Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Head office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Chihiro Kanagawa) will adopt a subsidy program to assist in covering a part of the cost for their employees to install PVC sash in their residences as a global-warming prevention measure.
Shin-Etsu Chemical considers global environmental problems such as global warming and the depletion of fossil energy resources as important issues that should be addressed through the whole company working together in a spirit of cooperation. Thus, through the installation of PVC sashes in their residences, each Shin-Etsu Chemical employee can readily contribute toward society’s efforts to prevent global warming, and it is expected that this new company program will also serve to heighten its employees’ environmental consciousness and to promote their participation in energy saving steps.
When a Shin-Etsu employee installs PVC sash at the time in new housing or when they renovate their existing housing, this system will provide a subsidy based on the total purchase amount. For PVC sash, the Japanese government, through NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), Japan's largest public R&D management organization for promoting the development of advanced industrial, environmental, new energy and energy conservation technologies, is offering subsidies as part of their "Project for Promoting the Introduction of High-Efficiency Housing/Building Energy Systems", and accordingly, at the same time, we will also be introducing NEDO’s subsidy system to our employees.
Compared to conventional aluminum sash, PVC sash has a lower thermal conductivity, about one-third that of the conventional type, and higher-insulation capability. Thus, it contributes to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through the achievement of energy-saving, and in addition, PVC sash has also attracted attention in recent years as a sash product that offers a more comfortable living environment because it helps prevent dew condensation on windows and sashes. Starting with the advanced industrial societies and in China and South Korea as well, it has already become the mainstream sash product.
Although progress has been made in the Japanese industrial sector toward the achievement of the mandatory goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions set in the Kyoto Protocol, in contrast, in the household sector the amount of emissions is increasing. Thus, to achieve the overall goal, it has become an urgent task to reduce the amount of emissions contributed to by the latter sector.
Japan’s Ministry of the Environment is also taking the initiative in using PVC sash in their government buildings and is making efforts to promote this approach as an efficient and effective energy-saving measure that can be implemented rather easily. Shin-Etsu will proactively support the promotion of the use of this product as one that will make a significant contribution to global efforts to prevent global warming.
Shin-Etsu Chemical has been commercially introducing various environment-friendly materials, and in the near future, we will consider expanding the types of products that will be suitable to include under such a subsidy system. We look upon this first-phase subsidy program for PVC sash as a model case of a responsible private-sector approach to helping mitigate global warming. This program represents a unique way for a materials manufacturer who supplies products in a wide range of industrial fields to cooperate in tackling global environmental problems. Shin-Etsu Chemical hopes that this subsidy program will soon influence many other companies to adopt a similar system.
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