Green Factory and Green Office System

The Thinking behind Our Activities to Reduce Environmental Burdens in Factories and Offices

The Group continually strives to reduce the quantities of materials and energy used in its operations, as well as the amounts of chemicals and waste materials generated and atmospheric pollutants emitted, while trying to minimize manufacturing costs. It also takes a rigorous approach to complying with laws and regulations and eliminating environmental risks.

We are also continually trying to raise our standards by introducing systems for comprehensively evaluating these activities, rendering their level of eco-friendliness 'visible,' and extending them throughout the Group.

Applying the Green Factory and Green Office Systems

To reduce even further the environmental burden of our factories and business offices, we initiated in fiscal 2007 our Green Factory and Green Office systems, designed to comprehensively evaluate our level of eco-friendliness and autonomous initiatives and render them 'visible.'

In our Stage V Environmental Protection Program, we propose achieving a two star () or higher level in the Green Factory or Green Office system at every one of our relevant business sites in Japan by the end of fiscal 2009, and we continue working to achieve the certified levels and improve and heighten our ecofriendliness.

In fiscal 2008, 40 (81%) of our factories subject to the Green Factory system and 338 (77%) of our offices subject to the Green Office system achieved a two-star or higher ranking. Of these, 118 sites (two factories and 116 offices) that had promoted their own independent initiatives reached the three-star level.

Comprehensively Assessing Risk

The Group has until now carried out periodic disaster-prevention inspections of the buildings, facilities and environmental equipment at all of its sites, using teams of facility specialists and environmental experts, to prevent the emergence of risks due to deterioration or natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons and heavy rainfall.

However, because of the current importance of ensuring operational continuity, the Group has recently commenced new third-party verification programs, adding teams specialized in operational continuity, safety/hygiene and risk finance to address potential risks from all possible aspects, not just from the conventional approaches for facilities and the environment.

We intend to continue these activities with the aim of further lowering the risks associated with our buildings and equipment.