2. Aiming for a further leap forward

[1] Looking ahead to the era of carbon neutrality

Carbon neutrality refers to a state in which the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions has been reduced to zero by subtracting the amount absorbed and the amount removed from total emissions. In recent years, countries around the world have been advancing various efforts to achieve decarbonization and carbon neutrality, with Brazil and Argentina having set a target for realizing carbon neutrality by 2050.
This growing awareness of the global environment is one of the factors behind the introduction of HEVs and BEVs to the market by automobile manufacturers.
The DENSO Group was one of the first to implement initiatives intended to solve the problem of climate change. The DNBR Santa Bárbara Plant, which commenced operations in 2011, was designed to avoid the need for air-conditioning by supplying air from areas that generate little heat and exhausting air from areas that generate a lot of heat in consideration of how the wind flows. In a further effort to achieve carbon neutrality, DNBR later on identified how much CO2 each piece of equipment was emitting, and applied reduction targets correspondingly while advancing efforts to reduce emissions.
The DENSO Group is also unique in that it aims to achieve its goals without relying on carbon credits.
In practice, trading credits can be used to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Many companies are working to become carbon neutral based on the premise of actively using these kinds of carbon credits. In contrast, the DENSO Group aims to achieve its targets on its own by making its plants more energy efficient, generating renewable energy in-house, recovering CO2, and purchasing renewable energy, for example.

As a result of promoting these activities, DNBR achieved carbon neutrality with the inclusion of credits at its Santa Bárbara and Curitiba Plants, and DTBR achieved this standing at its Pernambuco Plant in FY 2021. Although the company-wide target was to complete this project in FY 2025 with the inclusion of credits, DENSO South America is at present promoting activities with a view to achieving its goal ahead of time in 2023. And DENSO has raised the target of fully achieving carbon neutrality for all its plants, supply chains, and product use without relying on credits by FY 2035.