Sustainable Resource Use
Resources Management
Basic stance
As a global business entity, the Nidec Group has been steadily working to reduce waste generated from business activities since fiscal year 2004 by engaging in various actions steadily. As our company grows larger via M&A and other means, so does the amount of waste generated, as we consume more and more resources. This trend requires us to use resources effectively, which is why Nidec tries to minimize its waste generated in manufacturing processes as well as the use of packages and packing materials. It is our belief that delivering to our customers high-efficiency motors and motor-based solutions for high efficiency (e.g., traction motor systems for EVs and cooling devices for data centers) leads to the efficient use of not only energy but also oil, coal, and other energy resources as well. Furthermore, we also manufacture machine tools for producing motors and these solutions. We have an overwhelming share of the machine tools for aluminum cans, which are being reevaluated as plastic-free. In the future, we will continue to develop measures that can contribute not only to our own manufacturing processes, but also to the effective use of resources by our customers and society.
Target
In the seventh Mid-term environmental conservation plan, we set targets to “Reduce the amount of waste and hazardous waste generated, and we are continuing to promote efforts in pollution prevention and resource circulation through reduction activities. Furthermore, we have set target to "Manage waste and hazardous waste" as one of the themes for our materiality initiatives and have set a target to "Reduce the amount of waste and hazardous waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales by 3% in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2022."
The seventh mid-term environmental conservation plan
| Item | Three-year targets (FY2025 goals) |
|---|---|
| Waste generated | Reduce the amount of waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales by 3% compared to the fiscal year 2022 |
| Hazardous waste generated | Reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales by 3% compared to the fiscal year 2022 |
Materiality: Contribute to environmental sustainability
| Theme to be addressed | KPI (FY2025) |
|---|---|
| Manage waste and hazardous waste | Reduce the amount of waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales by 3% compared to the fiscal year 2022 |
Achievements
Waste and hazardous waste management
The amount of waste generated in fiscal year 2024 was 310,329 tons, decreased by 12.7% in intensity per unit of consolidated net sales compared to fiscal year 2022. This is the result of ongoing efforts such as thorough waste separation and effective use of resources through increased production efficiency. The amount of hazardous waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales was also decreased by 19.9%. We will continue to monitor the situation and take steps to prevent pollution leakage.
| Section *1 | Unit | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | Comparison to base year *2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waste generated | t | 304,245 | 289,269 | 310,329 | 2.0% increase |
| Waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales *3 | t/billion yen | 0.1364 | 0.1232 | 0.1190 | 12.7% reduction |
| Hazardous waste generated | t | 11,859 | 11,980 | 11,064 | 6.7% reduction |
| Hazardous waste generated intensity per unit of consolidated net sales *3 | t/billion yen | 0.0053 | 0.0051 | 0.0042 | 19.9% reduction |
| Recycling of waste generated | t | 114,258 | 242,827 | 259,895 | 127.5% increase |
| Final disposal of waste generated | t | 189,987 | 46,442 | 50,433 | 73.5% reduction |
*1 Number of sites where data was collected: FY2022 - 225 sites; FY2023 - 228 sites; and FY2024 - 224 sites.
(The data was collected from manufacturing sites with 100 or more employees.)
*2 Comparison to base year :This refers to the comparison of data from the latest year against the base year, 2022, as defined in the Seventh Mid-Term Environmental Conservation Plan and Materiality goals.
*3 Intensity per unit of consolidated net sales: The amount of waste generated divided by the Nidec Group’s consolidated net sales.
