Enriching Society through Engineering Value

SennaChiyoda’s most valuable asset is its employees and our greatest strengths are our technical and project execution capabilities, accumulated since our foundation in 1948. We provide quality services and high added value that exceeds customer expectations, building a rapport with our customers and society in general. That is our purpose to me. Our technical capabilities are acknowledged by customers and I know that people outside the Company recognize Chiyoda’s technological expertise, which we regularly demonstrate through external presentations and workshops. Many employees refine their expertise in engineering and technological fields before moving on to project management, which results in Chiyoda’s exceptional technical and project execution capabilities.
Society’s needs are continually changing and have undergone a significant revolution in recent years, increasing the uncertainty in our business environment from social, economic and political perspectives. This means that, as an engineering company, we need to adapt to society’s ever changing needs as we face increasingly complex and difficult challenges. Rather than focusing on LNG plant construction and other large-scale projects that take many years to complete, as the number of small to medium-sized projects has increased in recent years, we need to provide flexible services to complete such plants within shorter timeframes. While it will still be necessary to proceed with long-term research and development in parallel to support the realization of a sustainable society, in terms of our relationship with customers and society, it could be argued that we need to bring products and services into the world with even greater urgency. I hope Chiyoda addresses social issues in numerous fields and provides solutions with a sense of urgency by leveraging our strengths in technology and execution, and by working in collaboration with customers and partners as we strive to resolve shared global social challenges.

NishiokaTo me, the purpose of an engineering company is to apply its expertise in numerous fields in the evaluation of specialist companies’ technologies and capabilities, select the most suitable company on a project-by-project basis and collaborate based on a philosophy of flexible project execution as ‘One Team’ to meet common objectives. Chiyoda’s ability to unite a wide variety of companies towards achieving common goals is a great strength.
Our future activities will concern both energy, as we contribute to the energy transition and decarbonization, and conquering challenges such as aging societies, Japan’s declining population, and food shortages. We therefore need to be a company that leads projects by delivering innovative solutions in the fields in which we currently operate and in new areas. In the Life Science Project Department, we have commenced operations in new fields such as insect-based food and high molecule drugs, but a significant amount of our current operations remain in EPC projects. We need to create a system that allows us to continue meeting customer needs for EPC of industrial facilities while maximizing use of DX and AI technology in the labor-efficient implementation of projects, thereby enabling us to focus on new fields where we can meet customer requirements and actively set goals to be met by 2050, then disseminate them to our customers and society at large. I hope to see Chiyoda resolve social issues by uniting companies and working collaboratively to achieve common goals. In the medical field, for example, this could mean setting the goal of widespread dissemination of effective treatments for diseases for which none currently exist, and proposing ways to achieve that goal. I want us to leverage our company’s ability to assess technologies and capabilities, then incorporate a wide variety of companies into ‘One Team,’ leading projects that achieve goals and resolving issues.

KunigoOur purpose of ‘Enriching Society through Engineering Value’ has two aspects. The first is engineering the means by which society can be enriched. This is the area in which we have the greatest capabilities, having established a track record over many years, and is also one in which society has great expectations. The other aspect is engineering the concept of what enriching society looks like. This is what Mr. Nishioka was discussing. Although responding to the needs of society is important, there are currently very few companies with a clear vision for the future. The unique value Chiyoda brings is our ability to take the lead in proposing a vision for what enriching society looks like, then utilizing our capabilities as an engineering company to provide technology and solutions that carve out a path towards realizing that vision.
As Mr. Takimoto mentioned, there is a possibility that society will change significantly in the future. We have all witnessed how items such as refrigerators, washing machines, mobile telephones, televisions, air conditioners and automobiles became more widespread across the generations, dramatically improving lives and creating new lifestyles. When considering what we want to achieve in the future, we will require new ideas based on the premise that society is fundamentally changing. Establishing a vision for the future in an uncertain world is extremely challenging. However, Chiyoda’s talented personnel with expertise, skills and experience in many fields place us in a unique position of being able to present a vision of what society should aim for, and I hope to see us realize this purpose by being leaders for our customers and society.

