Sustainability Files :
Panasonic Tokyo Shiodome Building Selected as a Tokyo Top-level Facility

Through continuous efforts over 14 years to improve energy consumption via the operation and control of its machinery, the Shiodome Building has reduced its energy use by 51.9% as revealed by its measurement data compared to when it was first completed in 2003. The majority of this reduction was achieved through a steady cycle of actions referred to as energy-saving tuning.
The precondition for the reduction of energy consumption is to take measurements and visualize the energy consumption. The office floors, which were to set the standard, were split into five blocks in order to measure the air conditioning, lighting, and electricity from sockets, while calorimeters were placed on the air conditioners. The 5,000 pieces of data acquired through this initiative were then checked against the operating condition of the equipment for analysis.
The SatTool, developed by Panasonic itself, was used for the analysis. This cloud-based software makes it easy to work with trend graphs and scatter diagrams, even without specialized knowledge. This makes it possible to pinpoint certain days or locations and determine trends for internal environments (temperature and humidity) and energy usage, while checking equipment settings at those times.
The results of the analysis are then applied to the tuning of the equipment settings to save energy.
Ever since it's completion, the Shiodome Building has had an energy-saving technical committee to fulfill this role. The committee includes inside and outside experts who put forward multiple ideas to reduce energy, from the air conditioning and lighting to facilities in the staff cafeteria. Hypotheses are put forward based on past data, then tested on model floors. With air conditioners, for example, requirements were carefully tuned to achieve optimal operation, including running times and adjustment of the volume of outside air taken in according to the number of people present.

Efforts like these often end up becoming just a casual routine, leading to slower implementation of past steps.
The Shiodome Building regularly sets targets to match its level of achievement. Now that it has achieved a 50% reduction under its Challenge 50 project from 2011, it aims to maintain its action level under the Sustainable 50 project emphasizing comfort while maintaining energy savings.
The Shiodome Building's achievements have been recognized with many awards, including the Society of Heating, Air-conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan (SHASE)'s special 10-year award in fiscal 2013. These awards helped lift the motivation of employees involved.
A touchscreen installed in the public space on the fourth floor of the building allows visitors to see the energy consumption over time, details of energy-saving activities, and success rates. Visualizing the activities in this way not only increases the appeal outside the company but also helps raise employee awareness.
The energy saving knowhow gained through the Shiodome Building's activities is incorporated into the lighting and air conditioning controls provided with the TOTALINK-BA system, helping our customers save energy as well.

Generally, energy conservation is assumed to involve a trade-off with comfort, but the Shiodome Building's efforts are designed not to worsen the conditions for the people working there. Nevertheless, some employees did complain of rooms being too hot or cold due to the energy-saving activities. One solution was to block drafts or gaps in partitions so that the equipment settings are not directly involved. In actual fact, although the current energy usage is 50% lower than when the building first opened, there are now fewer complaints to general affairs about the office environment than after the building's completion.
In 2017 Panasonic announced its Environmental Vision 2050, part of which involves the adoption of LED lighting at all its sites. The Shiodome Building started to do this from 2014 and has already completed the shift to LEDs in 2016. Using its own spatial brightness index called Feu, it now has excellent lighting that saves energy.
The Shiodome Building will continue to maintain its current energy-saving level, while striving to ensure comfortable office environments that raise the productivity of employees.