Introduction
The Kao Group is implementing total supply chain operation, a management approach that seeks to achieve overall optimization by integrating the flow of information from the "demand chain" (the retail environment) with the flow of materials in the "supply chain" (from product development and design to raw material procurement, production, distribution and sales). This article about "eco together" with Business Partners introduces efforts to save energy and reduce waste products within the production activities that make up the supply chain.
Toward efficient, waste-free energy use
Key principles of reduction of the environmental impact of production involve using materials that have as little impact as possible on the environment, and manufacturing products in a way that consumes as little energy as possible and creates minimum waste. We started looking for ways to save energy in our production activities as early as the 1970s, pre-dating widespread awareness of environmental issues. We have focused on saving energy because it directly affects the volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are thought to be causing global warming, and we now set ourselves numerical targets, using value-added production output* as an index. We use fiscal 1990 as our reference year for the amount of energy consumed to produce various products (reference value for 1990 is 100). This index has declined every year, dropping to 64 for fiscal 2008 compared with the target for that year of 74. Although we have increased production, we have reduced the absolute amount of production-related energy consumption from 253,000 kiloliters (crude oil equivalent of total consumption of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and other) in 1990 to 240,000 in 2008.
This reduction in energy consumption enabled us to reduce GHG emissions from 520,000 tons-CO2 (carbon dioxide equivalent) in 1990 to 469,000 in 2008.
*Value-added production output is calculated as the value of production (based on sales price) minus variable production costs.
Kao an early user of cogeneration systems for efficient generation of electricity and heat
Cogeneration (CHP: Combined Heat and Power) systems installed at our plants have played a major role in achieving our energy saving goals related to production activities. Cogeneration systems simultaneously generate electricity and useful heat from oil, gas or some other primary energy source. Before such systems, exhaust gas generated as a byproduct of electricity generation would be discharged at a temperature of almost 500℃ without this heat being used, but cogeneration systems enable the capture of this byproduct heat by boilers to be reused as steam.
In the past, the conversion rate from primary energy source to electricity was about 35%, with the remaining 65% being discharged as waste heat, but using this waste heat to generate steam in a cogeneration system enables 70 to 80% of the primary energy source to be used as secondary energy.
Kao started to switch from fuel oil to natural gas in the 1970s, and in 1992 became one of the first companies in Japan to start using natural gas cogeneration systems.
There are a number of reasons Kao adopted cogeneration systems before other companies. First, we had switched at an opportune time from fuel oil to natural gas as our primary energy source for generating electricity. The oil shock of the 1970s destabilized the supply of crude oil to Japan, and this had a big impact on the supply of fuel oil, which is refined from crude oil. Our shift to natural gas was also driven by the fact that it is a more environmentally friendly resource than fuel oil.
Another reason was that at the same plants, Kao was producing both household products, which required electricity, and chemicals, which required heat. The fact that our plants required both electricity and heat made them ideal for cogeneration systems. Gas companies had also made big strides in building the infrastructure required to supply natural gas to industrial plants. It was the combination of such factors that prompted us to deploy cogeneration systems in our plants throughout Japan.
Kao Wakayama Plant's cogeneration system and electricity-generating gas turbine
Kao has also begun to install cogeneration systems in overseas plants. Kao Group production sites emit a total of about one million tons of CO2 (fiscal 2008), with about half being emitted by overseas plants. Curbing our CO2 emissions is a particular priority in East and Southeast Asia, where we anticipate high business growth. P.T. Kao Indonesia Chemicals' plant was fitted with a gas cogeneration system in 2009, and is anticipated to reduce that company's CO2 emissions by about 4,000 tons per year, equivalent to about 20% of its total emissions.
Collaborating with partners to reuse waste products
In terms of production activities, Kao is striving not only to save energy, but also to reduce waste products. In fiscal 2004, we adopted the zero emissions approach to reducing final disposal waste (i.e., the amount going to the landfill), and have since met all of our yearly targets. Our plants generate a total of about 130,000 tons of waste every year, but as a result of our efforts to find ways of effectively using this waste, we have from fiscal 2008 reduced our final disposal waste to 0.08% of total waste generated.
Kao employs two key methods for reducing waste. The first is to reuse waste products within our plants; about 100,000 of the 130,000 tons of generated waste are reused in this way. Some of the waste is incinerated to be used as heat energy, thus also helping to save energy. The second method is to have outside partner businesses take the remaining 30,000 tons for recycling through reuse or resource recovery. For example, furnace ash is used as a raw material for cement, and wastepaper generated from production processes is turned into solid fuel.
Heat pumps installed to generate clean energy
Heat pumps are increasingly being used as a means of saving energy. They take advantage of the property of gases to rise in temperature if compressed, and drop in temperature if expanded, and the property of heat to flow from high temperature to low temperature locations. Heat pumps use previously-unexploited heat in air or water as a heat source to raise or lower the temperature of a coolant by compressing or decompressing it.
Extracting energy from ambient air or ambient water and generating no emissions, heat pumps have long been used in air conditioners, water heaters and other familiar appliances, but from June 2010, Kao will start using them at plants not only for air conditioning and refrigerating machines, but also for manufacturing processes that require hot water. The heat pumps will be able to create heat and cooled water at the same time. The heat will be used for sterilization, and the cooled water for air conditioning and other purposes. Compared with the old method of burning fossil fuels, use of heat pumps enables the curbing of energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
Environment-friendly manufacturing for a sustainable future
Kao is focusing on the following four priorities to ensure that all our production sites become environment-friendly plants: effective use of resources, reduction of CO2 emissions through the deployment of low carbon process technologies, reduction of water consumption through the use of 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) technologies, and implementation of environmental management to conserve biodiversity through the appropriate management of chemicals and cooperation with local communities.
We see ourselves as a part of the everyday life of our customers, and that is why we are seeking to implement low-impact manufacturing processes for a sustainable future where people live in harmony with nature.
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