Inspire Life and an Action Plan for Sustainability
February 25th, 2008
Last week February 20 to 21, I attended Hitachi’s Inspire Life Conference in London. This event show cased all the Hitachi companies from Air Conditioning and Refrigeration to Transport Systems spread across 7 floor of the QE2 Conference Center. The Transport System’s Rail Group had recently won the contract for a hybrid diesel train system that will be inaugurated for the 2012 Olympics in London. A key focus for this conference was the creation of technology for a sustainable society.
While I have been in Hitachi Data Systems for almost 10 years, I never had the opportunity to see the breadth of Hitachi products in one place. Nor was I aware of the commitment and effort that went into the production of products for sustainability. I learned that all the Hitachi Groups have a short and long term environmental action plan for a sustainable society. This action plan includes:
The design of ECO products. Since 1999, products have been assessed on 8 criteria including: manufacturing, procurement, factory effect on global warming, resource recycling, partnerships, management, next generation strategy, and eco mind or attitude. Products are given a score from 0 to 5 in each of these 8 categories. The USP V, Storage Virtualization platform is one of the highest rated products with a score of 26.1.
Green Procurement of raw materials is based on ISO 14001 or KES environmental management certification. The target is a 100% green supplier ratio.
Green Manufacturing is addressed by certification of Super ECO Factories, based on ISO 14001 certification.
Packaging and transportation comes under Super ECO Offices whose goal is to reduce energy for transportation and CO2 for product, packaging, and waste.
An Environmental Efficiency Index is used to evaluate use, reuse, and maintenance. One ratio looks at product value to raw material used. Another looks at the ratio of value to the quantity of greenhouse gasses emitted over the life cycle.
ECO Friendly Systems looks at end of life and new life. This looks at development and measurement of regional recycling methodologies, recycling costs, and environmental impact.
It was clear from this conference that all the Hitachi Groups were aligned to develop products that are sustainable. This goes beyond the power and cooling ratings of the finished product. It starts with the raw materials, the suppliers, manufacturing, packaging and transportation, and goes forward to the life cycle effects, disposal, recycling, and next generation transition.
