Hitachi’s Environmental Vision
Posted by Kelly Smith on Tue, Jun 01, 2010
A truly sustainable business must look at the impact of their operations in the short term and in the long term. Technology corporations can have questionable environmental record, simply because of the seemingly constant need for consumers to upgrade to the latest appliance or gadget. Short-term eco efforts can be quickly superceded by the disposable nature of technology products over the long term.
Hitachi is working to change this stereotype. They are hard at work reducing carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing and shipping processes to lower their carbon footprint. Hitachi's longer-range plans specifically include a reduction of their carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tons by 2025. Hitachi already successfully reduced their carbon emissions in their Japanese operations by 14 percent from 1990 to 2009.
Another way that Hitachi will proceed with a more green business model is by making their products greener. They are working on using more recyclable materials for lighter-weight products that are energy efficient and have a long, low-impact lifespan. These products will also use more eco-friendly packaging materials to carry them from factory to consumer.
In North America, available Hitachi products include televisions, camcorders, power tools, external hard drives, and car audio systems.
Specific green technology innovations are also in the works. At Hitachi's 2009 Climate Change Forum in Washington, D.C., the company displayed many of its environment-specific technologies. Hybrid cars, lithium ion batteries, monorail and hybrid railway systems, energy conserving air conditioning systems, wind turbine generators, nuclear power plants, and photovoltaic power generation materials were among the technologies shared with conference attendees.