"TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE JAPAN - CORPORATIONS AT WORK" ARTICLE SERIES Article No. 36
Making products that reduce environmental impacts (Mitsubishi Electric)
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/company/environ/index.html

Did you know that electric motors consume about 50% of the electricity used in Japan? Electric motors, which convert electrical energy into kinetic energy, are used in all kinds of electrical appliances. It was widely thought that electric motor energy efficiency had reached the top of its potential until 1995, when Mitsubishi Electric developed its "Poki-Poki [Knuckle-pop] motor", which succeeded in boosting energy efficiency by 3%.

The name "Poki Poki" comes from the sound joints make when popped. The Poki Poki is constructed to bend like a joint and open up. Copper coils can be wound at high densities around an open stator core, and then the unit is bent back to form a round shape. The higher coil density makes these motors more efficient and compact, resulting in higher energy efficiency.
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/it/public/technologies/poki.html

If all electric motors being used in Japan were replaced with the Poki Poki model, an amount of electricity equivalent to the annual consumption of about 3 million homes could be saved. This reminds us of how much potential one technological innovation in manufacturing can have in reducing our environmental impact.

Mitsubishi Electric was founded in 1921. The company manufactures a variety of products and offers a variety of services under its corporate mission of "improving Mitsubishi Electric products and services and enhancing the quality of life by applying creativity to all aspects of our business." Its product lines include power generators, elevators, cellular phones, various electrical appliances, TV sets, air conditioners, refrigerators and photovoltaic power generating systems. About 27,000 people work for the head company, and its annual sales reach about 2 trillion yen (U.S.$ 17.4 billion). Taking related companies into account staff numbers reach 97,000 and annual sales about 3.4 trillion yen (U.S.$ 29.6 billion). Seventy percent of sales are to the Japanese market, and the remainder to overseas markets - North America (9%), Asia (11%), Europe (8%), etc.

"Our company has a constant impact on the global environment just by virtue of conducting business," says Kenichi Azuma, Executive Officer, Vice President, Productivity & Environmental Programs. With this understanding, Mitsubishi Electric strives to contribute to sustainability on two levels. On the first level, the company strives to reduce direct environmental impacts from its operations. On the second level, it strives to reduce indirect environmental impacts that occur after its products are sold to customers - during and after use.

Everyday Operations

Mitsubishi Electric has many factories around the world, and thus it needs to reduce environmental impacts from daily operations in a deliberate, steady manner. Mitsubishi Electric seeks solutions in three areas: materials (efficient use of resources); energy (efficient use of energy); and toxicity (reducing the use of substances potentially harmful to the environment."

In order to do this, the company first needed to clarify its environmental impacts through the product life cycle. The four stages of this cycle are; manufacturing (factories), transportation (logistics), customer use (products), and after-use (recycling). Mitsubishi Electric measures and publicizes its energy and materials input and output for each process.
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/company/environ/index.html

Now let's examine how the company is actually reducing its impact at each stage, starting with manufacturing.

On the issue of material input and output, the company aims to promote "zero emissions" while reducing the total volume of waste generated. At Mitsubishi Electric, achieving "zero emissions" is defined as controlling the volume of waste ultimately discarded to below 1% of the total volume of waste produced. As of FY2004, it had achieved zero emissions three years in a row. However, total waste generation was up by 128,000 tons, an increase of 9.8% over FY2003 --- further improvement is needed.

As for energy conservation, its target is to reduce CO2 emissions from energy consumption at manufacturing by 25% from FY1990 levels by FY2010, on the basis of carbon-equivalent energy consumption per net sales. For the last five years the carbon-equivalent emissions intensity has been successfully reduced, and to achieve its target the company aims to cut an additional 46,000 tons (10 % compared to FY2002). As far as chemical substance emissions are concerned, in FY2004 it has also successfully reduced total emissions by 18.8% from FY2002. These achievements are the results of everyday efforts at each factory.

Nonetheless, looking at product life cycle, we can see that energy consumption is overwhelmingly greater at the consumer-use stage than at the manufacturing stage. According to the company's material balance sheet, the volume of CO2 emissions at the customer-use stage was 3.4 million tons, whereas at the manufacturing stage it was just 43,000 tons. The implications of this are nationally significant, as CO2 emissions from homes are increasing and show no sign of slowing down.

