Renewable Energy is on the Menu at Ajinomoto Philippines

Following through on its commitment to environmental sustainability, Ajinomoto Philippines Corp. (APC) is in the process of transitioning its local plants to run completely on renewable energy. This is a strategic move to achieve savings and reduce its carbon footprint while expanding its business footprint in the country in a sustainable way.

Step 1: Renewable Energy for Bulacan Plant

APC’s Bulacan plant made its first step toward 100% clean energy operations with the installation of a 1-megawatt (MW) solar rooftop in 2022. This allowed the plant to reduce around 18% of its annual carbon footprint from electricity consumption. By December 2023, it had completed its full transition to renewable energy.

Ajinomoto Philippines chief sustainability officer Ernie S. Carlos reveals that the Bulacan plant’s complete shift to RE has resulted in energy cost savings of approximately P200,000 per month.

The food corporation has been making efforts to reduce its carbon footprint in other ways for years now, with the aim of reducing its greenhouse gas scope 1 and 2 emissions by 95% compared to 2018 levels by 2030.

Carlos said, “For carbon emissions, we have some targets to realize, namely, to mitigate carbon emissions by 2,000 metric tons annually.”

Step 2: Sustainable Operations in Cebu

All eyes are on Ajinomoto’s Cebu plant now, as the company recently announced plans to transition its Visayan operations to renewable energy in the same way.

Ajinomoto Philippines president Koichi Ozaki says, “Our target is to transition our Cebu factory to 100% renewable energy by 2025. Now, we are negotiating with suppliers.”

Initially, the target for the Cebu plant’s transition was set for 2024, but due to ongoing negotiations, the timeline has been adjusted to 2025.

“Once this is realized, our business operations will be at almost zero emissions. These changes in the Cebu factory are a big challenge for us, and it will have a big contribution to society,” the executive adds.

Next Steps

Taro Fujie, the president and CEO of Ajinomoto Co., Inc., is optimistic about the company’s prospects in the Philippines, citing the country’s robust economic growth.

“We want to expand the Philippine business more and more, and we would like to invest in the Philippines more and more because the Philippine possibilities are huge,” he remarked, indicating the company’s desire to diversify its offerings beyond food seasonings by exploring opportunities in frozen foods, supplements, and other products.

Ozaki echoed the need for Ajinomoto to explore more business avenues in the Philippines. “How we expand our business portfolio in the country is the next challenge, as I do believe that there is a lot of possibility in the Philippines,” he said.

Whether they’ll manufacture the new products locally is yet to be determined. “We have to think about whether some of the products can be produced here, but in order to speed it up, we can utilize another Ajinomoto Group asset and import from another country,” Ozaki explained.

The Japanese food seasoning giant aims for a robust 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2030, focusing on four key areas: healthcare, information and communications technology, food and wellness, and green production.

“We are setting a very challenging and ambitious target for 2030… In fiscal year 2021, the profit from food accounted for two-thirds of our profit while bio and fine chemicals accounted for one-third, but we can expand the bio and fine chemicals to be able to expand our business CAGR to over 10%,” Fujie said.

Source: Ajinomoto to convert Cebu plant to run on full renewable energy