Sony gives environmental concerns a high priority when constructing its buildings.

Completed in March 2011, Sony City Osaki, an R&D facility, is equipped with a wide range of energy-saving features that ensure an outstanding environmental performance. These include an evaporative cooling system, a high-efficiency thermal storage system and other systems that utilize solar panels and heat pump water heaters using natural refrigerant that make use of CO2 and heat in the atmosphere. Other advanced energy-saving features include the use of renewable energy including solar power, and LED lighting in common areas. As a result, water for the building's kitchen, for example, is heated not with conventional electric hot water heater but rather with solar energy and a heat pump water heaters using natural refrigerant. Moreover, scheduled planting facilitates the creation of green belts*1 that continue seamlessly from the building's site into surrounding areas, thus contributing to the preservation of biodiversity.

The building has terracotta louvers installed on the outside. Water -- predominantly rainwater -- flows inside the louvers. Water seeping from the surface evaporates and absorbs heat, thus cooling the surrounding air -- similar to uchimizu, or the traditional Japanese practice of sprinkling water -- and reducing the burden of the building's air conditioning on the environment and lowering CO2 emissions. Reducing the temperature of the air surrounding the building also helps to relieve the heat island effect. Many buildings use louvers made of aluminum or terracotta to keep out direct sunlight, but Sony City Osaki is the first building in the world to install a louver system that uses water to cool the surrounding air.

Practices employed during the construction of Sony City Osaki also reflected environmental considerations. Examples include the use of green power by construction site offices, the use of recycled building materials, the use of fewer dump trucks -- thanks to an increase in the efficiency of excavation work -- and more efficient haulage of excavated earth, owing to the use of sea transport, facilitating the transport of a larger volume of earth per trip than is possible with trucks.

Completed in October 2006, Sony's headquarters building -- Sony City -- features a highly efficient integrated heating system, which was developed in semiconductor facilities and other manufacturing operations and applied here, as well as a variety of energy-saving technologies. One of these technologies recycles treated wastewater from an adjacent treatment facility -- which would otherwise be discharged into rivers -- back into the building and harnesses the untapped energy therein to power air conditioning and heating systems, reducing the building's cooling systems requirements and mitigating the heat island effect. Sony's efforts here, particularly its use of new energy-saving technologies and information technology, have garnered high praise and in December 2008 earned Sony the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Prize at the Green IT Awards 2008.

In fiscal year 2010, the government of Tokyo, where Sony City is located, implemented a mandatory emissions reduction bill with a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for large emitters, in line with the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on Environmental Protection. Compulsory reductions for emitters given the rank "top-level office" -- assigned to those recognized as having the very best programs for reducing global warming -- are lower than for other emitters. In early fiscal year 2011, Sony was designated a "top-level office."

Sony Pictures Entertainment in Culver City, California joined the U.S. Green Building Council to announce the studio's official receipt of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®)*2 Gold Certification for the LOT Project building.

These standards were developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in order to improve the performance of buildings across all metrics, including CO2 emissions reduction, water efficiency, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources.

Trees selected for planting around the building can withstand dry conditions and are native to the area. More than 95% of wood waste generated in the construction of the building is being recycled. A wide variety of environmentally conscious features incorporated into the building include lighting with automatic sensors, low-flow toilets that use less water, and the installation of a rainwater filter system. Chemical-free products are being used for the building's exterior walls, paints and carpets, and construction materials are sourced locally to help reduce the amount of CO2 emissions produced in the transportation process.

This building will replace four less-efficient office buildings located across Los Angeles and is expected to save approximately 300 tons of carbon per year. In addition, the coinciding upgrade of the central plant will reduce energy use by an estimated 894,000 kWh per year (290 tons- CO2).

Sony Electronics Inc.'s new head office building in San Diego, California, which was completed in the summer of 2009, was awarded Leadership in Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council Institute. As an environmental initiative, the company worked with a local electric power utility to install solar panels on the parking building's rooftop to generate power. Also, considering how precious water resources are, the company opted for a system that routes water discharged by the air-conditioning system to the fountain in the atrium and has placed sensors in the toilets, among others. These efforts are expected to cut the use of water resources 47% more than that required for conventional buildings.

In addition, the company chose architectural features -- including a layout that allows natural light to filter in over 90% of the floor space -- that will result in a 17.5% reduction in energy consumption.

In 2010, Sony Electronics' US headquarters implemented an online energy "dashboard" in an effort to continuously monitor, track and eventually reduce energy consumption. This dashboard gives employees a behind-the-scenes look into just how much electricity the building and parking structure are consuming in near real-time. The purpose of this system is to provide more awareness and transparency into the building's energy consumption with a goal of finding ways to reduce it. The feature-rich dashboard includes energy statistics, a green conversion center that provides easily recognizable frames of reference, top green attributes of the building and tips on ways to reduce our environmental footprint at work and home and a LEED green building checklist that explains all the criteria Sony needed to meet in order to have the building certified LEED Gold.

In March 2011, Sony Switzerland moved to a building designed and developed during a period of 2.5 years in strong cooperation between Sony, the city of Schlieren, investors and developers. This new building meets the highest energy efficiency and environment consciousness standards.Compared with the old building, Sony Switzerland estimates an electricity saving potential of 20%, heating energy decrease of 15% and CO2 saving of 10%. The facility is a Swiss MINERGIE house, which means that it was given a registered quality label for being a low-energy-consumption building. This is due to the implementation of several measures. For example, CO2 emissions from energy use are minimized because the building is connected to a district heating and cooling grid system. Solar panels were installed on the roof, with 1/3 of the energy produced reserved for Sony, which occupies 1/3 of the building. Moreover, energy for the building is produced from waste incineration, while energy consumption is reduced through a wastewater heat recovery system. The use of automatic controlled sun blinds; a glass façade, which lightens the offices sufficiently during the day; and an indirect lighting system and light control via movement sensors, will contribute to the estimated savings above. Thanks to a modern air filtering and cooling system, the glass building does not need windows that can be opened by the employees.