JVC 2004 Annual Report Download - page 30

Victor Company of Japan, Limited28.
Doing Our Part to Protect the Environment
protection at JVC plants and design
more eco-friendly products.
Designing Eco-Friendly Products
1. Promoting green procurement
Ahead of the enforcement of the EU’s
RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain
Hazardous Substances in Electrical and
Electronic Equipment) directive in
member countries in 2006, JVC is
aiming to begin shipments of products
in April 2005 that contain none of the
hazardous substances restricted by
the directive.
JVC established guidelines for
green purchasing in fiscal 1999. In the
year under review, we called on sup-
pliers to ensure they fully understand
and cooperate with JVC’s policy in this
area. We have also been calling on our
partners to guarantee that no hazard-
ous substances are used in products
supplied to JVC, verified by tests carried
out by us on the components and
materials we purchase.
2. Making green products
At JVC, products made to environmen-
tally friendly design are designated as
“Green Products.” These products are
designed based on three main principles:
they help to prevent global warming;
they contain no hazardous substances;
Implementing Environmental
Management
JVC’s efforts to promote its environ-
mental protection activities are under-
pinned by the JVC Environmental
Committee, chaired by the president
of JVC, and a number of specialist
subcommittees. These subcommittees
are responsible for implementing
initiatives and policies adopted by the
JVC Environmental Committee. In
fiscal 2004, a new project was
launched to accelerate the elimination
of environmentally harmful substances
from JVC products. All subcommittees
in JVC’s environmental management
framework are actively working to
achieve this objective.
As part of our efforts to help
achieve sustainable environmental
protection activities, we are working to
attain ISO 14001 certification, the
internationally recognized standard for
environmental management. Our plant
in Hachioji led the way in attaining
certification in January 1997, followed
by all our other manufacturing facilities
around the world. In addition to these
plants, JVC head office, research facili-
ties and all domestic sales and service
centers have attained environmental
management certification. Our next
goals will be to upgrade environmental
and they promote the recycling of
resources. Recent initiatives in the
second area included adopting lead-free
solder for all JVC products manufactured
globally by the end of fiscal 2004.
However, we still have work to do in
this area as some units and components
we purchase, as well as a number of
OEM products we manufacture, still
use solder containing lead. Ensuring all
our suppliers and customers use lead-
free solder in their products will be an
important issue for us going forward.
Our GR-HD1 high-definition video
camera, the world’s first for consumer
use, is a specific example of how we
are taking steps to make our products
more environmentally friendly. In an
effort to reduce the use of hazardous
substances, only lead-free solder is used
in this camera. Resources have also
been used as efficiently as possible,
particularly in cardboard packaging
and padding materials, which are
made of over 90% recycled magazine
material. The EX-A1 compact compo-
nent system also illustrates our approach
to environmentally conscious design.
Here, we have reduced the use of
hazardous substances by employing
only natural materials in the wood
cone speakers.
Guided by our basic management slogan “Contributing to culture and serving society through
our products and business practices,” efforts to protect the global environment are incorporated
in all our business activities. Since formulating JVC’s Basic Environmental Policy in 1992, we
have carried out a range of initiatives designed to help realize a sustainable society.