Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2014-3 (Vol. 65, No. 2)

Special Issue: Environment

• Environmental Strategy of Fujitsu Group

The Fujitsu Group recognizes environmental awareness to be one of the most important commitments in corporate management, and reflects it in the FUJITSU Way, a corporate philosophy with guiding principles for the Company and its employees. Striving to help realize a prosperous, human-centric and self-sustaining society, we also aspire for a Human Centric Intelligent Society to leverage the power of ICT, and we have set this in our new vision. This concerns new fields where ICT can be used—Smart City; energy; water supply; transport; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and medicine. This idea has led the Environmental Action Plan Stage VII, commencing from fiscal 2013, to go beyond expanding commitments for customers and society to promote environmental initiatives concordant with corporate activities by strengthening environmentally aware customer approaches. In this issue, we describe the framework of our environmental management as well as of various initiatives to reduce environmental impact at the Fujitsu Group. This article also shows cases in which Fujitsu solutions are supporting customers' efforts in environmental management and reducing environmental impact.

• Technology to Reduce Environmental Impact for Next-Generation Smart Cities

Environmental issues are escalating at a fast pace: water and food shortages due to rapid population growth; climate change; the exhaustion of resources and energy sources; pollution of water, soil and the atmosphere; and the threat to biodiversity, to name a few. To provide solutions to these problems and achieve a sustainable, prosperous society, the potential of ICT must be leveraged both for the protection of the global environment and to secure economic growth—in other words, to attain 'green' growth. Furthermore, more research and development is required not only in the areas of the environment but also on social issues in agriculture, energy and Smart City, transport, medicine, education, and other domains. Fujitsu will strive to challenge the limit to social sustainability by pursuing a Human Centric Intelligent Society while creating various innovations for society with new value through advantageous use of diverse information. Among R&D to support innovations relating to society and the environment, in this paper we will present energy harvesting technology that supports M2M, environmental management technology, and environmental metering technology, as technologies to achieve reductions in environmental impact for next-generation smart cities.

• Solutions to Help Create Sustainable Society

The modern world is facing a multitude of challenges in relation to deterioration of the global environment such as climate change and threats to biodiversity as well as shortages of resources, energy, and food due to population growth and increasing social issues due to urbanization. The Fujitsu Group aspires to play a part in resolving these issues, and is pursuing Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions through ICT Solutions and Provision of ICT Solutions to Help Create a Sustainable Society. This paper outlines the concepts and initiatives in these areas as the Fujitsu Group, together with descriptions of specific cases. Regarding the area of ICT solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we will present recent successful cases of the "Global Communications Platform" and "Sales Tablets for a Life Insurance Company," where the deployment of Fujitsu's ICT services led to a reduction in CO₂ emissions. We will also introduce the recent trend toward global standardization. As to the ICT solutions for creating a sustainable society, a case in the area of agriculture, which has recently been attracting greater interest, will be described.

• ICT-based Optimal Plant Management Solution

Reducing energy costs is one of the challenges facing the manufacturing industry of today. Some internal factors such as a growing production volume underlie the issue, but rising energy tariffs and other external factors are also significant. Various measures have been taken by manufacturers to lower costs, including "visualization" of energy consumption, but apparently ideas to achieve further reductions have been exhausted. To realize further energy savings, this article turns to a hitherto-neglected aspect of energy consumption, i.e., consumption relative to production volumes, and discusses a method to cut energy consumption by monitoring its correlation to production volume as well as the fluctuation of energy consumption, drawing on a real-case solution. It also discusses the implementation of the Smart Factory, that aims to comprehensively address plant-wide issues such as product quality, delivery, raw material cost and workplace safety besides energy issues.

• Optimal Operation Planning for Renewable Energy Management Based on Large-scale Simulation

Utilizing natural energy including photovoltaic (PV) power generation is raising expectations as a key to realizing a sustainable and affluent low-carbon society. However, there is an issue with effectively using such energy according to the demand because the amount of energy generated may greatly vary with unpredictable changes in the weather. For example, PV power generation has a characteristic suited for peak power reduction, in which more energy is output in the daytime or summer when energy demand increases, but it is necessary to appropriately deal with the hardly predictable output variations for enhancing the peak power reduction effect. This paper presents a technology for optimal operation planning of storage batteries that has been developed for resolving this issue, including the result of verification based on the result of operating a demonstration system built in Fujitsu Kawasaki Research & Manufacturing Facilities.

• Approach to Environmental Quality Improvement by Visualization of Environmental Pollution

The recent rise to the surface of new environmental issues such as the health implications of PM_2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 µm in diameter) has increased awareness of environmental issues that had been relatively calm for some time in Japan, calling for urgent countermeasures. PM_2.5 has not yet been fully understood in terms of, for example, its potential effects on human health or its dynamics. Fujitsu provides services to "visualize" various types of quality, of which visualization of environmental quality is one aspect. Fujitsu is dedicated to improving the accuracy of technologies for measuring and conducting component analysis to provide a better service, and considers PM_2.5 to be one of the important foci of its endeavor. In this article, we will clarify the challenges presented by the current issues of PM_2.5, and describe Fujitsu's approach to improving analytical and visualization technologies.