KotaniOur purpose is to implement our engineering and technological expertise to deliver optimum solutions to customers that benefit society. I am part of the Technology Development Department, and we ‘scale up’ technologies from customers and partners for practical application. This is the essence of engineering. Engineering companies collaborate with partners to unite technologies in numerous fields for practical application in projects worldwide. In that sense, they have great value. Our strength is our experience working on overseas projects while being based in Japan, which has an abundance of technologies with outstanding potential, and our record of practical application of technologies.
As the world seeks carbon neutrality by 2050, we will leverage our strengths and support the realization of a society that achieves the ‘Energy and Environment in Harmony’ that Chiyoda has long advocated. I am currently working on the development of CCUS^*1 technology that reduces CO₂ emissions and enables the reuse of CO₂ as a resource. CCUS will be a major step forward in the transition from a traditional energy resource society to one which focuses on ‘Energy and Environment in Harmony.’ We will focus on NET^*2 technologies that present even greater challenges, such as Direct Air Capture (DAC), a technology that efficiently extracts CO₂ from the atmosphere, and will progress towards their practical application.
To achieve ‘Energy and Environment in Harmony,’ it is important to explore new ways of using energy while reducing CO₂ levels. I hope Chiyoda will be at the forefront of realizing carbon neutrality and advocating new ways to use energy that are radically different from conventional energy conservation methods, including thermal recycling and improving equipment efficiency, along with the processes to implement these solutions.

• *1 Carbon dioxide Capture, Utilization and Storage
• *2 Negative Emissions Technologies: Technologies that remove CO₂ from the atmosphere through capture, storage and immobilization

KatakuraI also want to see a sustainable society centered on energy and the environment. In my area of offshore wind power generation, large-scale adoption and cost reductions are pending, which has ensuing economic ripple effects. This sector will be essential to making renewable energy a core power source as we progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050. Japan’s offshore wind power generation industry is relatively new and it will be essential to introduce advanced technology, know-how and supply chains from Europe, while adapting to Japan’s unique environmental and regulatory conditions, to achieve the national goal of introducing 10GW of offshore wind power generation by 2030. Chiyoda has extensive experience in overseas projects and we have demonstrated our philosophy of collaborative project execution, working with companies from Europe and around the world. As such, our involvement will facilitate the effective introduction of European technology into Japan and, looking ahead, expanding the scope of what can be handled domestically would be ideal from a national policy perspective. However, the reality is that employing specialist talent is challenging and many areas cannot be covered by business operators alone.
Conversations with customers have identified a strong need for the resources and knowledge that engineering companies, such as Chiyoda, provide. Although Chiyoda does not directly own assets such as transportation or construction equipment, we use our engineering expertise and project management experience to enable partner companies who do to effectively utilize their assets, and we provide flexible resources without the restrictions of asset ownership. As we adapt to the rapid changes in society and our business environment, there will be challenges that business operators cannot conquer alone, and I want to see Chiyoda add value by providing tailored solutions to individual situations.We provide services encompassing software operations, such as Pre-FEED^*3, and will remain alert to future changes in offshore wind power generation, expanding the scope of our business as we contribute to the development of the industry in Japan.

• *3 Front End Engineering Design

KunigoAlthough most current climate change measures to reduce CO₂ emissions are on the production and supplyside, carbon neutrality cannot be achieved through the supply side alone. Demand-side initiatives that focus on user behavior and consumption habits are equally important. Chiyoda has implemented advanced engineering solutions for plants and processes both on the energy supply side and the demand side. As Mr. Kodani mentioned, I want to see Chiyoda be proactive as we investigate alternative energy supply solutions while also incorporating demand-side perspectives. This approach can also apply to non-energy fields. In the automobile industry, for example, while supply-side initiatives such as electrification, autonomous driving and car sharing are progressing, it is also necessary to transform how people travel and transportation logistics, i.e., the demand side. Significant changes will also be required in the use of mineral resources and food.
Achieving carbon neutrality requires creative engineering on both the supply and demand sides. As an engineering company, our purpose is to provide engineering and technological expertise to deliver optimal solutions for our customers that benefit society as a whole, and pursue this in fields ranging from energy to transportation, logistics, resources and food. Although this is a huge task, I believe we should work backwards from our goals, connecting our businesses to maximize internal synergy and understanding what we must do as a company to achieve them.
The scope of ‘Enriching Society through Engineering Value’ will expand in the future and it will benefit all roundtable discussion participants to take a moment to reflect on Chiyoda’s purpose and vision for society.