Japan Goes Green
Friday, August 24, 2007SUSIE GHARIB: Experts say the fastest way to cut greenhouse gas emissions is in the workplace and the country that has emerged as the leader in the green movement is Japan. Japan's prime minister has called for cutting his country's carbon emissions in half by the year 2050. Lucy Craft toured a Japanese beer company and looked at the changes that are brewing.
LUCY CRAFT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: While refining the formulas for its lager and draft, Kirin Brewery Company has been obsessively perfecting a recipe of another kind -- how to lighten its environmental footprint. Take glass bottles. The company figured out a way to make thinner and lighter ones. That means trucks can now haul 11 palettes of beer instead of just 10 -- more beer transported on fewer trucks, less pollution. Environmental consultant Junko Edahiro says across the board, Japanese companies now view environmentalism as not just a moral imperative, but a competitive necessity.
JUNKO EDAHIRO, CO-FOUNDER, JAPAN FOR SUSTAINABILITY: I think many Japanese companies in the manufacturing sector are seeing the environmental challenges as a new source of innovation.
CRAFT: Kirin's factories burn cleaner with natural gas instead of oil. Now, the firm is gradually shifting to biomass, made from clean-burning waste materials. Some of the energy-scrimping is hard to see, like keeping the company's neon sign turned off at night -- part of a government-run, so-called black illumination ecology campaign. Kirin's environmental czar is Yoshiyuki Yamamura.
TRANSLATION OF: YOSHIYUKI YAMAMURA, MGR., ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL AFFAIRS, KIRIN BREWERY: We've realized that we can't simply go on, business as usual. Going green is just another hurdle for us. On the other hand, being enviro- conscious also helps us cut costs and strengthen our management. There are many advantages to becoming environmental-friendly.
CRAFT: Saving energy is a mantra, not just on the factory floor, but also back at headquarters, where employees are shedding neckties and jackets to save on air conditioning. Room temperature stays at a balmy 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Office supplies are recycled instead of thrown away, documents flipped over and written on again and trash meticulously separated to minimize waste and maximize re-use. Now, employees are required to unplug their appliances at night -- among many small, common- sense energy-miser steps, the company says, that add up to giant leaps in conservation.
YAMAMURA: We're trying to get everyone into the habit of putting their computers away every evening, both to save energy as well as secure data.
CRAFT: Environmental consultant Junko Edahiro says the conformist tendencies of Japanese society are helping spur the corporate boom in environmentalism.
EDAHIRO: Harmony is very important. So, if one company or some companies are doing something, others follow. That is very natural, the group mentality.
CRAFT: Back in 1990, Kiran Beer's original target was to cut its carbon emissions by 25 percent. Instead, the company's energy-miser techniques have proved so effective, it says it's in line to cut those emissions by one third. Across Japan, firms like Kirin Beer demonstrate that environment-friendly doesn't mean unprofitable. Lucy Craft, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Yokohama, Japan.
