By Graham K. Rogers

Epson operates a number of plants in the region including in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Its facilities in Batam, an Indonesian island, comprise three factories, one of which is Epson's largest inkjet cartridge manufacturing plants. At this location there is also mounting of semiconductors (IC) and manufacturing of scanners.

By changing and improving some of its processes, the company has won - for the third consecutive year - considerable praise from the government of Indonesia for energy-saving, the introduction of a waste-reduction type liquid waste treatment system for ink, and promoting non-cleanroom manufacturing.

Using technology for controlling falling dust, which was also later used in inkjet cartridge manufacturing and IC mounting, significant reductions in costs were made possible. Along with this, using improved logistics controls has made it possible to reduce the amount of warehouse space needed, which has also led to lower air-conditioning and other energy costs.

The manufacture of inkjet cartridges produces significant waste water. Older methods of cleaning the effluent were not energy-efficient. Working with Singapore Epson Industrial's Plating Division, the Batan facility was able to develop and adopt waste water treatment equipment that employed its own new method which no longer uses heat, thus reducing energy consumption. In addition, sludge created in the cleaning process was reduced by 78%, leading to running cost reductions of 54%.

As well as these improvements to the industrial processes and handling, every year Epson Batam plants trees at locations such as schools, public facilities, the seashore, and local communities as part of a "Hijaukan Pantai, Hijaukan Bumi" (green seas, green earth) project. As well as the trees planted over the years, in the last financial year, some 12,000 catfish were also released.

There are also programs in local schools to educate students about the environment.

More detailed information about the Epson Batam Environmental Program can be accessed on the Epson website.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.