• Conservation of Biodiversity by Making Use of ICT

Our lives, including our economic activities, depend on the blessings of ecosystems based on biodiversity. However, expansion of human activities has reduced the habitats of creatures, and the number of species constituting ecosystems is decreasing at an accelerating pace. These activities are destroying the foundation of our lives. The Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010 says that, while efforts are being made in some fields, loss of global biodiversity is still continuing and it is essential to act in the coming 10 to 20 years. In order to stop this biodiversity loss on a global scale, the national and local governments, NPOs, research institutions and enterprises are required to cooperate in conserving biodiversity. The Fujitsu Group, which formulated the Fujitsu Group Biodiversity Action Principles in 2009, is carrying out activities based on the priority measures of making use of information and communications technology (ICT) to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity together with various stakeholders, in addition to striving to reduce the impact of its own business activities. This paper presents examples of utilizing ICT as Fujitsu's activities for biodiversity conservation: the Mobile Phone Photo System cloud service that has allowed biological research with the participation of citizens, and the voice recognition system for research on a habitat of Blakiston's fish owls, which is an endangered species.

• Environmental Consideration throughout Entire Life Cycle of Products

The Fujitsu Group is currently engaged in promoting Design for Environment (DfE) in its products and reducing environmental impact throughout the entire life cycle of products. The Group has been implementing product environment assessment since FY1993 with the purpose of reducing energy consumption, saving resources and improving the recycling rate based on power saving and energy conservation technologies, while eliminating harmful substances through chemical substance management. Setting the target of providing customers with high-performance products in addition to reducing environmental impact, the Fujitsu Group has carried out the development of Green Products which are DfE products in the Fujitsu Group, development of Super Green Products integrating the supreme elements in terms of environmental consideration and the approaches to enhance environmental efficiency of products through the introduction of Eco-Efficiency Factor. Further, since FY2013, emphases have been placed particularly on improving the energy efficiency and resource efficiency of products to further promote the development of DfE products. In this paper, the Fujitsu Group's past approaches in the DfE area are outlined and its efforts to improve energy efficiency and resource efficiency of products are introduced in the Fujitsu Group Environmental Action Plan Stage VII (FY2013–FY2015).

• Cutting-edge Environmental Technology for Manufacturing Processes

Manufacturing capabilities (monozukuri) today cannot be considered without environmental awareness. Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. engages in developing innovative environmental technology used for manufacturing processes. To conserve the global environment, the use of volatile organic compounds (VOC), usually contained in paints, is expected to be reduced. Application of water-based paint with no VOC content on information and communications technology (ICT) equipment has been technically challenging so far. This is because it requires high drying temperature which plastics cannot stand, while the paint must achieve high coating performance. Addressing this challenge, we have developed a coating emulsion in a core shell structure to satisfy both low drying temperature and coating performance. As a result, we succeeded in reducing the VOC content by approximately 80%. Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), another potentially toxic substance, is being regulated in Japan, the US and the EU; and is now being considered as a candidate for next-round regulation under the EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive. Identification of the presence of a phthalate has been an issue in a factory's acceptance testing operations since simple detection methods available today are influenced by other additives in test samples, and are not sensitive enough to meet regulatory requirements. We have developed a vapor collection method, a simple pre-processing method. With this method, it is possible to detect phthalate esters using FT-IR with a sensitivity to identify less than 1 wt% contained in pre-processed samples. This is a tenfold improvement in sensitivity over the existing method, and the method is implementable in acceptance testing operations.

• Eco-Friendly Products of Fujitsu Group

The Fujitsu Group takes environmental awareness seriously, and as part of tackling environmental issues in society such as climate change, energy conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, it provides eco-friendly products and services globally, catering for needs at various levels from infrastructure to commercial and household. This paper features five award-winning products that represent the Fujitsu Group's excellent eco-friendly products, namely SPARC M10 (UNIX server), FUJITSU Datacenter Product Modular Data Center (container datacenter), FACT-V X200 (ATM), FPSS Commercial Type I (universal power storage system), and Nocria X-series (air-conditioning). The UNIX server was awarded the Environment Minister's commendation in the Technology Development and Commercialization Category of the Minister of the Environment's 2013 Commendation for Global Warming Prevention Activity. The container datacenter won a Board Members' Recommendation at Green IT Award 2013 Japan. Other products received various awards for environmental contribution through the Fujitsu Group's awards program. This article presents these products focusing on the new technologies that have been developed and deployed in them. It also outlines their energy efficiency and other environmentally conscious design aspects.

