Fujifilm Reduces Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions With Methane Reclamation Program

FUJIFILM today announced that its primary US manufacturing complex, located in Greenwood, S.C., will begin using methane gas from a local community landfill to power approximately 40 percent of the facility’s operations.

Through an arrangement with Greenwood County and Methane Credit, LLC, methane gas will be extracted from the landfill and piped into the Fujifilm complex, where it will then be used in two of the facility’s four boilers. The facility will use approximately 197 billion BTUs of methane-generated energy from the landfill per year – the equivalent of the amount of energy used to heat more than 5,000 homes each year.

“This is a situation where we have come up with a solution that is both good for our business, good for the community, and very good for the environment — and that is something that’s always been inherent in Fujifilm’s culture globally,” said Johnny Udo, director of Environmental, Health & Safety for Fujifilm in South Carolina. “This landfill gas-to-energy project will help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 10%, will significantly reduce our energy costs, and will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.”

By using the methane as energy Fujifilm is preventing methane emissions, which are more than twenty times more damaging to the ozone than carbon dioxide, from being released into the atmosphere from the landfill. The amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions avoided by this Fujifilm effort would be similar to that generated by 208,000 barrels of oil each year, or the equivalent of the emissions from more than 17,000 vehicles each year.

“We are extremely happy this project worked out,” said Robbie Templeton, Chairman of the Greenwood County Council. The County was facing a deadline imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce or eliminate methane emissions from the Landfill. In the absence of a partner like Fujifilm, the County’s other option was to flare, or burn-off, the gas at the landfill. “Once again FUJIFILM proves itself to be one of our best corporate citizens,” Templeton continued.

Globally, Fujifilm is implementing a range of measures with the objective of contributing to sustainable development by designing products that take the environment into account, reducing packaging materials, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to this project Fujifilm has committed itself to eco-sustainability measures, such as habitat and species preservation for the Giant Panda through its longstanding collaboration with the Smithsonian National Zoo, and the active pursuit of new energy fuels that will prevent global warming. By 2010, Fujifilm intends to reduce global energy consumption at its large manufacturing facilities by 10% from its 1999 numbers, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from its 1990 numbers.