Mitsubishi Electric has been working to improve the environmental efficiency of its products through its "Design for the Environment" approach since 1991. This approach involves evaluating the products in terms of 51 criteria before commercialization. The company evaluates both the product's merits and environmental impact, and quantitatively measures its environmental efficiency factor. After completing these procedures, the company certifies the product as an Eco-Product; in FY2004 Eco-Products accounted for 60% of products in about 100 applicable product groups (up from 24% in 2002). Furthermore, a product that introduces a new concept or innovative technology that contributes to sustainability, or achieves an environmental efficiency factor rating higher than 2 is certified internally as a "Hyper Eco-Product." One result of this "Design for Environment" approach has been that the company's air conditioners now use only 1/2 of the electricity consumed by the company's model of 10 years ago. Air conditioners account for one-quarter of household electrical consumption, so this technological innovation is undoubtedly having a positive impact.

"Uni & Eco"

Despite these achievements, "environmental efficiency and profitability are still not directly linked," says Fumie Nakano of the Environmental Department. The question for the company and the industry is; how to create a virtuous cycle, where products with high environmental efficiency gain popularity among customers, which heightens engineers' motivation to further improve the product's environmental efficiency, and so on?

In meeting this challenge, Mitsubishi Electric has created a new concept called "Uni & Eco" for home appliances. "Uni" stands for "universal design" and "Eco" for "ecology." Three factors define an Uni & Eco product: 1) it should be easy for anyone to use, 2) it should reduce environmental impacts, and 3) it should be designed with the end of the product's life in mind. These three concepts are now being integrated into Mitsubishi Electric's search for how it can make a contribution to creating a sustainable society, and are being applied in each of the home appliances it produces.

"Ease of use" is a value that consumers experience directly. Anyone, regardless of age, sex, or physical characteristics, must be able to use the products safely and comfortably. For example, in the past, the standard design for the company's large refrigerators used drawers, but subsequently the standard model adopted a completely different design with center-opening doors. The handles are lined up vertically and the doors open from the center. You can open the doors by pulling from any height, and close them with only the slightest push. It is easy to use for a person in a wheelchair. At waist level, there are compartments for every temperature zone - including ice, vegetable, and freezer compartments - ensuring that everything is easily accessible. In fact, this design even offers more actual storage space. The door and casing give it a double-layered structure, which prevents cold-air loss and makes it more energy efficient.

The concept of "reducing ecological impact" refers to impacts during use, and "design with the end of the product's life in mind" refers to impacts after use. To improve environmental performance in these two categories, the company aims to establish "closed-loop recycling," in which used products are recycled into products of comparable quality. Recycling in which quality goes down, for example thermal recycling, is not considered good enough. For example, the company now takes back the CFC gas R22, used as a refrigerant in air conditioners, and recycles it into fluorine resin used in rice cookers. Another example is its recycling of cross-flow fans back into cross-flow fans, which was thought to be difficult due to the glass fiber-combined resin used in this product. However, the quality of the product is not degraded in this process.

At Mitsubishi Electric, there are four stages of recycling, the level differing according to difficulty. Level 1 involves recycling only parts, which can be separated by hand and categorized, and from which foreign substances can be easily removed. Level 2 involves recycling parts that can be separated by hand and categorized. Level 3 involves recycling parts that can be separated by hand, but which must be analyzed one by one to identify its type. The last stage, level 4, involves recycling by automatic separation and mechanical crushing. The company had succeeded in developing this level 4 "hyper cycle" technology ahead of its competitors, and now has a plant up and running. Partly due to this, the recycling ratio of home appliances that are taken back by the company is rising - 84% for air conditioners and 86% for TV sets in FY2004. The company is endeavoring to establish this closed-loop recycling system while promoting the development of "Hyper Eco-Products."

Ms. Nakano of the company's Environmental Department says, "We would like to communicate environmental information more effectively to our customers." The more information users have, the more information and quality they demand. Engineers respond to these demands with technological innovation. Through such mutually-reinforcing action between users and engineers, we may be able to gradually see what a sustainable lifestyle will be like. We look forward to seeing Mitsubishi Electric accelerate its virtuous cycles.

(Staff Writer Kazunori Kobayashi)

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