Sustainability
All Electricity Used at Overseas Bases to Switch to Renewable Energy Sources by Fiscal 2025
Start Conversion from Main Production Bases in Europe
October 14, 2021
NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (“NGK”) plans that all electricity used at its overseas bases will be converted to renewable energy sources by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. This measure forecasts that approximately 60% of all electricity used by the NGK Group as of the end of fiscal 2025 will derive from renewable energy sources, helping to cut about 330,000 tons of CO2 annually.
The conversion will begin in all production area of Europe and all electricity used at production bases in Europe will be green by January 2022. NGK CERAMICS EUROPE S.A. (Belgium) will use completely green power, procuring electricity generated through wind power as well as generating power by installing solar panels on its site. NGK CERAMICS POLSKA SP. Z O.O. (Poland), the Company’s biggest production base, will obtain a Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)* equivalent to all the electricity it uses. NGK BERYLCO FRANCE (France) also convert to completely green energy. The Company will also convert bases outside of Europe to renewable energy sources, planning to complete the conversion by the end of fiscal 2025.
In the NGK Group Environmental Vision formulated in April 2021, the NGK Group set a goal to realize 50% reduction in fiscal 2030 CO2 emissions compared with the fiscal 2013 base year and net zero CO2 emissions in our activities by 2050. The Group has drawn up the Carbon Neutrality Strategic Roadmap to realize the goals and a milestone target (interim goal) of a 25% reduction in fiscal 2025 CO2 emissions compared with the fiscal 2013 base year, which is expected to be achieved through this initiative.
The Group has already worked on initiatives to cut CO2 emissions, such as obtaining RECs and introducing carbon neutral city gas, as well as begun development of technology that will use clean energy that does not emit CO2, such as hydrogen and ammonia, to manufacture ceramics. The group continue to contribute to realizing a carbon neutral society by promoting various initiatives in countries around the world, such as further installation of PV within the Group and effective use of renewable energy by storing electricity in NAS batteries, to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
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*Certification of an environmental assessment of power generated through renewable energies. Obtaining certification is considered to acknowledge using renewable energy equivalent to the amount of energy specified in the certificate.