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On May 10, 2007, Mitsubishi
UFJ Trust and Banking reached an agreement with the Wild Bird Society
of Japan to jointly promote the bank’s Wild Bird and Green Trust.
Through
the Wild Bird and Green Trust, a socially responsible investment scheme launched
on May 10, 1990, individual customers can help to preserve Japan’s natural
environment by protecting the country’s wild birds and raise awareness of
the threats they currently face.
On the
settlement date of the Wild Bird and Green Trust, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking
will donate the proceeds of the trust plus a matching contribution of the same
amount to the Wild Bird Society of Japan. Through this product, the bank will
help to protect the natural environment together with its customers. |
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Wild Bird and Green Trust is an investment product for consumers who care about
the environment |
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Wild Bird and Green Trust is being promoted through various media and communication
channels. These include the Wild Bird Society of Japan’s Yachou (“wild
bird”) newsletter and free magazine Toriino, as well as Mitsubishi UFJ Trust
and Banking’s lobby displays, Excellent Club News newsletter and website.
The two parties are also studying various other joint environment protection programs
based on donations from Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, including a program
to establish a sanctuary for wild birds in eastern Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost
island. |
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In a time of rising environmental
awareness, surely the service vehicles used by electricity providers ought to
be electric? Mitsubishi Motors thought so, and in June 2007 delivered an
i MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) to Chugoku Electric Power
as a trial vehicle. The power company will evaluate the sleek, futuristic car’s
performance and confirm its suitability as a service vehicle.
The i MiEV is a next-generation electric
car that has been the centerpiece of a joint research project with several electric
power companies since November 2006. MMC supplies research vehicles and analyzes
test data, and the power companies, which also include Tokyo Electric Power and
Kyushu Electric Power, perform tests and evaluate the vehicles’ usability
in the market. There are plans to increase the number of research vehicles and
commence fleet monitoring to confirm earlier results.
The i MiEV is based on Mitsubishi
Motors’ innovative “i” minicar. Due to its rear-midship engine
layout, the “i” could easily be converted into an electric vehicle
with few modifications besides high-performance lithium-ion batteries and a compact,
lightweight electric motor.
Mitsubishi Motors engages in several projects
addressing environmental issues and the need for energy diversification. Alongside
the i MiEV, the company is also developing clean diesel and biofuel-powered
engines, as well as managing or partaking in various environmental conservation
programs. |
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| Mitsubishi Corporation
has begun manufacturing and selling biopellets, a solid fuel made from cedar bark
and other previously unused plant-derived biomass resources. Biopellets, which
have higher energy density than other solid biomass fuels and are easy to handle,
can be used for cofiring* in current coal-fired boilers—potentially reducing
Japan’s CO2 emissions by millions of tons
annually. Having developed pulverization and drying systems specifically for biopellet
manufacturing, the company can now efficiently produce pellets from various biomass
resources previously ill-suited as raw materials. For this purpose, it is now
installing the largest pellet manufacturing plant in the Japanese forestry industry
in Hita City, Oita Prefecture, one of |
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biopellets, which are 2-3 cm in length and cylindrical, can make a significant
contribution toward lowering CO2 emissions. |
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Japan’s main forestry
regions.
To this end, on July 31, Forest Energy Hita
Ltd. was established in a joint venture with Hita Resource Development Cooperative
Association and Taisei Mokuzai Co., Ltd. Operations will begin in January 2008.
In Japan, experimental cofiring of bio-fuels in coal-fired boilers
has begun, but no supply or distribution structure is in place, so the cofiring
ratio is low. In Europe, such cofiring is commonplace, demand for biopellets is
increasing by about 30% per year, and biopellet manufacturing has become a growth
industry in forestry areas. Mitsubishi Corporation will now rapidly establish a stable biopellet supply structure
across northern Kyushu and western Japan. By launching biopellet supply businesses
in Japan and abroad, the company aims to create a new bio-energy industry.
* Cofiring means that two different materials are combusted at the same time. |
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| The
“H2 Station” is the first hydrogen
fuel station in South Korea |
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Normally, the “gas” in
gas stations is a liquid—gasoline. However, South Korea now has a gas station
that truly lives up to the name. The country’s first full-scale hydrogen
fuel station, planned by South Korean energy company GS Caltex Corporation, has
just been built at Yonsei University’s Sinchon Campus in Seoul.
For the new fuel station, Mitsubishi
Kakoki Kaisha provided not only its cutting-edge HyGeia package-type
product as the hydrogen manufacturing system but also total engineering services.
With the compact HyGeia system, which has half the environmental footprint of
conventional systems, the fuel station could reduce raw material consumption by
20% as well as drastically improve energy efficiency. All the parties involved
in the |
project have highly evaluated
its high efficiency and solid performance record at several hydrogen stations
in Japan.
Since 2004, Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha has exchanged information
on hydrogen manufacturing and hydrogen station construction with MS ENG Co. Ltd.,
the company that won the construction contract from GS Caltex, through Yokohama-based
Warati Co., Ltd. MS ENG Co. Ltd. is an engineering subsidiary of MS Corporation, an industrial
gas company. Both companies are based in Pusan, South Korea.
So South Koreans with access to prototype hydrogen-powered vehicles
have good reason to celebrate—and those driving conventional vehicles had
best be careful about what kind of station they pull into. |
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In July 2007, Nippon Oil Real
Estate* participated in a seminar held by the Minato Mirai 21 Recycling
Promotion Council, entitled “The Need to Reduce Waste and the Responsibility
of the Waste Generator.” Minato Mirai is a high-rise area in the City of
Yokohama, just outside Tokyo.
This seminar was held to jointly advance recycling
in the Minato Mirai 21 high-rise office district as well as to promote reduction
in waste disposal and reuse of resources. Nippon Oil Real Estate encouraged some
50 tenants of its Nisseki Yokohama Building to participate, and of the total of
49 people from 36 companies who joined the seminar, half of them were from its
tenants.
An instructor from the Yokohama Resource &
Wastes Recycling Bureau led the seminar, which covered the responsibilities of
business operators under the Waste Management Law, the importance |
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of deepening one’s
knowledge and understanding of waste sorting and recycling, as well as the results
of the City of Yokohama’s G30 Plan.
The G30 Plan is an initiative
to reduce waste emissions by 30% from the fiscal 2001 level by fiscal 2010. The
City of Yokohama achieved this target in fiscal 2005, five years ahead of schedule,
with a reduction of 36% from the fiscal 2001 level.
In
2007, incinerator waste at the Nisseki Yokohama Building office will be 90% less
than that of 2005, thanks to sorting activities introduced in 2006. Encouraged
by this great achievement, the staff at this office has begun to actively promote
and give instructions on waste sorting and recycling to tenant companies.
* Nippon Oil Real Estate is a subsidiary of Nippon Oil. |
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