Panasonic: Biodiversity, Manufacturing & GREEN IMPACT Pt 1

Global electronics manufacturer Panasonic Group has reiterated its long-term environmental vision, Panasonic GREEN IMPACT (PGI).

This long-term environmental vision was established in January 2022. It set the goal to achieve  virtually zero CO2 emissions (Scope 1 and 2) at all operating companies by 2030. 

It also laid out Panasonic’s ambition to realise a reduction in CO2 emissions of more than 300 million tons, or approximately 1% of total global CO2 emissions, by 2050.

This approach focuses on initiatives for economic circularity and carbon neutrality to achieve broader green transformation and economic growth. 

Back in August, Dr. Naoki Adachi, CEO of Response Ability, Inc. and Executive Director of the Japan Business Initiative for Biodiversity (JBIB), sat down with Tatsuo Ogawa, PHD Executive Officer and Group CTO to discuss this vision. 

Together they expanded on why corporate initiatives for sustainability are so crucial for manufacturers and within the Panasonic Group.

But before we discuss that and the initiatives Panasonic Group has pursued, there's some important context to address.

Biodiversity: what is it's relationship to manufacturing and why is the company prioritising it?  

Manufacturing's dependence on biodiversity

Protecting biodiversity should matter to everyone.

It's at the heart the processes that support all life on Earth, including humanity.

Without it, and its wide range of animals, plants and microorganisms, we'd lack the healthy ecosystems that sustain the food we eat and the air we breathe. 

Manufacturing is at the heart of modern economies. Without it we'd lack modern infrastructure, healthcare, food, transportation and energy, which have profoundly improved living conditions across the globe. 

Despite the relative parallels between the two areas, aligning them has been a challenge.

Manufacturing historically has relied on affordable but unsustainable practices and materials, utilising plastic, corrosive chemicals and releasing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere via large-scale factory operations. 

Despite the current culture of commitment and enthusiasm surrounding sustainability, its prioritisation is something new in many manufacturing verticals. 

According to the World Resources Institute, in 2022 global CO2 emissions were 182 times higher than they were in 1850, around the time the Industrial Revolution was underway.

Earlier this year in June, monthly mean atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations reached a record high of 426.91 parts per million (ppm). 

Normative states the manufacturing and production sector in 2024 accounts for one-fifth of global carbon emissions and 54% of the world's energy usage.

When it comes to waste, the sector has challenges too. Plastic after all doesn't grow on trees.

This non-biodegradable, difficult-to-recycle material has to be manufactured, and once its manufactured it makes up billions of tons of landfill waste. 

This waste in addition to CO2 emissions has an impact on local biodiversity. The warming climate is melting habitats like the polar ice caps, leaving its inhabitants with nowhere suitable to go.

Plastic waste in the seas is consumed by marine life, or tangles inescapably around their necks and mouths.

Between 1970 and 2018, WWF and the ZSL Institute of Zoology found an average 69% decline in wildlife populations around the world. 

While there are many factors in this decline, the manufacturing industry has also had a role to play. 

Why protecting biodiversity matters for manufacturers

With the above in mind, there are many reasons why protecting biodiversity should matter to manufacturers. One reason is to disrupt this negative historic impact.

Another is that we all, regardless of our titles, industry and income are human beings who should feel a moral responsibility to create a liveable world for future generations. 

Another comes from recognition of the way the sector relies on biodiversity as the baseline for its products, minerals and materials, incapable of functioning without them.

This business perspective is also at the forefront when you consider consumer attitudes to sustainability. 

Sustainability today is an existential question for us all- including manufacturers. Businesses that do not stand by our planet and its people will struggle to survive moving forward, as more and more consumers opt for environmentally-responsible alternatives. 

Studies have even proven that people are prepared to pay more for sustainable alternatives, and will actively disengage with companies and brands that fail to safeguard biodiversity.

Furthermore, poor biodiversity contributes to an unstable environment and climate, creating supply chain and procurement challenges for manufacturers. 

For example in the food & beverage manufacturing sector, rising temperatures and unpredictable weather is threatening the world's agriculture future.

If your business depends on crops and grains this is naturally concerning news.

Looking to the future in this way underscores why circularity as an economic principle inherently broadens horizons and mindsets.

Manufacturers are conceptualising their role beyond the factory, and joining the fight for a sustainable future for all the business and existential reasons discussed. 

Many have paid heed to the global target agreed to at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15) in December 2022.

This global target is referred to as “nature positive" aiming to stop biodiversity loss and put it on a recovery track by 2030 and to fully restore our ecosystems by 2050.

Panasonic Group is a global manufacturer who is protecting biodiversity for all the reasons above.

There's no doubt the company has also been influenced by the concerns surrounding biodiversity in Japan.

The fight to protect biodiversity in Japan

Panasonic's commitments are more than just part of global industry commitments to create a more sustainable world. 

They have emerged specifically from the state of Japanese biodiversity which continues to remain under threat.

Japan is one of the world's biodiversity 'hotspots', rich in biota despite its small land size at only 38 million hectares.

The number of known species in Japan is estimated to be over 90,000, and to exceed 300,000 if unclassified species are included.

Established in 1964, The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.

Over 4,900 species, with all or part of their range in Japan have been assessed for The IUCN Red List – around 80% of which exist in aquatic systems. 

Biological resource use, urban development and climate change are the primary threats to these species.

This is in direct opposition to Japan's long historic, cultural and political commitment to living in harmony with nature. 

It features prominently in the nations aesthetics and art- from Hokusai’s wave to paintings of Mount Fuji- and in historic traditions like Bonsai cultivation, the celebration of the Cherry Blossom and the growth of 'Forest Medicine' a natural alternative to mainstream medicine.

Japan has Satochi-satoyama- vast areas where artificial forests, rice paddy fields and rural areas take precedence- have been formed from centuries of human interactions. These areas account for about 40% of Japan’s total land area.

This is in part driven by a different concept of nature from how its comprehended in the West. 

Shizen, The Japanese term for nature refers to spontaneous self-development the results of that power. It's about life manifested in the surrounding world- in rivers, forests and stones- as part of a everlasting, spiritual system to which we all belong and eventually return to. 

Sounds a lot like circularity, right? 

With this understanding, protecting biodiversity has always been an important political, corporate and consumer concern in Japan.

The Japanese Governments Aichi Biodiversity Targets established in 2020 are part of a broader national strategy to protect and restore biodiversity.

The country has established 5 wilderness conservation areas (totaling 5,631 ha), 10 nature conservation areas and 541 prefecture-level conservation areas (totaling 77,342 ha).

Valuing and protecting the natural world is an important public concern. For example you've ever visited Japan, you'll likely have experienced the strong cultural opposition to littering.

The Panasonic Group is also helping to address these biodiversity challenges.

Panasonic’s Sustainability Data Book discloses the impact of the Group’s nature positive initiative across its supply and value chains. 

“As a company, our perspective tends to be limited to things that have a direct impact on our business today,” says Ogawa. 

“Based on our firm understanding of “the concept that biodiversity underlies all economic activity,” we will thoroughly promote our circular economy initiative.

"By expanding our perspective to the entirety of nature and the planet, we believe that we will be able to create new relationships with partner companies.”

Dr Adachi agrees, arguing that nature positivity will bring with it a new system of economic relations. 

“In the coming age of nature positivity, a new market will emerge,” says Dr Adachi. 

“I think it would be a good idea to take another look at nature, to make good use of nature to solve problems, and to be conscious of the upfront investment that will be required.”

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