Energy Saving in Factories and Offices

In addition to CO₂, Panasonic emits PFCs, SF6, and other GHGs, which are mainly used as etching and cleaning gases at its semiconductor factories. In order to reduce the emissions of these gases, our semiconductor factories have been implementing measures including substituting such gases with those having lower environmental impact and installing GHG removal devices to recover the generated gases and render them harmless.

The World Semiconductor Council has been continuing until 2012 its aim to reduce GHG emissions by at least 10% from the 1995 level by 2010. Panasonic’s semiconductor department has achieved a 60% reduction from the 1995 level in fiscal 2012.

Panasonic has been implementing an energy conservation project at its factories in Malaysia since fiscal 2005, which was approved as a CDM project by the United Nations in March 2007, becoming the first CDM project to be implemented by a Japanese company for energy conservation. We are now further promoting this project.

• *1 Clean Development Mechanism: a method authorized by the Kyoto Protocol, whereby industrialized countries undertake initiatives to reduce GHG emissions through rendering financial and technical assistance to developing countries.