LONDON: Japan's largest homebuilder Daiwa House Industry joins today our RE100 and EP100 programs, both committing to source its electricity use from 100% renewable energy sources by 2040 and doubling the energy productivity of its business activities by the same date.
Daiwa House Industry is the first Japanese company to join EP100 and the first construction company to join both campaigns at the same time. Mike Peirce, Corporate Partnerships Director, The Climate Group, said: “Congratulations to Daiwa House – today’s announcement is a double first for Japan and the entire construction sector.”
“Daiwa House has put cleaner, smarter energy at the heart of its business strategy, knowing it will bring down emissions and boost the bottom line. By committing to EP100 and RE100, and investing in renewable energy generation, storage and innovative technologies, the company is demonstrating tangible leadership to its customers and peers.”
ZERO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
RE100, brought to you by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP -as part of the We Mean Business coalition- gathers the world's most influential companies committed to 100% renewable power, helping them to share their success stories – and speaking with one voice to help policymakers accelerating the scale-up of renewables in the market.
EP100 is helping companies to use better energy, better: by doubling the economic output from every unit of energy consumed, companies are essentially doing more with less and are already demonstrating both the business case and the environmental benefits of reducing their energy demand.
Daiwa House Group is already on this pathway with its long-term environmental vision, called “Challenge Zero 2055”: by that date, the company’s centennial, the group aims to achieve zero environmental impact.
Tackling and preventing climate change is one of the pillars of this strategy: since 2007, the company has been using its own unused land to deploy wind, solar and hydro renewable energy resources – a move that has produced 227 megawatts of renewable energy, about 60% of the company’s total electricity usage.
Daiwa House Group’s renewable portfolio ranges from its own wind power plant in Satamisaki, a structure with a capacity of 9,000 kilowatts, to solar photovoltaic systems on the roofs of the company’s facilities and unused land. Daiwa House has also developed a hydroelectric power plant in Miyagawa in 2015, and this year has just started the construction of a 16 megawatts wind power plant in Seiyo.
At the same time, it is also developing net-zero houses and better city planning, with a goal to reduce CO2 emissions per unit of sales to about one-third by 2030 and to one-fifth by 2055, compared by 2005. The group has already doubled its own energy efficiency in business activities from 2005.
The renewable energy and energy productivity goals set as part of the RE100 and EP100 commitments are crucial to Daiwa House’s goal to achieve net-zero electricity consumption by 2030 and net-zero CO2 emissions for the entire group by 2055.
Last Monday, Daiwa House Group has also opened Japan’s first office building fully powered with solar energy, powered by 320 solar panels on the roof backed by lithium-ion batteries, with an energy efficiency of more than twice that of a conventional construction.
During COP21 in 2015, Japan pledged to reduce its emissions by 26% below 2013 levels in 2030 (a 18% reduction from 1990 levels) as part of the Paris Agreement on climate, and it has also a goal to reduce its greenhouse gases emissions by 80% from current levels by 2050.
However, these goals are still largely insufficient to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius – the established limit to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change. RE100 and EP100 are instrumental to step-up business commitments, which can deliver crucial emissions reduction while transforming the market towards a more sustainable, prosperous economy for all.