Establishment of Low-carbon Society

In October 2020, the Japanese government declared its goal to achieve a carbon-neutral, decarbonized society by 2050. Then in 2021, COP26 was held in Glasgow, England, where the goal was formally agreed upon to limit the rise in temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius versus the temperature level before the industrial revolution, making it a year of accelerated initiatives for the achievement of carbon neutrality. To prevent global warming and mitigate the various impacts of climate change, the JTEKT group as a whole strives to achieve carbon neutrality with reduction of CO2 in production by 2035, minimizing energy consumption in its business activities and promoting energy conservation, logistics improvements, and the use of renewable energy throughout all processes from product design to delivery.

Major FY2021 Results

CO2 emissions in production(JTEKT alone)
CO2 emissions in production(Global)
CO2 emissions in logistics
Amount of renewable energy installed

Environmental Action Plan 2025 / FY2022 Activity Result

[ ]2013年比

Category Initiative items Target and initiative policy FY2022 Activity Result Assessment
Reduction of CO2 emissions (1) CO2 reduction in production and logistics activities
 ・Global CO2 reduction
 ・ CO2 reduction by improving logistics
<Production>
① Promotion of CO2 reduction activities through daily improvement at plants(Initiatives including pursuit of productivity improvement, adoption of high-efficiency equipment, and energy-saving diagnoses)
② Development and introduction of low CO2 production technology through production technology innovation

Item FY2022 Targets
JTEKT CO2 emissions 264.0Kt-CO2 26.25%
decrease
Global 669.0Kt-CO2 26.25%
decrease
FY2022 Results
206.1Kt-CO2
[42.4% decrease]
584.6Kt-CO2
[35.6% decrease]
<Logistics>
Reduction of CO2 emissions by improving logistics and fuel efficiency

Item FY2022 Targets
CO2 emission volume in logistics 10.6Kt-CO₂ 25.9%
decrease
FY2022 Results
9,450t-CO2
[34.05% decrease]
(2) Promotion of renewable energy Promote renewable energy that considers the characteristics of each district and region

Item FY2022 Targets
JTEKT Installation rate of
renewable energy
10.0%
Global 6.8%
FY2022 Results
6.7%
4.0%

TOPIC

Participation in the GX League

JTEKT has participated in the GX (Green Transformation) League Basic Concept* announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
JTEKT actively promotes the achievement of carbon neutrality as we see it not only as a contribution to the environment but also as an opportunity to strengthen our company's competitiveness.
JTEKT agreed to the GX League Basic Concept in March 2022, as we saw that the GX League Basic Concept is consistent with our attitude, which is to lead the transformation of not only our company but the entire economic social system, including our stakeholders, by achieving carbon neutrality early on, subsequently, we decided to officially participate in the league.
* The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry invited groups of companies that actively involved in GX (Green Transformation), which transforms the entire economic and social system through the carbon neutrality initiatives, and it was conceived as a place for government-academia-finance collaboration and discussion to put the creation of new markets into practice.

GX League

Carbon Pricing Initiative

JTEKT employs an internal carbon pricing system in which an "eco-sheet" stating the energy consumption of the equipment and CO2 emissions per product is attached to approval documents when introducing new equipment. By doing so, we have established investment decision criteria on which we operate to significantly reduce the CO2 basic unit of each newly installed or newly developed product compared to conventional equipment.
Furthermore, to promote investment in emission reduction activities, JTEKT has relaxed the criteria for making investment decisions and expanded the payback period to four years with respect to energy-saving investments in order to encourage active investment and lead to the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Daily improvement initiatives at plant

Reducion of CO2 emissions in production

●(JTEKT alone)
JTEKT has set challenge targets to reduce total CO2 emissions by 35% by FY2025 compared to FY2013 and by 60% by FY2030 and is promoting activities. Total CO2 emissions in FY2022 were 206.1K t-CO2, a reduction of 42.4% compared to FY2013, enabling the FY2022 target to be achieved. In addition, in the FY2022 business classification evaluation system based on the Act on the Rational Use of Energy (hereinafter referred to as the "Energy Conservation Act"), we have been evaluated as the highest S class since FY2017.

