Dr Narito Shibaike heads the Environmental Strategy Research Centre at Panasonic Corporation in Japan. He is presently involved in the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development & Climate (APP), International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) as a Japanese industry representative. Dr Shibaike will be speaking at the Panasonic 'eco ideas' Forum that will be held on 2November 2011 during SIEW 2011.Q1. You recently commented that going green is fast becoming a must for business survival. What are some of the strategies for incorporating energy management solutions into business processes?
Q2. How, in your view, do organisations in the East and West differ in adopting energy savings policies?
Q3. What do you see as the top three sustainability issues facing the Asia-Pacific region today?
Q4. As one of the leaders in eco-innovation, what are some of Panasonic's environmental programmes that have resulted in significant cost savings that you would recommend for other organisations to implement"CO2 meter and gauge" activity to visualise the energy consumption of each production equipment and the reduction effect of measures. We have introduced more than 40,000 measurement systems and Factory Energy Management Systems (FEMS) at all our global manufacturing sites. This initiative enables us to drastically reduce energy wastage. We also conduct energy conservation diagnosis for factories, where internal experts review the manufacturing processes and propose concrete reduction measures at production frontlines. In addition, we share information on excellent reduction activities among our companies via the intranet.
Apart from our own activities, we have started the Factory Energy Conservation Support Service using the knowledge we gained through our own initiatives in April 2010 to provide comprehensive guidance for energy conservation activities in factories. These include the visualisation of energy use, energy conservation diagnosis, practical measures for energy savings, human resource development and financing.
Q5. What are the factors that make some cities more adaptable to energy savings policies and systems"Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town" project. Located in Fujisawa city in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, the Smart Town is due to open in the fiscal year ending in March 2014. It is the first smart city project for Panasonic to introduce comprehensive energy solutions for homes, buildings and towns consisting of energy-saving products, energy creating and storing devices, as well as energy management systems. We will be looking at ways to overcome the challenges of adapting such energy solutions with the hope of developing the Smart Town into a model smart city that can be replicated in other parts of Japan and overseas.
By: Energy Market Authority (Singapore)