The amount of waste generated by resource
| Item classification | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amount[t] | Amount[t] | Amount[t] | ratio | |||
| Metal | Iron | 60,155 | 156,827 | 169,750 | 54.70% | 72.06% |
| Aluminum | 6,102 | 10,503 | 12,903 | 4.16% | ||
| Copper | 3,647 | 4,546 | 5,104 | 1.64% | ||
| Other non-ferrous metal scrap | 32,919 | 28,525 | 35,854 | 11.55% | ||
| Plastics | Plastics | 11,095 | 18,741 | 13,361 | 4.31% | 4.31% |
| Paper | Paper | 7,106 | 7,314 | 10,626 | 3.42% | 3.42% |
| Wood | Wood | 4,647 | 9,110 | 12,338 | 3.98% | 3.98% |
| Sludge | Sludge | 4,811 | 7,264 | 6,079 | 1.96% | 1.96% |
| Other solid waste | Non-hazardous | 155,567 | 27,381 | 26,736 | 8.62% | 10.52% |
| hazardous | 8,697 | 5,367 | 5,913 | 1.91% | ||
| Liquid waste | Waste oil | 5,813 | 5,344 | 6,417 | 2.07% | 3.76% |
| Waste acid | 328 | 2,371 | 62 | 0.02% | ||
| Waste alkali | 196 | 267 | 35 | 0.01% | ||
| Other liquid waste (hazardous) | 3,162 | 5,709 | 5,151 | 1.66% | ||
| Total | 304,245 | 289,269 | 310,329 | 100% | ||
Outsourcing Cost for waste and recycling processing
To ensure waste and recycling processing legally, we track the outsourcing cost for waste and recycling processing. In fiscal year 2024, we incurred 55 million yen for the outsourcing of waste processing.
| Item | FY2023 | FY2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Outsourcing cost for waste and recycling processing | 52 | 55 |
* Nidec Corporation’s business sites in Japan and 10 overseas subsidiaries
Investment in Research and Development for reducing environmental impacts related to pollution and resources*
To minimize the environmental load from its discharging of waste, Nidec takes action to curb the number of defective products from its business operations and to improve productivity. Investment in Research and Development for fiscal year 2024 are estimated at 375 million yen.
Units: millions of yen
| Item | FY2023 | FY2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Investment in Research and Development for reducing environmental impact | 187 | 375 |
* Nidec Corporation’s business sites inside Japan and 10 subsidiaries outside the country
Actions
Curbing the amount of waste disposal
Of the Nidec Group’s total amount of waste, iron and other metals account for more than 70%. As a motor manufacturer, iron ferrous metals, aluminum, copper, and other metals are important materials for us, and the effective use of metallic resources is essential. In fiscal year 2024, we mainly attempted to reduce the iron ferrous metals and aluminum.
Visualizing disposal loss
Using its Chinese factories which have large iron material emissions as model cases, Nidec is developing and introducing a system to automatically obtain and tally individual production processes’ manufacturing data. Data accuracy and collecting speed have been an issue so far, as waste material has been collected, measured, and tallied manually by an outside contractor. This new system enables real-time and accurate understanding of the amount of waste material from the processes. Nidec utilizes obtained data to identify the root causes of issues and launch actions promptly to produce less waste material.
Effective use of resources in the aluminum die-casting process
Nidec Power Train Systems Corporation’s factories in Vietnam and China’s Zhejiang Province take action to reduce disposal loss from their aluminum mold die-casting processes. Instead of simply disposing of defective units and disposal loss from the production process, the business bases analyze their components, use those which have been confirmed to have sufficient quality in the melting process as recycled materials. Thus, the factories suppress the amount of aluminum’s new input for manufacturing, and curb the total amount of aluminum to be processed as waste. Including this initiative, the amount of aluminum waste generated in fiscal year 2024 decreased by 11% compared to fiscal year 2023.
Sorting waste
We continually promote recycling through sorting waste as foundation for these initiatives. Each business sites also works to enlightenment activities for employees along with securing enough storage area for waste and displays and explaining the sorting method in local language to understand easily. Nidec Global Appliances Brazil provides training on waste separation rules in order to solve common mistakes and questions about waste separation. Knowledge of waste separation is useful not only at the office but also at home and in the community.
Nidec Electronics (Thailand) Co., Ltd.’s Rojana Factory joined a project promoted by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO), an affiliate of the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. By sorting and recycling its waste, the plant reduced its greenhouse gas emissions from its waste treatment process by 738,661t-CO₂, and was commended for the achievement in FY2022.
Nidec Global Appliance Mexico, S.DE R.L. DE C.V. steadily spreads its circle of actions to all over the world though a workshop featuring an environmental quiz and many other activities.
