SANYO “Eco-Store System” Receives Minister’s Eco-Products Award for Successfully Realizing Supermarket Energy Savings

Awarded by the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry in the Eco-Services category of the Fifth Eco-Products Awards

Tokyo.- SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (SANYO) announces that it’s “Eco-Store System” has been awarded the Eco-Products Award from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in the Eco-Services category of the fifth Eco-Products Awards, hosted by the Eco-Products Promotion Council in Japan. The ceremony where SANYO will receive this award will be held during the Eco-Products Exhibition on December 11, 2008. Prior to the awards ceremony, a presentation regarding the product selected for the award will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight Conference Tower.

The award-winning “Eco-Store System” is an in-store integrated management system able to provide control for optimum energy savings through a master controller providing uniform energy management for the in-store showcases, including the refrigeration units for both the frozen and chilled food showcases, and the in-store air conditioning systems as well as others. Previously, these various systems and devices were operated through individual control systems, but by connecting each device to a communications network and performing uniform management and linked operations using the master controller capable of acquiring real-time operation conditions, the appropriate temperature adjustments for the showcase can be done to maintain the freshness of the food, while simultaneously realizing up to 23% of total electrical power consumption savings in the supermarket.
As of October 2008, approximately 300 stores nationwide have purchased and installed this system. On average, the expected reduction in annual CO2 emissions for one store is approximately 60 tons, and based on that average, an annual reduction of CO2 emissions for the currently installed systems is approximately 18,000 tons. Currently, there are about 20,000 supermarkets in Japan (number of stores according to an excerpt from the METI Yearbook of the Current Survey of Commerce (2007)), which if they all introduced this system into their stores, it would have an equivalent reduction of more than 1,000,000 tons of CO2 emissions yearly (according to company calculations).

The Eco-Product Awards serve to support initiatives from companies and other organizations supplying eco-minded products by providing recognition for outstanding products and services providing different meaningful ways of reducing the burden on the environment (“Eco-Products”). Recognition in this manner has been awarded since 2004 with the aim of providing accurate information about eco-products to both companies and consumers, in addition to supporting and promoting the development and distribution of eco-products throughout Japan. This is the second time that Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. has received an award after receiving the Eco-Products Award (from the Minister of the Environment) in the Eco-Products Category of the Third Eco-Product Awards for its new low self-discharge nickel-metal hydride battery, “eneloop”.