Emissions goals to determine Panasonic managers' pay

Panasonic Corp. is getting so serious about being "green," managers will see pay slashed if plants don't meet the electronics giant's internal emissions targets, an executive said Thursday.

Panasonic's new "environmental performance system" for some 297 manufacturing sites around the world includes carbon dioxide emissions as a key standard for evaluating management, along with sales and costs, said Akira Nakamura, Panasonic group manager.

The system, which began in April, is part of the company's plan to reduce its global carbon dioxide emissions by 300,000 tons over three years to 3.68 million tons in the fiscal year ending in March 2010.

Panasonic aims to reduce such gases by half between now and 2050, Nakamura said. The targets are voluntary, but the public's ecological concerns are becoming so serious that being green is a must for the company's business strategy, he said.

"We should see these factors as a great opportunity to demonstrate our technologies and competitiveness," he told reporters in Tokyo. "We can integrate a concept of 'sustainability' into management strategy."

Companies are under pressure to conserve energy and slash gases that cause global warming. But going as far as setting management pay by emissions is rare in the corporate world.

The move will also extend to workers' bonuses. The firm did not give specific figures for the possible pay cuts.

Panasonic, based in Osaka, is installing meters and gauges to check energy consumption at all manufacturing sites by March 2009 to ensure that emissions are measurable, it said.