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We work to comprehensively lower the environmental burden of factories making products for the Fujitsu Group.
The Fujitsu Group continually strives to reduce the quantities of materials, water resources, and energy used at its factories, as well as the amounts of chemicals and waste materials generated and atmospheric pollutants emitted, while trying to minimize manufacturing costs. It also takes a rigorous approach to complying with laws and regulations and eliminating environmental risks.
Assembly, processing and other production-related processes and equipment account for roughly 40% of overall CO2 emissions at Fujitsu factories. In a move to cut energy consumption associated with production, we are working to visualize power usage particularly around surface mount technology (SMT), assembly and testing processes. Improvements are then implemented beginning with processes and facilities where the most efficient reductions in power consumption are possible.
Cutting Electricity Consumption by Insulating Electric Heaters
PFU TechnoWise Limited, a manufacturer of scanners and information kiosk terminals for the Fujitsu Group, works with Fujitsu's Monozukuri Development Unit(Production Promotion Unit) to develop green manufacturing technologies, including ones that reduce electricity usage, for saving energy. In May 2012, they came up with a way to greatly reduce the amount of electricity used by aging tents, which are used in the manufacturing of information kiosk terminals and evaluate the reliability of products under high heat.
In a traditional aging tent, an electric heater positioned at the top takes in and heats outside air to keep the inside of the tent at 40℃. Air pressure inside the tent, therefore, is higher than outside, and warm air leaks from the bottom and sides. That the heater must replace the amount of warm air leaked means energy efficiency is very bad. To improve upon this situation, the electric heater was covered with an insulated box, causing the warm air inside the tent to recirculate through the heater. This relieved the difference in air pressure, eliminating the warm air leakage, and, because the recirculation of warm air improved the operating efficiency of the heater, the amount of electricity needed to keep the redesigned tent at 40℃ was reduced. Measurements show that an improved aging tent uses only 0.325kWh, less than a quarter (more specifically, a 76.7% savings) of the 1.4kWh used by a traditional model. In February 2013, this initiative was one of 60 energy-saving activities that were recognized with an award for outstanding energy management at the 2012 Ishikawa Energy-Saving promotion convention.
Moving forward, we will continue with efforts to steadily save energy with changes to air conditioning facilities, exhaust ducts, and other improvements within manufacturing plants.
Low-Melting-Point Lead-Free Solder for Environmentally Friendly Product Manufacturing
Fujitsu IT Products Limited, which makes server products, had adopted the use of lead-free solder to comply with the RoHS Directive for UNIX servers. The solder, however, had a high melting point of over 200℃, meaning that the heater for the solder furnace had to be kept at a high temperature and large amounts of electricity were consumed.
To improve upon this situation, the lead-free solder was fundamentally changed to a low-melting-point solder composed of zinc, bismuth, and silver. With this newsolder, which has a melting point of only 139℃, the solder furnace can be kept at a lower temperature and electricity consumption for the furnace heater has been reduced by 39%. That means an annual energy cost saving of about 740,000 yen and CO2 reduction of around 14 tons. This low-melting-point lead-free solder is now being planned for use on IA servers and mainframes.
Working towards a recycling-minded society, our 3R*1 policy encourages all employees to separate waste materials into different categories for effective recycling.
*1 3R:
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
In the Fujitsu Group Environmental Protection Program (Stage VI), we set the goal of reducing the amount of waste business operations generated by 20% compared to FY 2007 levels by the end of FY 2012.
We generated 27,353 tons of waste (per unit of actual sales: 6.2 tons/billion yen) in FY 2012, which was a 3.8% reduction from the previous fiscal year's level and a 29.6% reduction from the FY 2007 level. The Fujitsu Group Environmental Protection Program (Stage VI) target of a 20% reduction from the FY 2007 level, therefore, was achieved. The reasons for these reductions include the conversion of waste paper and cardboard to valuable materials, and the partial introduction of in-house processing of flux cleaning solvent.
Waste Type | Waste Generated | Effective Utilization | Final Disposal |
---|---|---|---|
Total | 27,353 | 25,346 | 2,007 |
Sludge | 4,377 | 4,298 | 79 |
Waste oil | 1,863 | 1,862 | 0.4 |
Waste acid | 3,728 | 3,725 | 3 |
Waste alkali | 3,388 | 3,386 | 2 |
Waste plastic | 4,046 | 3,955 | 91 |
Waste wood | 1,306 | 1,306 | 0 |
Metal waste | 517 | 515 | 2 |
Glass/ceramic waste | 288 | 288 | 0 |
Other *2 | 7,839 | 6,010 | 1,829 |
*2 Other:
Other includes general waste, paper waste, septic tank sludge, residues, rubble, textile waste, animal and plant residue, and infectious waste.
Partial Introduction of In-House Processing of Flux Cleaning Solvent
At Shinko Electric Industries Co. Ltd., the cleaning fluid (type of ethylene glycol) used in a cleaning process to remove flux from products was being disposed of as industrial waste.
Switching the discharge destination of industrial wastewater to the sewer system from a river made it possible to process a portion (47%) of the liquid waste in-house and reduce industrial waste discharges by approximately 300 tons per year.
Annual savings in processing expense, meanwhile, came to about 3.4 million yen.
The Fujitsu Group promotes zero emissions*3 activities at Group companies in Japan. Zero emissions status was not achieved at some locations. We will continue considering ways to achieve zero emissions at these locations.
*3 Zero emissions:
Refers to effectively using 100% of waste and eliminating waste earmarked for landfills or simple incineration.
Fujitsu has already marked significant achievements in reducing waste. As ongoing management targets, therefore, we will work to reduce waste to less than the average level of 2007-2011 (31,134tons) and to continue zero emission activities among Japanese plants.
Following revisions to the Chemical Management Law*4, more chemical substances are now covered by the MSDS*5 system and the PRTR*6 system (revisions applied to the MSDS system from October 2009, and to the PRTR system from April 2010).
Responding to these revisions, the Fujitsu Group has asked its suppliers to cooperate in the delivery of chemicals, and based on the revised PRTR system it is carrying out initiatives to obtain an accurate grasp of the amounts of chemicals transported and emitted. In FY2012, emissions of chemical substances covered by the PRTR system were 22 tons, and per unit of actual sales were 5.0kg/billion yen).
*4 Chemical Management Law:
A law to promote correct understanding, management, and reporting of amounts of designated chemicals emitted into the environment
*5 MSDS:
A system that requires attachment of a Material Safety Data Sheet to chemical deliveries
*6 PRTR:
Abbreviation of Pollutant Release and Transfer Register. This system requires the registration and reporting of data relating to the emission of harmful chemicals into the environment and volumes within transported waste.
The Fujitsu Group operates a Chemical Information System called "FACE." It can be used not only to register and monitor chemicals at every site but also to manage MSDS and control income and expenditure in conjunction with purchasing data and inventory data, FACE is helping the Group to strengthen its chemicals data and make it more efficient.
Ozone-depleting substance | Date of elimination |
---|---|
Cleaning freons (CFC-113, CFC-115) | End of 1992 |
Carbon tetrachloride | End of 1992 |
1,1,1-trichloroethane | End of October 1994 |
Substitute freons (HCFCs) | End of March 1999 |