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Nikkei Ecology

December 2006 Issue

Cover Story

Prevent your company from getting into an “environmental scandal” by knowing those tricks and catches

Kobe Steel, Ltd.: Responsibility of management is not left for worksites alone anymore now that falsification has been found on smoke and soot emission data and the nonworking PDCA system is found to be blamed

JFE Steel Corporation: Not a drop of oil in the effluent is missed now because the system is fully renewed 18 months after the data falsification was found

Lesson: Learn from scandals and review your system fundamentally based on the notion that you are structurally weak

Top Interview: Hisashi Sakamaki, president of Canon Electronics, Inc.: “Praise employees who report their mistakes and impose the responsibility to the superior”

Report

Eco Car
Can the four incidents be effective enough to drive the devastated market of diesel passenger cars and revive the sales in Japan?

Environmental Policy by the Chinese Government
Making shift from the “exclusively-by-regulation policy” to more multi-dimensional measures

Learn about Technologies

First Step in Technology
[Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)] Ideal form of coal power generation with 20 to 30% less CO₂ emission is coming close to practical operation

Products
[Hybrid truck] With 30% increase of fuel efficiency, NOx and PM can be 10% lower than the standards in regulations

Natural Energy
[Seaweed biomass] Methane fermentation can produce fuel and reduce the management burden in case of seaweed outbreaks

Fuel Cell
[New type of fuel cell cars] Honda places the fuel cell “vertically” for a fresh image and 50% improvement of output density

“Honor Students” in Recycling
[Plaster board] Successful control of moisture, or the “largest enemy,” allows continuous surplus with annual sales of 500 million yen

Learn about Environmental Laws

Easy-to-Understand Environmental Law
[Critical eye on the Automobile Recycling Law Part 3] Reality of disposal and recycling processes

How to Read the Waste Disposal Law Part 11
Deregulation

EU Regulations to Challenge Japanese Corporations Part 6
REACH Part 1

Environmental Laws Q & A
Why does the income from waste PET bottle bidding have to be donated to municipal governments?

This Month’s Environmental Law
Users of construction machineries are now obliged to comply with new exhaust emission regulations and to perform inspections

Trend and News

Environmental Education
13,500 people try the Certification Test for Environmental Specialists (Eco Test) organized by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry with a plan to develop human resource for environment activities in communities and smaller companies

Eco Car
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) “enters” into the electric vehicle business to set the next target of electrification after houses on automobiles

Special Interview
James Lovelock, advocator of the GAIA theory: “Our grandchildren will be living in a very severe climate”

Natural Energy
Mitsubishi Heavy Industry undergoes large expansion of natural energy business to aim at the top five in the world

Natural Energy
New 1,000,000-kW offshore wind power farm is under construction in the UK, using construction technologies developed in the North Sea oil fields

Soil Pollution Measures
Measures against “oil pollution” attracts larger interest, while the rapid increase of orders is growing the market to a 200-billion-yen scale

Preventing Global Warming
Yamatake Corporation holds a “CO₂-free” event for its anniversary by purchasing “green electricity”

Environmental Policies
Interview with Mr. Akira Amari, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry: “Participation of the U.S. and China is essential in the “post-Kyoto” measures

Environmental Policies
Interview with Mr. Masatoshi Wakabayashi, the Minister of the Environment: “We should not cling to the environmental tax proposal made last year

CSR Frontline

CSR boom in China may be merely a pose to avoid outside criticism

Increasing threats from new types of viruses can be a result of too much venture of human society into nature


Climate Change Policies
Q and A to understand climate change policies

Q: What happens if we cannot fulfill the target on the Kyoto Protocol?
A: In case of incompliance, more stringent target will be imposed in the next period, but the feasibility of compliance depends on the actions in the post-Kyoto period


Learn about Environmental Issues

Truth and False of Environmental Science
[Chemical substances] Is “chemical sensitivity syndrome” a true medical disorder?

Threats Waiting around the Corner
Global warming may change the traditional festivities in Japan: Admiring changing colors of leaves in the spring and having a party under cherry blossoms in the fall?

Junko Edahiro’s Eye-opening Facts on Environmental Terms in English
[Carbon neutral]


Column

Kankan Gakugaku (Active Argument over Environmental Issues)
Atsuto Sawakami, president of Sawakami Asset Management Inc.

Secret Tips for Environmental Management
Collaboration with an NGO brings sense of alarm in the company

Cuisines of Japan
Where is the origin of the nabe (Japnaese traditional “one-pot meal”) and irori (hearth installed in the floor)?

Honest Opinions by the “Eco-Moms”
Let’s hear the complaints about the refillable products

Artisanship in repairing
Leather shoes (Takahashi Shoes)

The reality of NPOs
[Citizens Environmental Foundation] Developing green consumers by publishing guide books to environment-friendly products

Repot

Inside-Out
[Faults of “no-one-left-behind policy” Part 2] Movement to pursue the responsibility of the national government expands in the asbestos lawsuit in the Sennan area

From BusinessWeek
The man behind “a greener California”

WorldWatch Institute
The “man-made disaster” named Katrina exposes the vulnerability of the crisis management systems

ECO Seminar

How to Make the Best Use of ISO
[Bridgestone] Building a functionable “integrated certification” system to involve the top management as well as worksites

New Environmental Study
[New GRI guidelines] The simplified version puts instructions and supplementary documents together

New Environmental Study
[Environmental advertisement and social psychology] Keys for success are to correctly grasp the image people hold for the industry and communicate the honest attitudes of the company

Quick Guide to Environmental Key Words
“LOHAS”

World Trend

From EU
Germany, the leader of recycling, is lost in the discussion on possible termination of sorting collection for waste packages

From UK
EU ETS emission right price goes down due to the delayed submission of the next national allocation plan (NAP)

From USA
British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s action to contribute to the global warming measures raises controversy, whether his action comes from good intension or is made for tax purposes

From Germany
Practical financial lessons are urgently called for in elementary schools as an increasing number of young Germans go bankrupt with loans

From China
Energy-saving policy accelerates the shift to natural gas, but the demand-supply unbalance is making regional gaps