• Activities for Global Warming Countermeasures in Plants and Offices

The first commitment period (2008 to 2012) of the Kyoto Protocol that sets a reduction goal for greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries has expired, and so negotiations are being carried out to establish a new international framework after fiscal 2013. In Japan since the Great East Japan Earthquake, although energy and environmental policies including the nuclear problem are under review, the industrial world has voluntarily set a reduction goal to be achieved by 2020 and is continuing with activities to reach that goal. As the Fujitsu Group's activities in plants and offices for global warming countermeasures, this paper describes the plans and results for greenhouse gas emissions and the ongoing measures, mainly including those in relation to facility equipment. In addition, it covers case examples of activities to develop energy-saving technologies in production processes and to promote the introduction of renewable energy.

• Promoting Environmentally Friendly Datacenters

The term "environmentally friendly datacenter" first appeared around 2007, followed by various initiatives in the industry. The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 highlighted the value of datacenters as important social infrastructure, particularly when there is an adverse impact of soaring energy prices. With this development as a backdrop, pursuing environmentally friendly datacenters has assumed significance as a long-term commitment. Fujitsu is pursuing this centering on three axes: achieving technological innovation to improve energy efficiency, by focusing on the gap between the environmental aspects of ICT and features of datacenter facilities; improving environmental performance with a target shared among over 100 ALL FUJITSU Datacenters that are operated under diverse business and environmental conditions; and helping to standardize methods to assess environmental performance. This paper describes Fujitsu's initiatives in these three areas.

• Introduction and Operation of Advanced Environmental Systems: Geothermal Heat Collection System and New Wastewater Treatment System

Dissemination of advanced, highly efficient technologies to reduce environmental impact at production and development sites, including natural energy and resource recycle, is a corporate social responsibility. However, there are many constraints in introducing these new technologies depending on the features, such as the site environment and corporate structure, and the effect of reducing environmental impact and cost-effectiveness greatly differ. In particular, it is an absolute requirement for site operation to construct a system for stable operation both at use points (production and development processes, etc.) and discharge points (wastewater treatment and waste, etc.) of printed circuit board manufacturing such as at the Fujitsu Nagano Plant. Fujitsu Facilities, which operates plant facilities under such stringent conditions, has considered these challenges, and introduced the following technologies, the first in Japan to do so as a production site: a geothermal heat collection system, where underground heat can be directly used as an energy source for production lines; and a new wastewater treatment system, where the copper-based materials in the copper waste liquid discharged from production lines can be recovered and recycled with high efficiency by using a method that differs from the conventional one. This paper introduces the performance of these two new technologies, and also the points we have improved to obtain the maximum capability of the systems according to the features of the Fujitsu Nagano Plant, throughout the introduction process of technology selection, basic design and trial operation. This paper also describes our know-how to overcome challenges.

• Fujitsu Group's Green Logistics Activities

In April 2006, the Revised Act on the Rational Use of Energy (Revised Energy Conservation Act) was enforced and both consigner businesses and transport operators are strongly demanded to take energy-saving measures in logistics. Fujitsu is a "specified consigner" that handles freight transport of more than a certain volume (annually 30 million ton-km) and it is required to report on the actual reduction of CO₂ emissions achieved with transport and energy-saving plans every year. Therefore, the entire Fujitsu Group is promoting activities to reduce the environmental load related to logistics throughout its supply chain, or green logistics activities. In the Environmental Action Plan Stage VII, Fujitsu has set a target relating to the logistics (domestic, intra-region outside of Japan) of the Group of "reducing by 2015 the CO₂ emissions per sales from logistics by over 4% compared to 2011" and is rolling out green logistics activities globally. This paper presents specific activities on which the Fujitsu Group is focusing to achieve this target, including the "modal shift expansion" and "reduction of vehicles by improving loading efficiency" together with case examples.

• Fujitsu Group's Green Purchasing Activities

The Fujitsu Group recognizes that environmental protection is one of its crucial management priorities, and systematically and consecutively conducts environmental activities throughout its entire business domain. Similarly in material procurement, the Fujitsu Group is aiming to reduce environmental loads in the upstream areas of its value chain through its business partners by promoting green procurement activities. Since its green purchasing activities were started in 2001, the Fujitsu Group has been considering both regulatory compliance of supplies and business partners' promotion of environmental activities, both of which are important. Therefore, the Fujitsu Group is working to promote the establishment of Environmental Management System (EMS) at business partners, and after that, eliminating restricted chemical substances completely, responding to trends of legal restrictions and establishment of Chemical substances Management System (CMS) related to them. Moreover, reducing CO₂ emissions, preserving biodiversity, and conserving water resources have been added as themes of its activities one after another, considering the trends of international environmental issues. Furthermore, the Fujitsu Group not only requires these activities to be conducted, but also supports business partners in various ways and considers that promoting activities in cooperation with business partners is important. This paper introduces the main activities of the Fujitsu Group's green purchasing.