Total CO2 emissions *1 206.1Kt-CO2
(42.4% decrease)

*1: Calculated using the actual conversion factor (market basis) for each purchased electric power company for each fiscal year

Total CO2 emissions in production
Total CO2 emissions in production

●Global
JTEKT is working on reducing CO2 emissions at all of its group companies in Japan and overseas. Total CO2 emissions in FY2022 were 35.6% lower than that in FY 2013, and we were able to achieve our 2025 challenge target (reduction of 35%) ahead of schedule.

Total Global CO2 Emissions 584.6Kt-CO2
(35.6% decrease)

Total Global CO2 Emissions
Total Global CO2 Emissions

Initiatives to realize "Environmental Challenge 2050"

JTEKT is promoting various energy-saving measures based on the "2025 Environmental Action Plan" toward the targets set forth in" Environmental Challenge 2050".

1. Air Minimum Activities

JTEKT promotes reduction in air consumption in production processes as a priority initiative.
Positioning FY2022 as the starting year for minimizing air consumption, JTEKT has set a milestone target for FY2025, aiming for a 60% reduction in air consumption in FY2030 compared to FY2013.
(Committed target: -28% from FY2013, Challenge target: -50% from FY2021)
The Air Minimum Working Group was newly established toward achieving this target as the entire company works as All-JTEKT to promote this initiative.
From FY2022 to FY2023, we will focus on the "use" of air to eliminate air leaks, shorten air-blowing time, and discontinue using air blowers.

Main implementation contents

(1) Installation of holiday compressors <JTEKT Kariya Plant>

Air requirements were lower than the Inv control of water-cooled compressors during low operating hours on holidays, so we stopped the water-cooled compressors to save energy by installing small air-cooled compressors.

Installation of holiday compressors

(2) Air leakage elimination activities <All-JTEKT>

JTEKT is promoting the "air leakage elimination activities" using cameras for air leakage investigation. More than 2,500 air leaks have been found in the investigations since FY2022, and repairs are underway to complete the 100% measures.
From FY2023, JTEKT Group starts lending cameras to domestic Group companies, and the entire JTEKT Group will thoroughly reduce the waste of air.

Scene of
Scene of "air leakage elimination activities" by a camera for air leakage investigation

2. Energy-saving diagnosis

In FY 2022, in order to create new energy-saving items and improve the level of energy-saving diagnostic engineers, the in-house diagnosis team conducted diagnoses at the Shikoku Plant and JTEKT SURPRET CO., LTD., a domestic Group company.
Items created through diagnosis are deployed horizontally to all plants, contributing to the promotion of energy-saving activities.
In FY2023, the internal diagnostic team will continue to diagnose internal and domestic Group companies.

Flow measurement of cooling water with ultrasonic flow meter
Flow measurement of cooling water with ultrasonic flow meter

Improvement example: Hamura Plant

Before improvement

During the cycle, it was clamped hydraulically and the hydraulic motor was also rotating at 1500 rpm under constant pressure.
Furthermore, the cycle time was as long as 102.8sec, and the cycle operation was performed alternately by 2 units.

After improvement

Changed to a hydraulic unit equipped with an inverter and pressure switch. (Toyopak ECO II, JTEKT FLUID POWER SYSTEMS)
It clamps and holds in 5 seconds after the cycle starts, and the motor rotation speed can be lowered to 750 rpm until the next operation (unclamping).

⇒Power consumption: Reduction : 7,450 kW per year (equivalent to 149,000 yen)
The rotation speed can be lowered even during breaks, etc., further energy saving is implemented.

