CSR

CSR Report

Fujikura Group CSR Report 2013

[ISO 26000 Core Subject] The Environment

Green Procurement and Purchasing

Green Procurement

As a premise to delivering products of high environmental quality to customers, we must use materials and parts that have high environmental quality too. Based on this recognition, Fujikura is conducting the following activities meticulously to minimize the amount of substances of concern (SOCs) contained in the goods procured by the Company.

Survey on the use of SOCs

The division in charge of procurement distributes copies of Fujikura's guidelines on SOCs to all its major suppliers, asks them to comply with the guidelines, and distributes a questionnaire survey on the use of SOCs in the products they sell to Fujikura. For products in which SOCs are used, the concentrations are identified and managed in units of parts per million (ppm).

Database on SOCs

We have built an SOC database, in which data on about 4,500 materials and parts identified as containing SOCs in the aforementioned survey is registered. In-house divisions can access this database via the intranet whenever they want to retrieve information on the use of SOCs in the materials and parts they have purchased.

Green procurement management

We have asked our major suppliers to support us in environmental management by:

1.Discontinuing or reducing the use of SOCs in the products they deliver to Fujikura ("Delivered Products")
2.Paying due consideration to the environment in manufacturing the Delivered Products
3.Providing information on hazards related to Delivered Products and on laws and regulations that apply to them, including submitting material safety data sheets (MSDSs)
4.Promoting simple design and weight reduction for Delivered Products and selecting materials with less environmental impact for use in the products
5.Ensuring the recyclability of Delivered Products by selecting easily recyclable materials and the structures that can be easily broken down or disassembled for products
6.Proactively using recycled resources in Delivered Products
7.Paying consideration to the environmental impact from the transportation of Delivered Products

In-house analysis and management of purchased goods

To provide our customers with safe products, we analyze and manage the use of substances of concern in the purchased products, using ISO/IEC 17025-certified top-level analysis technology.

Inorganic analyses	Atomic absorption, ICP, XRF, EPMA, XRD, and others
Organic analyses	GC/MS, various spectroscopic measurement devices for UV absorption spectroscopy, etc., IC, and others

Surveying Supplier's Environmental Management and Requesting Improvements

We conducted a survey on the environmental management efforts of our suppliers focusing on the following items, and based on the results of the survey we asked suppliers who were not implementing sufficient environmental measures to make related improvements.

1.Establishment and operation of environmental management systems (ISO 14001-compliant systems and others)
2.System to respond to emergencies that would exert a serious impact on the environment
3.Occurrence/non-occurrence of environmental accidents for the past three years
4.Compliance with environmental laws and regulations (the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act, the Water Pollution Control Act, the Sewerage Act, the Air Pollution Control Act, the Noise Regulation Act, and the Vibration Regulation Act)

Green Purchasing

Fujikura posts a list of stationery and office equipment to be purchased by the Company on its intranet, where environmentally friendly models are indicated with the Eco Mark and Green Project Mark. Employees are encouraged to choose environmentally friendly products from the list when they want to purchase goods in order to promote green purchasing across the Company.

Installing SOC Analysis Equipment at Major Bases

The Fujikura Group has installed analysis equipment at its major bases to manage substances of concern (SOCs) in its products. The Environment and Analysis Center regularly gives technical guidance to the analysts at the bases.

Environment and Analysis Center Accredited as a Laboratory Conforming to ISO/IEC 17025

The Environment and Analysis Center was accredited as a laboratory conforming to ISO/IEC 17025 on October 1, 2004 in recognition of the accuracy and reproducibility of its analysis values in the rubbers and plastics field. Under the ISO/IEC 17025-based laboratory accreditation system, accreditation bodies examine testing and calibration laboratories to check if they have sufficient capacity to conduct tests in a specific field in compliance with the standards. Accreditation by these bodies gives the following advantages:

1.If a testing laboratory is accredited as conforming to the standards, it will be internationally recognized as having reliable technical competence and its data will be internationally accepted as effective.
2.Achievement of one-stop testing (accepted worldwide): If the data provided by an accredited testing laboratory is used in an international transaction, the purchaser will not have to redo the testing after purchase.
3.In addition, if a company has its own accredited testing laboratory, it can increase the reliability of its own data for use in the company's PL measures and responses to environmental problems.