Environmentally Conscious Products

Since 2014 the Kawasaki Group has implemented its Kawasaki Ecological Frontiers system (formerly Kawasaki-brand Green Products system), an internal system for certifying environmentally friendly products, as a means of reducing the environmental burden of the Group's products and services throughout their life cycles. Under the system, superior products—in terms of whether the products themselves evidence improved environmental performance and whether the associated manufacturing processes demonstrate a reduced environmental impact—are certified and registered.

The Group evaluates its products and their manufacturing processes for conformity with its own internal standards and disseminates the results of its evaluations outside the company in accordance with international standard ISO14021. Specifically, our standards are geared to improving the environmental performance of our products and reducing the environmental impact of our manufacturing processes from three emissions-reduction standpoints: CO₂Free (reduction of CO₂emissions), Waste Free (reduction of industrial waste), and Harm Free (reduction in the release of harmful chemical substances). We keep registration current by reevaluating registered products every three years. As of the end of September 2022, the Group had registered 69 products in total, including 24 new registrations during the three years prior (10 in 2020, 9 in 2021, and 5 in 2022) and 45 renewed registrations of products originally certified in 2014–2019.

As a result of its environmentally friendly products, including those registered under the Kawasaki Ecological Frontiers system, the Group has been able to reduce its annual CO₂emissions by 17,390 kt-CO₂^*. The certified and registered products are contributing in many ways to reducing annual CO₂emissions and other environmental burdens. Examples include gas-turbine and gas-engine electric power generation equipment that has achieved world-class efficiency, motorcycles manufactured with more than 90 percent recycled materials, energy-saving rolling stock made possible by weight reduction, and low-noise helicopters.

* To put this figure into perspective, a passenger car with a gas mileage of 15 km/l that is driven 10,000 km per year emits about 1.5 t-CO₂.

The program logo embodies the Group's commitment to environmental sustainability through products and manufacturing. The Kawasaki Group's primary business areas—land, sea, and air transport systems, energy and environmental engineering, and industrial equipment—each with innovative and advanced technological capabilities, form three solid pillars that together support the global environment.

The Kawasaki Group ordinarily awards the Kawasaki Ecology Prize in special recognition of a Kawasaki Ecological Frontiers system registered product that is held in high esteem outside the company for benefiting the environment and has also contributed substantially to the Group's business operations in the evaluation period. In 2021, however, no product was selected for the award.

The fiscal 2021 share of Kawasaki Ecological Frontiers products (the total net sales of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Motors, and Kawasaki Railcar Manufacturing): 23%^*

*在川崎重工(non-consolidated),total sales were 1,085.5 billion yen, with sales of Kawasaki Ecological Frontiers products at 248.6 billion yen.