Introduction of renewable energy

In FY2022, a total of 13.7 MW of solar power systems were installed at all 15 sites in Japan and overseas, reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 5,600 tons annually.
As a result, the amount of renewable energy installed was 5.12 MW for JTEKT alone and 32.5 MW for the entire JTEKT Group, a significant 1.7 fold increase over the previous fiscal year.
With the aim of reducing CO2 emissions, JTEKT will continue to make active efforts to achieve a renewable energy installation rate * of at least 25% for JTEKT alone and at least 20% for the entire JTEKT Group in 2030.
*Renewable energy introduction rate = Amount of renewable power generation/total power consumption

Main implementation contents

JTEKT: Kariya Plant
Group companies in Japan: JTEKT Electronics Corporation
Overseas Group Companies: JSSX (China), JTRE (Belgium)

JTEKT Kariya Plant installed a 799 kW solar power generation system in FY 2022.
JTEKT Electronics, a domestic group company, has installed a 230 kW solar power system, JSSX, an overseas group company in China, has installed a 3020kW solar power system, and JTRE, an overseas group company in Belgium, has installed a wind power system.
We will continue to promote the use of renewable energy, which has less environmental impact, and build plants in harmony with nature.

JTEKT Kariya Plant
JTEKT Kariya Plant

 JTEKT Electronics Corporation
JTEKT Electronics Corporation

JSSX (China)
JSSX (China)

 JTRE (Belgium)
JTRE (Belgium)

Initiatives to reduce CO2 through production engineering innovation

To achieve carbon neutrality in 2035, we reduced CO2 emissions by 1,598 tons in FY2022 through our production engineering initiatives.
Three major initiatives are being undertaken as carbon neutral activities in production engineering.
① Steady improvement activities
Activities to pursue zero waste in production such as CT shortening, introduction of karakuri (gimmicks), stop in a standby , air minification, downsizing and inverterization
② Production engineering element development
Development of elemental technologies to realize high performance and high efficiency of equipment and construction methods, and machining saving process by considering raw materials, heat treatment, processing, and assembly as a process through.
③ Carbon-neutral innovation development
Development of innovative technologies to replace and recover energy such as gas, electricity and hydrogen with the aim of achieving a revolutionary reduction

Among these initiatives, this time we will introduce an example toward carbon neutrality in heat treatment furnaces that use a lot of energy.

Initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions from heat treatment furnaces

Background and Purpose

At JTEKT, the heat treatment process accounts for an extremely high percentage of CO2 emissions (Fig. 1), about 22% of all processes, and energy conservation measures for heat treatment furnaces are particularly urgent.
In a batch furnace, which is a common heat treatment furnace, only about 20% of the energy input (Fig. 2) is used to heat and transport products required for heat treatment, and the remaining 80% is energy loss.
This time, we focused on i) the amount of heat dissipated from the furnace shell, ii) the temperature control of quenched oil, and iii) the generation and heating of atmospheric gases, which account for a large proportion of these energy losses, and developed energy-saving technologies corresponding to each of these and verified them on actual machines.

Figure 1: Breakdown of CO2 emissions from JTEKT domestic plants
Figure 1: Breakdown of CO2 emissions
from JTEKT domestic plants

Figure 2. Breakdown of batch furnace energy consumption
Figure 2. Breakdown of batch furnace
energy consumption

i) Improved furnace insulation

In order to reduce the amount of heat radiated from the furnace shell, the thermal insulation structure of the furnace body was reviewed.
Conventional gas carburizing furnaces have a structure from the inside of the furnace to the outside, with insulation bricks, insulation board A, and insulation board B (Fig. 3).
On the other hand, in the energy-saving furnace, in order to improve thermal insulation, a supermolder therm (Below, SMT) with high thermal insulation performance is placed on the top surface inside the furnace on the high temperature side, and a porous thermal insulation board is placed on the top surface outside the furnace on the low temperature side (Fig. 3).
SMT is a thermal insulation material composed mainly of ceramic fiber and containing, dispersing, and adsorbing fine particles, and has excellent thermal insulation performance in the high temperature region, so placing it on the top surface inside the furnace can greatly reduce the amount of heat radiated from the furnace body.

