Water Resource Management

Target

Nidec’s FY2025 materiality-based activities include “Fully complete water risk assessments.” For this purpose, not only will we understand how Nidec takes in and discharges water, we will identify water-related risks per country and region to assess their impact on our businesses. Then, based on assessment results, the Nidec Group will prepare activities to implement a water risk assessment process to plan and launch risk-mitigation measures.

Materiality

Further, after setting a water-intake reduction target in its midterm environmental conservation activity plan, we are steadily engaging in specific water risk mitigation activities.
Water-intake reduction: Based on the three-year target (target timing: FY2024), reduce our water intake by 3% in intensity per unit from the level of FY2021.
Click here for more details on Nidec’s midterm environmental conservation action plan.

Achievements

Water resource management

In FY2023, the water intake of the Nidec Group as a whole was 8,340,000m3, and its total water discharge was 5,713,000m3. By constantly reducing its water use through recycling and reusing water and other actions, we successfully reduced our water intake and discharge from the level of FY2022. Additionally, the reduction in our products’ sizes contributed to the reduction in the amount of water used during our manufacturing processes.

Nidec’s water resource management

*Data coverage rate:
FY2021: 53.5%, covering major business bases on Japan, other parts of Asia, and elsewhere
FY2022 and after: 100.0%, covering all business bases (i.e., manufacturing, R&D, sales, and administration bases)

Water risk assessment

Nidec assessed the impact of water-related risks on the business activities of all of its production bases around the world by using Aqueduct of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Water Risk Filter of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in the five areas of “flooding,” “water shortage,” “water quality,” “fluctuation in water supply,” and “regulations/reputation.” This assessment unveiled flooding would impact 38 of our production bases, and that water shortage would impact 40 of them. These results prompted us to specify flooding and water shortage as critical risks to our company. Following these actions, we carefully examined local information and information on business activities in detail, to determine that a total of 12 of our production bases–five in China, three in Thailand, two in Vietnam, and another two in India–possess high flooding- and water shortage-related risks, and to confirm that certain anti-risk measures are in place at these individual bases.

Impact of water-related (flooding-related) risks on Nidec’s businesses

To understand the degree of risks’ impact on our businesses, and launch proper countermeasures, we utilized Aqueduct, the water-related risk analysis tool offered by the World Resources Institute (WRI), to assess the impact of a cases where all the 38 bases evaluated to have high flood-related risks are flooded. Using as a reference the guidance on the physical risk assessment based on the recommendation issued by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, we calculated the amount of impact of lost business opportunities caused by damage to our fixed assets and inventory, and by business suspension, to see that such lost business opportunities would make a financial impact of 42.2 billion yen.

Water use in regions in water stress (water shortage)

Nidec keeps track of annual changes in water use in water-stressed regions whose businesses may be affected by water shortage.

Water use of regions under water stress (water shortage)

Actions

To counter flooding-related risks, we analyze their impact on our businesses deeply, while promoting risk-mitigating actions. To address water shortage-related risks, we are enhancing our water intake and discharge management of water-stressed regions (those prone to water shortage), while reducing water use to mitigate related risks. Furthermore, we continue to manage individual elements related to water usage, to detect business-disrupting factors early, and counter them properly. Nidec has in place emergency risk measures for the production bases in these water-stressed regions by, for example, monitoring the water levels of rivers and installing wells to secure a necessary amount of water. Additionally, we collect information on improvements and actions for water management, and share the information group-wide, to better manage our water resources and minimize water-related risks.

Water reuse and recycle

Nidec Precision (Zhejiang) is actively working to reuse and recycle water with the water reuse/recycling rate exceeding 60% of the total amount used in FY2023

Water recycling flow in the cleaning process

Efficient water use

In its cooling tower with the highest water use, Nidec Power Train Systems’ production base in Zhejiang, China thoroughly managed the temperatures in its chiller, cooling tower, and air-handling unit, and suppressed water evaporation, to reduce its FY2023 water intake by 17.6% from the level of the prior fiscal year.

Upgrading equipment for more efficient water use

By introducing water-saving water servers, Nidec Instruments (Zhejiang) Corporation successfully reduced its FY2023 water intake by 2.86% from the level of the prior fiscal year.