470
G. Miyake et al.
Society’s expectations regarding sustainable resource use are growing, especially
in countries where the importance of the circular economy is widely acknowledged.
Given this trend, even at the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and
Global Environment for Sustainable Growth, held in Japan in 2019 (G20 Ministerial
meeting on energy transitions and global environment for sustainable growth (15–16
June 2019), the importance of participation by companies in helping to promote the
circular economy was emphasized.
Sustainability is especially important for manufacturers, who use resources
intensively in their manufacturing processes.
Panasonic undertakes initiatives such as reusing iron and plastic from end-of-life
products in our own products, in accordance with a scheme that we call “Product to
Product.”
Recycling rates of household appliances are generally used as indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of recycling efforts, but these methods can evaluate only the
total amount recycled or the total waste reduced. There is no established index to
quantitatively measure resource efficiency, i.e. the extent to which resources are
effectively circulated and thus reused.
Therefore, we conducted joint research at Panasonic and AIST with the goal of
constructing a resource efficiency indicator. We hoped to create a measure that would
capture the following three items:
(i) Differences in environmental impact based on not only the quantity of resources
used, but also the type of material used
(ii) The difference between resource circulation in which schemes are already
established socially (hereafter referred to “social circulation”) and resource
circulation managed by companies on their own (hereafter referred to as
“intentional circulation”)
(iii) Ways to provide value through new services such as product sharing.
31.2 Resource Efficiency Indicator
31.2.1 Investigation
First, we investigated indicators about resource. As a result, similar to general
environmental impact assessment, resource impact assessment is represented by
inventory data and multiplier of resource impact coefficient as shown Eq. 31.1.
Resourve impact assesment = Iventory data × Resource impact coefficient
(31.1)
Inventory data is data on the type and amount of resources consumed in each
step of the product lifecycle. An example of a database is Inventory Database for
Environmental Analysis (IDEA) developed by AIST.
G. Miyake et al.
Society’s expectations regarding sustainable resource use are growing, especially
in countries where the importance of the circular economy is widely acknowledged.
Given this trend, even at the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and
Global Environment for Sustainable Growth, held in Japan in 2019 (G20 Ministerial
meeting on energy transitions and global environment for sustainable growth (15–16
June 2019), the importance of participation by companies in helping to promote the
circular economy was emphasized.
Sustainability is especially important for manufacturers, who use resources
intensively in their manufacturing processes.
Panasonic undertakes initiatives such as reusing iron and plastic from end-of-life
products in our own products, in accordance with a scheme that we call “Product to
Product.”
Recycling rates of household appliances are generally used as indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of recycling efforts, but these methods can evaluate only the
total amount recycled or the total waste reduced. There is no established index to
quantitatively measure resource efficiency, i.e. the extent to which resources are
effectively circulated and thus reused.
Therefore, we conducted joint research at Panasonic and AIST with the goal of
constructing a resource efficiency indicator. We hoped to create a measure that would
capture the following three items:
(i) Differences in environmental impact based on not only the quantity of resources
used, but also the type of material used
(ii) The difference between resource circulation in which schemes are already
established socially (hereafter referred to “social circulation”) and resource
circulation managed by companies on their own (hereafter referred to as
“intentional circulation”)
(iii) Ways to provide value through new services such as product sharing.
31.2 Resource Efficiency Indicator
31.2.1 Investigation
First, we investigated indicators about resource. As a result, similar to general
environmental impact assessment, resource impact assessment is represented by
inventory data and multiplier of resource impact coefficient as shown Eq. 31.1.
Resourve impact assesment = Iventory data × Resource impact coefficient
(31.1)
Inventory data is data on the type and amount of resources consumed in each
step of the product lifecycle. An example of a database is Inventory Database for
Environmental Analysis (IDEA) developed by AIST.