Sony is a company that really “gets” sustainability. Its goal: to have a zero environmental footprint by 2050. To achieve this, the company developed the ambitious Road to Zero campaign in 2010, which sets a series of specific objectives based on four environmental perspectives and six product life-cycle stages.
The environmental perspectives
- Curbing climate change toward zero-emission products.
- Conserving resources by reducing the amount of virgin materials used and maximizing the use of recycled materials.
- Promoting biodiversity by respecting the natural environment through business activities and through conservation.
- Controlling chemical substances by phasing out substances that could cause environmental risks and finding less toxic substitutes.
The product life-cycle stages
- Research and development
- Product planning and design
- Business operations
- Take-back and recycling
- 50% absolute reduction in waste generation (compared to fiscal 2000)
- 16% reduction in incoming parts packaging waste (compared to fiscal 2008)
- 30% reduction in annual energy consumption of products (compared to fiscal 2008)
- 5% reduction in utilization ratio of virgin oil-based plastics in products (compared to fiscal 2008)
- 14% reduction in total CO2 emissions associated with all transportation and logistics (compared to fiscal 2008)
- 30% absolute reduction in water consumption (compared to fiscal 2000)
- 10% reduction in product mass (compared to fiscal 2008)