Water Resource Management Framework

Management System at Each Business Office and Factory

NEC has set targets for reducing water consumption in NEC Eco Action Plan 2025, which promotes management from an environmental perspective. We are rolling out the plan to all business offices and Group companies in and outside Japan.

As a measure to prevent water pollution, each business office and factory sets and manages internal standards to ensure that wastewater does not exceed legal limits set by the national and local governments in each region. Our internal standards are stricter than externally mandated standards. We are also working to reduce the amount of chemical substances used during water treatment to reduce the impact of chemical trade-offs. Specifically, we prevent the input of more chemical substances than necessary by constantly monitoring water quality.

Initiatives

Water Project (Ministry of the Environment)

Risk Assessments and Countermeasures

NEC is assessing risks such as water shortages, water quality, and flooding using the Aqueduct tool provided by the World Resources Institute, as well as a proprietary questionnaire. We began by assessing 16 of NEC's 392 plants in and outside Japan using Aqueduct, and confirmed that the sites in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China and Pathum Thani, Thailand are located in risk areas.

The site in China uses only 6,000 m3 of water per year, so we consider water shortage risk to be low. In addition, this site is located on the second floor and above a leased building. The wastewater system is connected to a sewage treatment plant, so we judge flooding and sewage risks to be low as well.

No flooding has occurred at our site in Thailand since the large-scale flooding that occurred in 2011. The Thai government has also learned how to better manage dams and has implemented numerous measures, such as building levees in the surrounding areas. We have also implemented various BCP initiatives at our site to counter floods, along with detailed measures to counter water shortages and sewage issues.

In addition, we conducted high-resolution flood simulations for the 1.5°C and 4°C scenarios. As a result, it was found that in the scenario with a probability of occurring once in 100 years, the flood depth in this area is currently 0.6 meters, 0.7 meters under the 1.5°C scenario, and 0.8 meters under the 4.0°C scenario. Therefore, we have determined that current countermeasures are sufficient. As such, we have determined that we have minimized the risk to this site. Furthermore, business risk is low since sales at the site account for less than 1% of NEC's net sales.

Internal Water Pricing System

NEC calculates values for reductions in CO2 emissions based on its approach to internal carbon pricing to inform decisions on whether to invest in equipment, and follows a similar methodology for water. When setting prices for water, we take into account future increases in the cost of water, and assume the future unit price of water will be 2.5 times higher than it is now. We recalculate the cost impact on this basis when water usage is projected to change by at least five cubic meters per day.

Prevention of Water Pollution and Wastewater

NEC manages its wastewater with stricter standards than national and local governments to ensure their wastewater production does not exceed region-specific legal limits.

We are also working to reduce the amount of chemical substances used during water treatment to reduce the impact of chemical tradeoffs. Specifically, we prevent inputting more chemical substances than necessary by constantly monitoring water quality.

Examples of Water Usage Reduction Initiatives

Reducing Water Usage by Introducing Steam Condensate Recovery Equipment

The NEC head office building uses steam for air conditioning (heating and humidification). The installation of a steam condensate recovery system (hot well tank) enables condensate generated in the steam supply process to be reused as boiler water. As a result, we were able to reduce water usage by 1,670 m3 in fiscal 2021.
In addition, NEC Sagamihara Plant is also working to reduce water usage by using the system to recover steam condensate from boilers in collaboration with other businesses located at the site.

Reducing Water Usage by Introducing a Wastewater Reuse System

At each of the NEC Group‘s business sites and facilities where the system can be installed, wastewater reuse systems have been installed in restrooms, hot water supply rooms, and other areas in an effort to reduce water usage by reusing some of the wastewater in the facilities as gray water. At the NEC head office building, handwashing water in each restroom, wastewater from the hot water supply room, cooling tower blow water, and rainwater are treated using the sludge method and the activated carbon filtration method, and are reused as gray water for toilet flushing water (wastewater from toilets and urinals). At NEC Sagamihara Plant as well, a part of the cooling tower blow water is treated and reused as gray water for toilet flushing water. As a result, we were able to reduce our annual water usage by 5,650 m3 in fiscal 2021.

Reducing Water Usage by Introducing Module Chillers

At NEC Platforms’ Fukushima Plant, the introduction of module chillers to cool heat source equipment in the facility has led to a reduction in the amount of cooling water used for the operation of other chillers. This has resulted in an annual reduction of 9,334 m³ of water usage in fiscal 2020.