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Uniting awareness for environmental preservation
creates great power.
Environmental problems were previously dealt with at the local level. To make them central to the running of the company, Chief Financial Officer Toshio Kosaka assumed charge of the Environmental Administration Office. Here he talks about the outcomes and the orientations for the future.
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Tackling the environment as only Kobelco can
The Kobelco Construction Machinery Group took a major step ahead with the establishment of the Environmental Administration Office in the last fiscal year. Up until now we have tackled environmental problems at the factory level, but from now on they will be an important concept for the whole company and orientations concerning them will be set forth. The employees of the Kobelco Construction Machinery Group already possess a strong consciousness with regard to environmental preservation. Without exaggerating, one may say that such sentiment of each employee is what brings our environment-friendly products into being.
The machinery that is currently enjoying such a favorable reception represents another embodiment of this consciousness. A prime example is the new series of hydraulic excavators that have been released from 2006 through 2008. It hardly needs saying that these products, which slash fuel consumption by 20% or more and achieve super-low noise levels, contribute greatly to global environmental preservation. Amid regulations that tighten year by year, development such as this cannot be realized unless it is embarked upon several years in advance. If at the outset the talk is of "costs rather than environment" or "more power is needed", that kind of thinking will wind up being the concept for the product. The Kobelco Construction Machinery Group's products are, there can be no doubt, gifts that arise from the passionate desire of all our employees to create products that are environment-conscious. We believe that environment-friendly products are sure to be welcomed in the field.
Knowledge about the environment being the common knowledge of the global citizen
A task of great urgency is now thrusting itself upon mankind. In Japan, this is no time for being muddled about environmental problems. The time has come for us to effect a turnaround in our own ideas and transpose them into action. We must stop discussing things and move on to putting ideas into action. The Office is actively engaged in providing backup impetus for that process.
Facts about the environment and the action to be taken for it have today spread to become the common knowledge of the global citizen. In this sense too, employee education is being called on to play an important role. Currently, employees of the Kobelco Construction Machinery Group are required to have just enough environmental education to field the many questions that users pose about the environment. While building up a system for such education, the Office would like all to think together about environmental preservation. Such thinking should in time bear fruit in the birth of machinery brimming with the creativity expressed in "That's Kobelco!"
The Kobelco Construction Machinery Group has seven plants overseas. Naturally, we devote attention to environmental maintenance at all these plants as we conduct our operations there from day to day. I believe that the most important thing will be to sustain the adequacy of such efforts on each and every day.
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