Sony steps up green drive

Sony has unveiled its long-term environmental commitment, joining 11 other international companies at the Climate Savers Summit in Tokyo to outline various green initiatives.

The organisations have signed the Tokyo Declaration aimed at tackling global warming and enacting industry-wide change.

Sony has vowed to promote a low-carbon lifestyle to consumers, and to make its carbon footprint more transparent by highlighting related reduction activities.

The company's 'Product, Process, Planet' initiative aims to highlight the measures Sony has taken to reduce the environmental impact of its products in the manufacturing process and through consumer use.

Serge Foucher, executive vice president at Sony Europe, said: "This marks the first time that Sony is addressing consumers directly across various channels to enhance the communication of meaningful environmental information.

"This should ultimately help the consumer to make the right decision when it comes to their own contribution to sustainability through their purchase."

Around 66 per cent of Sony's sales are generated by consumer electronics, and the energy efficiency of these products plays a crucial role in reducing its carbon footprint.

Sony is investing in research and development to further improve the environmental performance of its products and help minimise this impact.

The company claims to have reduced the power consumption of its LCD TVs, and is looking for further reductions through the development of OLED TV panels.

Sony has also announced a commitment to increase its use of renewable energy by 2010 and to quadruple its overall volume of renewable energy used worldwide.

The firm claims to be the biggest single-company purchaser of renewable energy in Japan, and aims to save the equivalent of 30,000 tons of CO2 in Europe by 2010.

In joining the Climate Savers Programme in 2006, Sony committed to a seven per cent absolute reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 compared to 2000 levels.