In 2007, Fujitsu Limited announced its Green Policy Innovation, which aims to help the company green the information and communication technology (ICT) through a “cumulative reduction of more than seven million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fiscal year 2007 through fiscal 2010” by concentrating its “know-how and technological resources in two areas: reducing the environmental burden of ICT infrastructure, and reducing customers' environmental burden through new ICT applications.”

“Since its establishment, Fujitsu Limited has regarded environmental protection as one of its most important priorities, and the company has continuously engaged in environmental activities. This is because environmental issues, particularly the problem of global warming, are a growing concern for global society – in ICT, for example, the proportion of electric power consumed by ICT continues to grow due to the widespread use of ICT equipment, and the increased demand for data centers. As a result, the development of energysaving infrastructure has become an urgent priority. There are also high expectations that new applications of ICT can help reduce society's overall environmental burden, and consequently interest in green ICT is expected to intensify,” Fujitsu Limited states in its Web site (fujitsu.com).

Thus, as it looks ahead, “the company will successively introduce new products and services that will support these initiatives and enable customers to lessen their environmental burden, ultimately helping to curb global warming.”

More specifically, the company’s green initiatives can be subdivided into two somewhat separate, yet interconnected groups of efforts internal and external environmental initiatives.

Multiple Efforts
On the one hand, there are the internal efforts that Fujitsu Limited is practicing to help green its operations. In the Philippines, for example, the Fujitsu Philippines Inc. Group of Companies (FPIGC) expresses its “dedication to develop close relationships within communities,” including its people, and in communities where these people operate.

“Along with contributing to society at large, we strive to build strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, from customers, shareholders and investors, to business partners, local administrators, community residents, NGOs and NPOs, and employees,” FPIGC says in a prepared statement provided to Enterprise Magazine. “(We) consider sustainable business management through which we seek to make lasting economic, environmental and social contributions as the most important means of fulfilling our corporate citizenship responsibilities and helping not only to make Philippines a better place to live in, but, overall, to help make a better world.” FPIGC’s projects include the Balik Baterya Program, a “pledge of Oriental and Motolite Corporation for its active participation and support to the health, environment, and other community projects of FPIGC;” participation in Bantay Kalikasan (Nature Watch), ABSCBN Foundation Inc.’s environmental arm, started on July 21, 1998 to serve as a catalyst in addressing the concern over the worsening state of the Philippine environment, characterized by air and water pollution, denudation of forests, irresponsible waste disposal, and their life-threatening effects;” and implementation of the Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) Program, which “aims to promote and have a safe and healthy practice in and out of the workplace, provide our employees a safe place to work, contribute to the conservation and proper use of resources, and promote and adopt the proper disposal of electronic waste.”

Even seemingly small endeavours, as long as they build up into something bigger in the long run, is considered beneficial by FPIGC, so that, among others, it is also proud to have already recycled “since the inception of the recycling program in July 2006 to date, 27 tons of electronic wastes, such as broken motherboards and CPUs, monitors and CRTS, ATMs, and spent toner cartridges from our affiliates and customers, (since) the FPIGC Electronic

Waste Management Plan also involves taking back of our customers' computer hardware for proper disposal.”

Fujitsu Limited has already focused on purchasing materials (including components) that do not contain hazardous substances (See Figure 1, for list of banned substances). “All of our (personal computer) PC products are also RoHS compliant (since) 2006, which means that the product’s system and its internal components comply with the EU RoHS directive (2002/95/EC) on the restricted use of six hazardous substances in the manufacture of the system and its internal components,” the company states, proud to share that it makes every activity green.

“Reducing the environmental impact of our products starts from the first stage of product design phase. Here, the term life cycle comprises the entire flow from the extraction of natural resources, through the production of raw materials, the manufacturing, use of the product and eventually the scrapping and recycling.”

On the other hand, Fujitsu Limited, as a whole, believes in empowering its customers to do the greening of the environment themselves. So FPIGC has “a succession of products and services introduced through the Green Policy Innovation project, with the objective of fulfilling the company's commitment to lowering the environmental burden of Fujitsu Limited clients, and society as a whole (See Figure 2).”

In making its products, the company boasts of eco-friendly parts selection, recyclability enhancement, and disassembling support. “Fujitsu green products are created with a resource-saving design approach. We make effective use of limited resources by using recycled plastics and recycled magnesium alloy. Fujitsu Green Products that have met the standards of the International Energy STAR Program are able to reduce their power consumption during standby mode, (and) when the power is turned on, a linked power socket for the display is also switched on at the same time. Meanwhile, when the main power switch is turned off and the PC enters into the low power consumption “suspend” mode, AC power will no longer be supplied to the display. This provides superior low-energy performance with reduced cost savings.”

Green products include PRIMERGY BX620 S4, ETERNUS 2000, SPARC Enterprise T5220, IPCOM EX Series, and GlobalStore III. With these, and as stated in the company vision, FPIGC strives to “reduce the environmental impact of our products throughout the product lifecycle; encourage our employees to be environmentally-friendly within their business and social activities in their daily lives; (and) strive to assist customers in reducing the environmental impact of their activities and to improve environmental efficiency overall.”

Fujitsu Limited is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions, with approximately 160,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company reported consolidated revenues of ¥5.3 trillion ($53 billion) for the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2008.