The EPD mark helps consumers choose environmental products.

Aluminum cans are indispensable for modern society—but at a high environmental cost. The metal itself is expensive, the cans cannot be reused, and the production of virgin aluminum from bauxite is extremely energy-consuming. These are all good reasons to recycle, but that also consumes energy and, in addition, the can lids continue to be made from virgin metal.
  In July 2005, however, Mitsubishi Materials was awarded the "Ecoleaf" Type III Environmental Declarations for its aluminum can recycling schemes by the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry, becoming the first Japanese company to meet both the Ecoleaf and the international Environmental Product Declaration Scheme (EPD) qualifications.
  By integrating crushing, smelting and slab casting into a single process, Mitsubishi Materials has reduced both energy consumption and CO₂ emissions by 30%. The company, which has been producing aluminum cans since 1972, also uses far less virgin metal in its cans, about 7% compared to the national average of 26%. The proportion of recycled aluminum is also higher, 70% compared to 55.6%. Overall, the company's material recycling rate stands at above 68.7% in fiscal 2004, far above the 55% target of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In October, it turned over aluminum can operations to its newly created joint-venture company, Universal Can Corporation, which will carry on the green operation tradition.

As part of the business cooperation between Mitsubishi Estate and Towa Real Estate Development, the two companies have decided to equip their new condominiums with a new type of environment-friendly insulation material.
  In the new material, carbon gas will be used to create bubbles in polyurethane foam. Using this gas rather than ozone-damaging hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), the greenhouse gasses emitted during the production process can be drastically reduced to a minuscule 1/900th of previous emissions. For a typical apartment insulated with HCFC-containing foam, changing to the carbon gas alternative would mean a CO₂ reduction of 2.6 tons—the equivalent of that emitted by a medium-sized car over 1.8 years.

The first condominium to use the new insulation foam.

  As the new foam insulates more effectively than previous insulation materials, it will also help households save energy better during the cold and damp winter months, thereby contributing to fewer overall emissions.
  The two companies have chosen to use CFC-free insulation foam in future condominium projects in Metropolitan Tokyo, in addition to using it wherever possible in ongoing projects. Eventually, it will also be used in projects outside Metropolitan Tokyo.

In the last three years, adoption of inverter motors has raised office air conditioner efficiency by 50–60%, but further mechanical improvements approaching this scale will be hard to achieve. Looking at a total system solution, Mitsubishi Electric teamed up with Passivent, Ltd., a leading British natural ventilation design company, on a pilot project to marry the low-cost of passive ventilation systems with the higher efficiency of mechanical systems.

  Through clever design, in summer, passive ventilation uses the natural flow of air to carry warm air away from the room, but when the outside air is too hot, passive ventilation can lead to room overheating. The partners developed a system for Passivent's headquarters that employs night cooling with a mechanical system to flush the office of hot air. This alone contributed nearly half of the 41% reduction in energy consumption. The rest was realized through optimized fresh-air circulation and mechanical heating or cooling only those areas that required assistance, such as the upper floors.