July 16, 2023
Hitachi Global Air Power US, Michigan City, Ind., released a climate action performance update for fiscal year 2022. The company said it achieved carbon neutrality throughout its global operations as part of its long-term climate action strategy.
The strategy comes in line with Hitachi’s long-term environmental targets, titled, “Hitachi Environmental Innovation 2050.” The Hitachi Group has set a target of becoming carbon neutral in all its global factories and offices by fiscal 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality throughout its entire value chain by fiscal 2050. The Hitachi Global Air Power Michigan City campus achieved carbon neutral status in fiscal 2021 (ending March 31, 2022) and globally in fiscal 2022 (ending March 31, 2023).
“We want to be an industry leader in how to sustainably build real world compressed air and service solutions,” said John Randall, Hitachi Global Air Power president and CEO. “Operating sustainably is not only the right thing to do but more and more it is becoming an expectation of our customers. To truly be a leader in this area, we are evolving our culture to think and act differently and we’re making significant investments in our people and facilities to get there.”
To achieve the on-going targets, in fiscal year 2022 the company added a cross functional sustainability team led by Luis Torres, vice president, global sustainability. Torres has added oversight over all Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems sustainability efforts to drive alignment and facilitate change, the company said. The team is charged with establishing sustainable business practices and with installing a sustainability mindset throughout the company’s culture. This includes ensuring product development teams are designing compressed air solutions that are both durable and able to be remanufactured for a second and third life.
Torres and his team manage the company’s active whole good remanufacturing program, which disassembles, recycles, reuses and ultimately re-manufactures air compressors to ‘better than when new’ condition. Now in its 10th year, the program has helped offset more than 5,000 metric tons of CO2 production through salvage and reclaim of components.
“We are accelerating our sustainability efforts and doing so in a way that keeps the customer front of mind,” said Torres. “We have a lofty goal – to be carbon neutral throughout our value chain by 2050. We can’t accomplish this by thinking small. The products we manufacture, the way we manufacture and how we go to market all need to be focused on our customer – and the preservation of our planet. We are making great progress and our business is better for it.”
