NEC has achieved its target of "zero net CO2 emissions" by fiscal 2011 one year ahead of schedule, resulting in new medium-to long-term action plans for fiscal 2011 and beyond, according to the company's CSR Report 2010 (for fiscal year, ended March 31, 2010).
NEC achieved zero net CO2 emissions by offsetting the sum of emissions generated from manufacturing, office and other business-related activities as well as at the customer use stage through the use of IT solutions.
The company set goals to reduce the CO2 emissions (power consumption by products during use converted into CO2) of products (performance basis) by 50 percent compared with fiscal 2006, develop four eco-friendly hardware products with the ECO Symbol Star and reduce total GHG emissions (in absolute terms) by 20 percent compared with fiscal 2006, in fiscal year 2010.
NEC reduced the CO2 emissions of products by 44 percent, falling short of its 50 percent target. However, the company developed 10 eco-friendly hardware products and reduced total GHG emissions by 37 percent, exceeding its 20 percent target.
In fiscal 2010, NEC reduced greenhouse gases (CO2 equivalent) in manufacturing and office activities by 30 percent, or 1.16 million tons, from the previous fiscal year. Part of the reduction is attributed to equipment for removing greenhouse gases and energy-saving equipment.
In the area of new product development, NEC conducted an extensive product environment assessment to ensure that all new products have energy consumption that is equal or lower in absolute terms or on a performance basis, compared to products available in 2006.
As a result, power consumption by products fell 44 percent as a whole compared to products in fiscal 2006. This represented a reduction of 540,000 tons of CO2 emissions at the product use stage.
NEC also is targeting an 80 percent reduction in power consumption of all products in fiscal 2018, compared with fiscal 2006, and a 90 percent reduction in fiscal 2031.
Along with energy-saving performance, NEC launched a line of desktop PCs that contain about 90 percent flame-retardant bioplastic in the housing. Seventy-five percent of the organic components used are from plants. NEC aims to use bioplastics in all major products in 2017.
NEC recently claimed a first-of-its-kind bioplastic that's made from plant stems and cashew nut shells.
As part of the company's Environmental Management Action Plan, NEC is focused on three key areas: low carbon, ecosystem and biodiversity preservation, and resource recycling and conservation.
Through a number of environmentally-friendly solutions including cloud computing based information management systems, energy efficient offices, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and smart grid/power storage, NEC aims to help reduce CO2 emissions by 15 million tons in fiscal 2017 and 50 million tons in fiscal 2030.
In fiscal 2010, NEC drafted an Environmental Business Concept to make its customer operations including offices and data centers "entirely eco-friendly," which include measures such as switching to lower power ICT devices and lighting.
The entire NEC Group is working to reach these objectives, and from fiscal 2011 will adopt "carbon statistics" as a mechanism for the shared management of progress in this area. This metric will entail making overall year-to-year changes in CO2 emissions from all business activities and contributions to carbon reductions more visible, both at the individual group company and organizational levels.