The demonstration results (batch furnace O/H renewal) showed a 4.8 kWh (-22%) reduction in heat dissipation, from 21.7 kWh before renewal to 16.9 kWh after renewal.

Furnace insulation effectiveness Demonstration results

Figure 3. Thermal insulation structure of energy-saving furnace
Figure 3. Thermal insulation structure of energy-saving furnace

ii) Optimization of quenching oil temperature control method

The sequence of processes in the heat treatment furnace and how to control the quenching oil temperature are shown (Fig. 4).
In the oil-cooling process of heat treatment, the heated product is quenched and the temperature of the quenched oil increases by about 10 ~ 20℃. Therefore, it must be cooled to the set temperature before the next quenching process. The conventional quenching oil temperature control method uses a heat exchanger to forcibly cool the temperature that has risen during quenching in early timing. When the set temperature was reached, the heater was repeatedly turned on and off to maintain the temperature, consuming a lot of power.
Therefore, we reviewed the method of forced cooling of quenching oil at an early time and optimized the control method to gradually cool down until the next quenching time.

Due to a change in the control method, the heater ON was reduced from 7 times (68 min) to 2 times (29 min) and the power consumption was reduced from 71.3 kWh to 37.4 kWh, or 33.9 kWh (-52%).

Oil tank control effectiveness Demonstration results

Conventional oil tank control
Energy-saving oil tank control
Figure 4. Energy-saving effect by optimizing quenching oil temperature control

iii) Reduction of atmospheric gas

The relationship between the heat treatment pattern and the atmospheric gas is shown (Fig. 5) In carburizing, the metamorphic gas used as the atmospheric gas is produced in the metamorphic furnace, and this metamorphic gas is generally introduced into the heat treatment furnace at a constant flow rate.
In a heat treatment furnace, the inner door of the furnace opens and closes at the timing of product input and output, and the pressure in the furnace and the quenching tank fluctuate greatly at the opening and closing of the door.
If the pressure becomes negative in the furnace or oil tank at such a time when the pressure fluctuates greatly, unburned air will be sucked in and there is a risk of deflagration. For this reason, a large flow of metamorphic gas is always introduced into the furnace to prevent negative pressure in the furnace, but at other times when the pressure is stable, excessive metamorphic gas is introduced.
Therefore, as shown in the figure, we try to reduce the amount of metamorphic gas by using a small flow rate in the stable region and adding N2 gas (N2 shot) when the pressure in the furnace is disturbed.

This time, as a basic evaluation, it was confirmed that the same heat treatment quality as before can be obtained even if the atmosphere gas is reduced to 1/3.
In the future, we will optimize the amount and timing of N2 introduction and aim for mass production.

Heat rreatment cycle
Atmospheric gas introduction
Figure 5. Relationship between heat treatment pattern and atmospheric gas amount

Reduction of CO2 emissions in logistics

In FY2022, we improved our CO2 emissions intensity by introducing fuel-efficient trucks in cooperation with logistics companies, asking drivers to support eco-driving, and integrating transportation services.In addition, emissions decreased by approximately 25% compared to FY2013 due to improved loading rates and efficiency through the use of JR containers and full trailers, as well as a reduction in cargo volume due to the Corona disaster.
In FY2023, we will work to further reduce emissions by optimizing transportation modes (railroads, ships, etc.), ascertaining changes in cargo volume, and promoting the replacement or elimination of truck services, with a target of 10.1Ktons of emissions.

CO2 emissions transition

Main activities

Reduction of CO2 emissions in logistics

① We reduced CO2 emissions by improving the loading efficiency of transportation services, consolidating and eliminating transportation services, improving truck fuel efficiency, reflecting eco-driving in the basic unit, and continuing to use JR containerization of truck transportation.

Status of JR containerisation

② Conversion of logistics vehicles (lifts) to batteries


Battery lifting

Safety and Environmental Measures Meeting (held regularly 3 times a year)

In FY2022, fuel efficiency improvement activities were horizontally rolled out in remote meetings with logistics providers due to the Corona disaster.