*1 As of October 24, 2008 (Sony survey)

The wood chips on the belt conveyer will not be discarded. They are an important fuel for generating green power. Green power is electricity that is generated from natural energy sources such as wind power, solar, and biomass(*2), none of which increase CO₂ emissions. In recent years, wood biomass power generation has drawn considerable attention as a stable power generation system that is unaffected by weather. While burning wood produces CO₂, it will not increase the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere from the viewpoint of the entire life cycle of the wood, because the produced CO₂ was originally photosynthetically-absorbed by the wood in the process of growing. To use green power, we had to have our own power generation facilities or have such power supplied from a nearby power generation plant. Sony, therefore, developed Japan's first "Green Power Certification System" in cooperation with power companies in 2000. With this system, a company or an individual that wants to use green power entrusts power generation from renewable resources to certain facilities and bears the cost of the power generation. The idea is to "regard it as use" of green power. This system enables the use of green power at a location far from any such power generation facilities, thus allowing the Tokyo office to use the abundant naturally sourced energy generated in Tsubetsu, a forestry town, in Abashiri County, Hokkaido.

Tsubetsu-Tanpan Cooperative Biomass Energy Center ("tanpan" means a veneer sheet) lies next to a factory that produces plywood for home building. The production of plywood from the logs cut and brought down from the woods inevitably leaves wood chips including bark and scrap pieces of wood, which amounts to as much as 40 percent of the raw logs. In the past, these wood chips were used only for the generation of heat in a boiler and the remainder were handled as waste. To make the very best use of such wood chips, they considered woody biomass cogeneration (combined heat and power) facilities and then built a woody biomass power plant that provides all the power that the factory needs. All operations at the Biomass Energy Center are automated. Wood chips are sorted into different lines and are brought by a belt conveyer to the boiler to be used as fuel for the generation of green power. This center generates about 18 million kWh of electricity every year. This is equivalent to the power consumed by about 5,000 typical households(*3) in a year. What Sony carefully considers in search of a supplier of green power is whether the power is generated by burning only wood, a totally renewable material, and does not involve the burning of oil or wasted plastic. This factory in Tsubetsu uses local, Hokkaido-planted trees such as larch and fir instead of using tropical wood that is produced by cutting old-growth forest. Sony also regarded this point as being extremely important, regarding impact on the environment. With the conclusion of this contract, the total green power purchased by all Sony group companies in Japan has reached about 55.45 million kWh, which makes Sony Japan's largest corporate customer(*1) of the "Green Power Certification System." By promoting the use of clean power that does not increase CO₂ emissions throughout Japan, the Sony vision of a greener future is well underway.