Panasonic's Asia Pacific "Eco Ideas" Declaration
Panasonic established a set of eco declarations and environmental management targets in April last year. The Japanese company revealed the current standings and progress at the media event today, as well as to set new targets for the next three years.
Saving the Planet
Some like it coy, while others prefer to make their efforts public. Panasonic held a media event at the new Marina Bay Sands today to announce their new "Eco Ideas" declarations and what they hope to achieve in the near future. The CE giant also took this opportunity to declare their new action plans for the planet, with an environmentally-friendly vision for their products, business partnerships and campaigns in the years ahead. One of the group's aim is to become the Number One Green Innovation Company in the electronics industry by 2018.
Internally certified by Panasonic, products such as these are known to have achieved a high environmental performance with regards to energy savings and effective utilization of resources and chemical substances.
What's better than celebrating a 100th anniversary with aplomb? Celebrating it alongside an ecological purpose, of course. Panasonic is revving their eco engines with a number of "green" initiatives before they celebrate their 100th anniversary in the year 2018.
Why the eco frenzy then? According to Panasonic, implementing environmental measures is essential to the company's goal in preventing global warming as well as to reduce the environmental impact in all business activities. Notably, Singapore happens to be the heart of their eco movement for the Asia Pacific region.
"One of my favorite quotes is that of an American philosopher who said 'a person is either the effect of his environment, or is able to have an effect upon his environment'", said Mr Ikuo Miyamoto, Managing Director of Panasonic Asia Pacific, during his opening address. Last year, Panasonic set aside a bunch of eco-targets in three major categories; namely in the products, manufacturing and public campaign segments.
To recap, goals announced in 2009 include: 80% of total sales from eco products, a reduction of 240,000 tons of CO2 emissions (including the creation of 'eco ideas' factories), and efforts to spread the 'eco ideas' philosophy via external stakeholders and educational road shows. All objectives are to be met by March 2010. If you'd like to know how the company fared, be sure to hit that jump.
Mr Ikuo Miyamoto, Managing Director, Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, expanding on the initial goals of 2009's 'eco ideas' declaration as well as highlighting the need to spread 'eco ideas' through community and youth outreach programmes.
Eco Results & Future Initiatives
Sales figures contributed by Panasonic's eco products doubled to 49% as of March this year, compared to 24% in March 2009. On that note, eco-friendly products such as air-conditioners are expected to experience a minor spike in retail prices, according to Mr Ikuo Miyamoto, Managing Director of Panasonic Asia Pacific. However, he hopes consumers would keep in mind the amount of energy-savings these eco products can similarly offer.
Secondly, instead of stopping at the predetermined target of 240,000 tons in CO2 emissions, Panasonic went on to reduce 290,000 tons between April 2007 and March 2010, thus exceeding the initial target with an excess of 50,000 tons. In addition, three model 'eco ideas' factories have also sprung up in Asia Pacific since, including an LCD TV plant in Malaysia, a home-appliance factory in Thailand, and a refrigeration compressor factory here in Singapore.
On top of their ongoing ambitions, new objectives have been implemented with this year's declaration as well. Instead of going with a three-pronged approach, Panasonic has streamlined their green campaign into two categories; 'eco ideas' for Lifestyles and 'eco ideas' for Business-styles.
Singapore's role as regional headquarters will allow it to serve as a test-bad for select 'eco ideas' prior to launching them in the region. Nonetheless, 'eco idea' factories have been set for development by 2013 in other Asian countries.
The focus this year seem to be on utilizing social media as a vehicle to spread an eco-friendly lifestyle, particularly amongst youths.
Panasonic has streamlined their green campaign into two main categories - "eco ideas" for lifestyles and "eco ideas" for business styles. The former is aimed at delivering eco products to consumers and educating them on eco-learning programmes. The latter relates to initiatives such as the continued reduction of harmful CO2 emissions and construction of more eco factories in the Asia Pacific region.
The "Lifestyles" approach includes a "Make A Change" campaign, launched on popular social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube to generate eco awareness and the inculcation of eco habits amongst consumers. Under their Business-style perspective, Panasonic has raised the bar a little higher to 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions reduction to be met by March 2013. Additionally, the company is also planning to erect model factories in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines to promote their eco movement.
Incidentally, Panasonic's eco efforts are recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and the FTSE4Good index designed to evaluate a company's corporate responsibility standards. All said, it is commendable to witness Panasonic doing their part for the environment and making ecological efforts in sustaining the environment part of their corporate mission. As consumers, however, we can only hope that such a movement would bring forth more eco-friendly and affordable products in the future.
Part of a regional 'Make a Change' Campaign, users can log on to Facebook and participate in an eco advertisement design competition. The top three entries with the highest votes get a chance to bring back a Panasonic eco-friendly TV each.
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