On November 11, 2008, Daikin Industries was presented with official certification for the Eco First Program established by Japan's Ministry of the Environment in April 2008. The award recognized Daikin's Eco First Commitment of environmental protection targets. Daikin is now the first company in its industry to earn the right to use the Eco First symbol.

Under the Eco First Program, companies make a commitment to the Ministry of the Environment to carry out voluntary environmental protection activities aimed at meeting the targets of the Kyoto Protocol.

As the world's only developer and manufacturer of both air conditioners and their fluorocarbon refrigerants, Daikin makes it a top priority to reduce global warming. Under FUSION 10, Daikin's final three-year strategic management plan that sets targets for fiscal 2010, the company does all it can to alleviate environmental problems and focus on business areas that make this possible, establishing environmentally strategic themes, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and developing and disseminating the use of products that help customers reduce global warming.

Daikin Group is striving to achieve both environmental sustainability and corporate growth by making the most of environmental technologies such as inverters and heat pumps to drive our business.

Daikin Group's Eco First Commitment

1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from business activities.
   • By fiscal 2010 we will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂, HFC, PFC) from manufacturing processes of the entire group (including overseas companies) to 1.4 million tons (CO₂ equivalent). (This is a reduction of greater than 50% over fiscal 2005 levels.) A particular focus is our aim to reduce HFC and PFC emissions from fluorochemical plants in Japan to less than 150,000 tons by fiscal 2010 (a reduction of more than 90% over fiscal 2005 levels).
2. Develop and disseminate products that help reduce the effects of global warming.
   • We will strive for a worldwide dissemination of inverter products, which offer dramatic reductions in power consumption.
     • We will introduce inverter models into residential air conditioner markets in China and other countries and aim to have twice as many products sold by fiscal 2012 as were provided in fiscal 2007.
     • In the market for large-capacity commercial-use air conditioners, we will disseminate more highly efficient models with inverter functions, such as highly efficient air-cooled heat-pump chillers and centrifugal chillers.
     • We will strive to disseminate our hybrid hydraulic products, which are gradually taking hold in Japan, in China, the United States, and Europe.
   • We will develop and disseminate heat pump systems for hot water heater and heating systems, which offer far higher energy efficiency than conventional combustion systems, in the process matching the specific needs of customers in each region.
   • We will strive to disseminate heat pump products such as natural-refrigerant (CO₂) hot water supply and combination systems of air conditioners, refrigerators, and freezers for convenience stores.
   • We will take our energy-efficient solutions business worldwide with our Air Conditioning Network Service System.
   • We will strive to disseminate our environmentally conscious fluorochemical products, such as fluoroelastomer for automotive fuel tube and Zeffle thermal insulation coating.
   • In addition to developing natural-refrigerant (CO₂) air conditioners, we will conduct research into refrigerants with low global warming potential and develop air conditioners that use these refrigerants.
3. Keep refrigerant leaks to an absolute minimum by recovering and destroying refrigerants in all stages from manufacture to final product disposal.
   • We will minimize leaks of refrigerant in manufacturing processes including by switching to using helium gas for inspection.
   • In addition to taking requests for fluorocarbon recovery from customers in Japan 24 hours a day every day of the year, we are introducing a refrigerant recovery manifest control system to clarify the amounts recovered. With this system, we aim to achieve at least a 90% refrigerant recovery rate by fiscal 2010.
   • We are installing refrigerant recovery equipment at all overseas service bases so that we can achieve thorough refrigerant recovery during maintenance.
4. Thoroughly manage chemical substances and reduce the amounts released.
   • By fiscal 2010, we will reduce emissions of PRTR substances in Japan by 50% compared to fiscal 2005.
   • We will reduce PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), which is contained in some fluorochemical products, by 95% by fiscal 2009 (against fiscal 2000) and completely eliminate it by fiscal 2012.

Environment