Sony 2000 Annual Report Download - page 38

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SONY CORPORATION ANNUAL REPORT 2000
36
Recognizing that environmental protection is one of the most pressing issues facing mankind today,
Sony incorporates a sound respect for nature in all of its business activities. With this philosophy,
Sony has defined environmental conservation as an important part of its management strategy. The
Sony Group has created a global action plan and conducts environmental preservation programs.
This program has five core components: reducing the environmental impact of business activities
and production processes; designing environmentally sensitive products and promoting recycling;
developing environmental technologies; promoting the environmental education and full participa-
tion of Sony employees; and disclosing environmental information to the public.
Sony has recently taken one more step to make environmental activities a core element of its man-
agement. From the start of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2001, environmental assessments will be
used as an additional measure for evaluating the performance of each of Sony’s Network Companies.
REDUCING THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS AND PRODUCTION PROCESSES
Sony is striving to build an environmental management system in order to reduce its environmental
impact systematically and efficiently. As of April 2000, almost all of Sony’s manufacturing bases had
achieved ISO-14001 certification, an international standard for environmental management systems.
As for non-manufacturing facilities, the remaining non-certified ones are moving forward with prepa-
rations to obtain certification by March 2001. Facilities including Sony’s head office and Sony Market-
ing (Japan) Inc. received certification during the year ended March 31, 2000.
During the year under review, Sony formulated a unified set of environmental risk management
guidelines to govern the supervision and handling of chemicals for the entire Sony Group. These
guidelines are designed to help prevent releases of chemicals and the occurrence of environmentally
harmful accidents. In the event that an incident occurs, the guidelines provide a framework for
minimizing damage. Launched in April 2000, this system greatly bolsters Sony’s environmental risk
management capabilities.
ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE PRODUCTS AND PROMOTION OF RECYCLING
In order to reduce the environmental impact of its products, Sony makes efforts as much as possible
to reduce the energy that products consume and the resources used to make them. Sony also tries to
avoid using materials with a high environmental impact and exercises special care with regard to
packaging materials. A color TV that went on sale in Japan in February 2000 is one example. Its
environmental
ACTIVITIES AT SONY
Packaging cushion for TVs, which con-
sists of a pulp-mold material made of
recycled paper.