Towards a Sustainable Society

Hitachi Group Environmental Vision and Long-Term Environmental Targets

Hitachi’s mission is to “contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products.” We seek solutions to environmental issues, which are of serious concern to society, through our business operations and promote environmental management from a long-term perspective. We contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society with our superior green technologies, by providing value to customers in all business segments. We also promote resource efficiency toward the transition to a circular economy.

Our “Environmental Vision” clearly outlines Hitachi’s vision for society from a long-term perspective, in light of global environmental challenges including the climate change crisis, and based on our management policies. In working toward achieving this vision, we have established a set of long-term environmental targets aimed at building a low-carbon society, a resource-efficient society, and a harmonized society with nature under the banner of Hitachi Environmental Innovation 2050 and are working to advance these targets.

Environmental Vision and Hitachi Environmental Innovation 2050

As a member of Hitachi Group, the Group is engaging in an Environmental Action Plan that sets concrete action items every three years in order to achieve Hitachi Environmental Innovation 2050.

In concrete terms, we focus on developing products with low environmental impact and green solutions, CO₂ reduction activities to achieve carbon neutrality, and manufacturing to achieve a resource-efficient society.

Targets of Hitachi Global Life Solutions 2024 Environmental Action Plan

Efforts to Achieve a Low-Carbon Society

Hitachi Group aims to achieve a low-carbon society and is pursuing initiatives with the goals of achieving carbon neutrality by FY2050 throughout our value chain, and by FY2030 in our factories and offices. In working toward achieving this, our company is promoting the activities aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions of our own, those of our customers, and of society.

As for decarbonization in our company, we are promoting increasing in-house power generation by installing solar power systems, and purchasing renewable energy. We will continue to work toward the goal of reducing more than 50% of CO₂ emissions through measures such as the introduction and expansion of renewable energy with additionality and promoting energy conservation measures. In addition, for more effective use of power generated in-house, we will also consider introducing an energy storage system.

We are accelerating the reduction of CO₂ emissions in our production processes by utilizing our Hitachi Internal Carbon Pricing System and promoting the introduction of energy conservation equipment.

CO₂ reduction promotion plan at factories and offices within Hitachi Group (as of Mar. 2023)

As for contributing to reducing our customer’s CO₂ emissions while using our products, we will provide products with excellent energy-saving performance and with low environmental impact, as well as services and solutions. In terms of products, we offer refrigerators, washers, and air conditioners with high energy-saving performance. In terms of services and solutions, we started to provide the service for the revision of the Act on Rational Use and Appropriate Management of Fluorocarbons *1 in September 2022, which came into effect in August 2022, as an optional menu item of the air-conditioning IoT solution “exiida Remote Monitoring and Predictive Diagnosis,” which is a Lumada solution.

*1 Act on Rational Use and Appropriate Management of Fluorocarbons

Overview and goals of “exiida” air-conditioning IoT solution, a Lumada solution

Efforts to Achieve a Resource Efficient Society

Aiming to build a resource-efficient society, Hitachi Group is advancing a shift from the conventional linear economy to a circular economy. To achieve this, our company promotes reduction of water consumption in the production process, the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), and extending product life and making our products smaller and lightweight.

Approach to transitioning to a circular economy Note: Hitachi Group normally refers to suppliers (including vendors and providers) as procurement partners, with whom we build business together on an equal footing.

3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) activities

The aim of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) activities

For Reduce, we are working on reducing the size and weight of our products in order to minimize the use of resources. For Reuse, we are working to increase the amount of resources reused through product alterations, repairs, and the use of leftover materials. And for Recycle, we are working on initiatives such as the reuse of our own raw materials, both in-house and in cooperation with other companies.

For recycling of home appliances, we have a dedicated plant (Kanto Eco Recycle Co., Ltd.) on the premises of our Tochigi Plant, which is a production base, and we have established a system that allows us to engage in the entire process, from development and design to recycling. We are also actively engaged in the development of new recycling technologies to make effective use of resources, including enabling closed recycling systems that were previously discarded.

In particular, to further promote the recycling of plastic resources, the entire Hitachi Global Life Solutions Group is working to build plastic recycling systems for recycling our own home appliance products. By using this system, we aim to increase the use of recycled plastic in our products such as stick vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and washers.

In addition, since October 2022, we have been engaged in the business of refurbishing and selling initial returns (refurbishing business), which we have been operating through an online store run by our company.

Self-circulating plastic recycling systems for home appliances

Efforts to Achieve a Society Harmonizedwith Nature

To achieve a society harmonized with nature, Hitachi Group has established targets to minimize our impact on natural capital as part of our long-term environmental targets.

We classify the emission of greenhouse gases and chemical substances into the atmosphere and the generation of waste materials in the course of our business activities as negative impact activities. Providing products and services that contribute to ecosystem preservation and undertaking activities to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems are categorized as positive impact activities. We aim to minimize the difference between positive and negative impacts by 2050.

Hitachi Group’s Timetable for Minimizing Impacts

Initiatives to minimize impacts on natural capital

Our company assesses the negative impacts that our business activities had on natural capital by using the LCI (Life Cycle Inventory) database as we aim to reduce such impacts. In the FY2022 assessment, the field of global warming, land use, resource consumption, and air pollution in the urban area accounted for 94% of the total. Since those factors are caused by use of energy and raw material procurement, we aim to reduce the negative impacts by further strengthening the initiatives to realize a low-carbon society and resource-efficient society.

To expand positive impacts, we will engage in social contribution activities related to nature conservation.

Negative impacts on natural capital in Hitachi Global Life Solutions’ business activities (FY2022)

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