Dubai: Green electronic products and sustainable business models are the latest trends in information and communication technology sector. Most IT and electronics manufacturers are aggressively looking at green products.
Panasonic is one of them. It is stepping up its eco-friendly drive and become the No 1 green company in the electronics industry in the Middle East.
"With this aim, we will be developing competitive solutions, systems and servers with smart energy gateways," Moto Hide Masui, corporate environmental affairs division of Panasonic Japan, said.
Sustainable future
In order to measure the environmental sustainability, Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) was launched in 2006.
EPEAT is a method for consumers to evaluate the effect of a product on the environment. It ranks products as gold, silver or bronze based on a set of environmental performance criteria.
EPEAT registered notebooks, desktops, and monitors purchased worldwide in 2009 will over their life, reduce use of toxic materials, including mercury, by 1537 metric tonnes, equivalent to the weight of nearly 800,000 bricks; eliminate use of enough mercury to fill 372,000 average household fever thermometers; eliminate over 29,000 metric tons of solid waste, equivalent to more than 14,500 US households' annual solid waste generation; reduce hazardous waste disposal by 72,000 metric tones.
Since the system's launch, more than 317 million EPEAT-registered products have been purchased, with environmental benefits: the equivalent of nearly 6 million US homes' energy consumption saved; use of more than 8000 metric tonnes of toxic substances avoided; a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions close to 9 million cars' annual releases; and associated savings to manufacturers and users of more than $6.5 billion.
Jeff Omelchuck, EPEAT Executive Director, said in a report, "These benefits reaffirm that the system works exceedingly well to channel purchaser demand toward products with reduced impact on the planet, rewarding manufacturers."
Panasonic, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2018, is also gearing up to reduce its carbon footprint.
"It is our duty to ensure a sustainable future. We pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by 15 per cent from our facility and double the sales of our industry-leading environmentally-conscious products in the region. We will also encourage," said Seiji Koyanagi, Managing Director of Panasonic Marketing Middle East FZE. He said Panasonic aims to double the regional sales of green products by March 2013.
Apart from this drive, Panasonic aims to educate 100,000 customers in the next three years.
Antony Peter, associate director and Group General Manager of Panasonic Marketing Middle East, said that school children will be educated by the showroom staff.
Probir Mukherjee, managing director for electronics at Al Futtaim Private Co, distributor of Panasonic products, said that this is a good initiative and many people are very conscious about their surroundings.
