDP per capita is expected to grow 3.4 times by 2050.

It is also expected that the world population will increase by 1.5 times as compared to 2000 by 2050. In order to reduce environmental impacts as they rise with population growth, it is necessary to increase eco-efficiency by 1.5 times by that year. And at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, participants emphasized that it is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050.

If the three points cited above are taken into account, the required degree of improvement in eco-efficiency (Factor) in the world in 2050 is 10 (3.4×1.5×2). As an evaluation indicator, Toshiba Group Environmental Vision 2050 sets the goal of achieving Factor 10 by 2050.

In consideration of the above, long-term goals are established by backcasting from the ideal situation in 2050. Meanwhile, Toshiba Group believes that in 2012, the last year of its Fourth Environmental Action Plan which is currently being implemented, it is necessary to achieve Factor 2.3, a milestone to attain the long-term goals.

• What is the factor for 2050?
• Background of global environmental issues and issues to be resolved by 2050

• Targets and Results

3: As a corporate citizen of planet Earth

Toshiba Group requires all its employees to be always aware in their actions that the Group is a corporate citizen of planet Earth. Specifically, this means that they are required to contribute to the creation of a better global environment, and respect cultures and customs in the communities around the world in which we do business, and contribute to the local community. In our Environmental Vision 2050, we believe that it is necessary to achieve an average of Factor 10 for the entire world by 2050, but the members of the international community vary greatly from developed to emerging countries. Developed countries are urged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not by half but to 20% of 1990 levels, and if the target is limited to developed countries alone, the Factor in 2050 must be 25, a target extremely difficult to reach. Toshiba Group will offer optimal solutions taking into consideration all different situations in various regions of the world such as economic affluence, accessible resources, and infrastructure development.

4: Initiatives to realize a sustainable society

Toshiba Group aims at three forms of sustainable society: A Low-Carbon Society, A Sound Material-Cycle Society, and A Society in Harmony with Nature. Toshiba Group, meanwhile, aims to contribute to reduction of environmental impacts by advancing environmental management initiatives, which consist of three pillars: mitigation of climate change, efficient use of resources, and management of chemicals.

In environmental management, it is important to evaluate in quantitative terms whether our initiatives are really making progress toward the realization of a sustainable society. In FY2003, Toshiba Group introduced a LIME-based* comprehensive evaluation method and has since used it as an indicator of environmental management. The LIME environmental assessment method based on the calculation of damage, assesses effects on four elements that should be protected: life, and factors essential to maintain life, for both human society and ecosystems. It makes the most of the latest knowledge and analytical methods of environmental science, and one of its benefits is to enable exhaustive assessments of environmental impacts for a wide range of environmental issues, including biodiversity — an area that has attracted much attention in recent years. In the future, Toshiba Group will continue to make the best use of the LIME assessment method as it moves steadily toward a sustainable society.

*One of the leading environmental assessment methods in Japan, LIME (Life-cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint modeling) was developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, an independent administrative institution.

5: “Toshiba eco style”

In order to further accelerate its initiatives for environmental management through the three “Green” concepts -“Greening of Process,” “Greening of Products,” and “Greening by Technology” -as it aims to become one of the world’s foremost eco-companies and emphasize its approach to environmental issues in the wide spectrum of society, Toshiba Group has established “Toshiba eco style” as its unified global brand for environmental initiatives. It will work to achieve two eco styles on a global scale: (1) For individuals, our eco-conscious products create value and help to realize richer, more diverse lifestyles while reducing impacts on the global environment, (2) For society, our advances in power systems, sophisticated transmission networks, and essential infrastructure systems secure new levels of convenience, safety, and security, while contributing to the realization of a greener planet Earth.