Innovating products and processes, creating training opportunities, involving partners, installers and users: that is Daikin's recipe for a greener future.
A leading multinational has a duty to set a good example, guiding the transformation of an entire sector in the direction of sustainability. So says Elena Sensi, marketing director of Daikin Italia, who takes stock of the milestones achieved and those planned for the near future. A journey that – she assures us – will also weather the crisis brought on by coronavirus and emerge from it even stronger.
Daikin has set itself the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. How will this strategy unfold?
At a global level, Daikin was among the first companies in the sector to set itself this goal; after all, it is only natural that the market leader should be the driving force behind systemic change. Intermediate targets are planned year by year. As well as being entirely consistent with Daikin's mission and vision, this path meets the requirements of regulations (such as the latest European F-gas regulation of 16 April 2014) that oblige manufacturers of equipment and refrigerants to reduce CO2 emissions.
What is interesting is how we go about it. In terms of product innovation, there is ongoing research into refrigerant gases. Until not so long ago, all air conditioners used R410A gas. If one kilogram of this gas were to escape into the atmosphere, its impact in terms of CO2 would be equivalent to that of 12 Milan–Palermo journeys (a total of 18,400 kilometres). Daikin was therefore the first to use R32 gas in air-conditioning systems, reducing these emissions by 75 per cent; and rather than keeping this innovation to itself, it granted competitors the use of its patents. Today, 80–90 per cent of the residential market uses R32 gas.
As far as the heating sector is concerned, we are working intensively on electrification, focusing on heat pumps and hybrid boilers, which have a significantly lower CO2 impact compared to condensing boilers. There is also great attention to connectivity and remote monitoring systems, which considerably reduce energy consumption and, therefore, environmental impact.
What are your projects relating to the circular economy?
The circular economy strand is the one that will truly lead us to carbon neutrality. Thanks to partnerships established years ago with a number of consortia (Remedia in Italy), machines can now be recovered at end of life and reused. The same principle was then extended to refrigerant gases through a European project called L∞P by Daikin. All countries are called upon to find a virtuous method for recovering ever greater quantities of gas which, once regenerated, is used within Daikin's production facilities to charge machines. Regenerated gas guarantees the same performance as virgin gas and prevents the further production of over 150,000 kg per year.
Are your customers showing themselves to be receptive and informed on the subject of the circular economy?
It is certainly a process of education that takes time. Consumers' greatest fear is that an environmentally conscious product will cost more. In short, there is a segment of people who are still somewhat disinterested, a segment who are interested but unwilling to spend more, and then there are those who make an ethical choice and pursue it whenever they have the opportunity. We are talking about the pioneers and, above all, the younger generations, who insist on choosing only brands that make sustainability a core value, not just in words.
What specific areas does Daikin Italia focus on?
Again in collaboration with Remedia, we were the first in Europe to involve our most loyal installers and give them the opportunity to become Green Installers. When they go to replace an old system with a new one (not necessarily Daikin), Green Installers recover both the end-of-life machine and the refrigerant gas inside it. The machines are stored in a warehouse, Remedia comes to collect them and takes them to a facility that extracts the gas, regenerates it and makes it available again to our factories.
For installers, this is an opportunity, but it nonetheless entails a number of obligations, such as having completed a series of training courses, being familiar with certain specific procedures and having all the necessary paperwork in order from a regulatory standpoint. For this reason, it is not a requirement but an additional option, which we offer on a voluntary basis. For the first nine months we started in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, before extending the project to the whole of Italy. We now have 80 sign-ups out of 600–700 loyal installers: it is the classic percentage of pioneers, one that is destined to grow over time. To ensure they also benefit in terms of communication, we created a window sticker and a logo to be used on uniforms, websites and leaflets. Anyone searching our website for their nearest point of sale can filter the results to show only Green Installers. The aim is to create a virtuous movement that starts with installers and spreads awareness among end users.
In June 2019, the first event at the Daikin Campus was held. Can you give an overview of these initiatives?
As a sector leader, we want to guide change on the innovation and cultural front by involving all our stakeholders, from partners to end users. Beyond product performance, then, we began talking about values. These are expressed in the Daikin Solution Campus, which occupies the ground floor of the new Milan offices we moved into in mid-2018.
In June 2019, the first event on the circular economy was held (entitled Take a breath, make a move). Along the lines of TED Talks, we invited figures who have distinguished themselves in their industry, such as Marina Spadafora in fashion and Luigi Galimberti in agriculture. This first event gave us enormous satisfaction in terms of attendance, both in person and via streaming. All the content was subsequently made available online.
In December, with the event Air for the planet, we asked students from the Istituto italiano di fotografia and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi to interpret air through a series of visual performances accompanied by music. The winner received a scholarship.
Now that events are forcibly on hold, have you planned any virtual alternatives?
The Campus experience has been wonderful and we have absolutely no intention of stopping there. We already had a series of events on the circular economy planned and, as soon as it is possible, we will organise them via streaming. In the meantime, we are focusing on our installers, who during this period have seen a sharp reduction in their workload. As early as the week following the lockdown, we transferred our training courses to a new free online platform.
What pillars do you want to build the recovery on, after coronavirus?
We will be working intensively on the subject of indoor air quality. It will become increasingly necessary to help people use our products correctly in order to improve their quality of life, all the more so if we are to spend a great deal more time at home. Everything will certainly need to be calibrated against people's financial means, given the crisis that lies ahead, but we expect that consumers in the near future will attach far less importance to discretionary expenditure and will put primary comfort – that of the home – first.
