Shogo Ichishiba of the Business Development Department at the Growth Strategy Office played a leading role in developing the Handbook. He once worked in the after-sales service department for thermal power generating facilities, where he engaged in a decarbonization project that involved switching fuels from natural gas to hydrogen, which emits no CO₂ at the time of combustion.

“MHI has defined three pillars for its energy transition initiatives: Decarbonizing existing infrastructure, Build a hydrogen solutions ecosystem and Build a CO₂ solutions ecosystem, and each business division is proceeding with efforts in the respective areas,” he explained. “In creating the Handbook, the Business Development Department provided leadership, believing that a book that covers these extensive initiatives will be necessary also for developing new businesses in the future. Representatives from each business division were very supportive and suggested many ideas and proposals to enhance the contents of the Handbook. As I was in the past, I think frontline employees are really aware of the need to work on carbon neutrality and to communicate this to the outside world. In addition, our initiatives were outlined in the Handbook from a broad perspective, as exemplified by the Carbon Neutrality Roadmap, which makes it easy to understand their relationship with market needs and growth areas.”

The Handbook was created in around six months. “As it was done in such a short period of time, it still has plenty of room for improvement,” said Mr. Ichishiba. “But it was important to release the Handbook as early as possible, as it has attracted more and more market interest every day.”

“In general,” he continued, “only products that have already been developed would appear in this kind of publication. This Handbook, however, also includes a handful of products and solutions that are under development in anticipation of future demand. Widely disclosing information, for example, about when hydrogen gas turbines can be technically implemented, may contribute to embodying a social implementation plan. We will update this Handbook as necessary to share the latest information.”

Decarbonize existing infrastructure / Build a hydrogen solutions ecosystem / Build a CO₂ solutions ecosystem

MHI has participated in the Green Innovator Academy, which was launched in 2021 with the aim of developing 1,000 next-generation innovators who will drive the realization of a decarbonized society. Mr. Ichishiba joined that project as one of its inaugural students, which led him to serve as a guest lecturer in a new course titled “Green innovation” offered in the 2023 spring semester at Kwansei Gakuin University.

“Opportunities to share views and have discussions with different people, from students to those who are active on the front lines, are of great value, not least of all in developing businesses in the green transformation (GX) domain,” said Mr. Ichishiba. “I try to proactively seize such opportunities whenever possible. What impressed me most about giving the lecture was that the students were keeping an eye out for new information without blindly accepting superficial claims about ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ They comprehensively considered different things to deepen their understanding of issues that we don’t yet have an answer for. I learned a lot from them. Regardless of whether a company, policymaker or student, we are all considering what we each can do in our respective capacity. I am confident that society as a whole is thus making steady progress step by step.”

Under such circumstances, Mr. Ichishiba believes GX requires both internal and external collaboration.

“The Mitsubishi Group has many companies that boast technologies and solutions able to contribute to GX,” he said. “I’m aware that collaboration among companies as well as collaboration among industry, government and academia will be more essential than ever to achieve the energy transition and carbon neutrality. MHI has already been working together with external parties in various fields, and we hope this Handbook will help increase recognition of our broad-ranging solutions, thereby opening up new collaboration opportunities.”