Environment Ministry Makes Drastic Cuts to Its Office Heating, Lighting

Japan's Ministry of the Environment decided to essentially stop heating its own offices in Tokyo, from December to March, it was announced at a press conference by the administrative vice minister on November 27, 2006. As exceptions to this policy, office heating will be turned on from 7 to 9 a.m. on Monday mornings, when the rooms become too cold over the weekend when no workers are present, and also when room temperature falls below 17 degrees Celsius. These measures are expected to reduce annual CO2 emissions by 84 tons, equivalent to about 5.7 percent of the total emissions in fiscal 2005 in the building where the ministry is located.

In order to bolster action to curb global warming in its offices, the ministry will also gradually increase the number of multi-pane windows, convert part of the office local area network (LAN) to a more energy-efficient type, decrease the amount of fluorescent lighting on ceilings, and use energy-efficient LED reading lamps on office desks. Such methods will reduce CO2 emissions by about ten tons, making the total reduction 94 tons, or 6.4 percent of the emissions in the building during fiscal 2005. Meanwhile, wood pellet stoves will be introduced for heating, mainly at visitor centers in regional offices of the ministry.

The central government's target for fiscal 2006 is to reduce CO2 emissions by seven percent compared to fiscal 2001. The ministry is also implementing "Warm Biz" an energy-saving campaign based on wearing warmer clothing indoors in winter, and hoping that other ministries will follow the example it has set.



Posted: 2007/02/18 12:03:03 AM
Japanese version