Sony 2013 Annual Report Download - page 27

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Sony is actively pursuing its key CSR agenda and is moving ahead as “One Sony” with initiatives to
strengthen its operating foundation that center on enhancing corporate value through innovation
and sound business practices. This reflects Sony’s firm conviction that the development of products,
services and content that deliver both emotional and functional value, combined with an operating
foundation built on a corporate culture that prizes corporate social responsibility, will enable Sony
to achieve its business objectives and to help shape a sustainable society.
U.S. Dodd-Frank Act, Sony launched a traceability program
to determine the source of certain raw materials used in
our products and to help assure that the minerals used in
our products originated from ethical sources.
Quality and Services
Since its founding, Sony has given high priority to provid-
ing high-quality customer-oriented products and services.
In addition to working assiduously to enhance product
quality and reinforce its quality management system, Sony
remains committed to bolstering customer satisfaction.
With advances in, and the increasing prevalence of, digital
and networking technologies driving the development of
products that are increasingly multifunctional and complex,
Sony continually works to make its products and services
easier for many people to use, viewing usability and acces-
sibility as essential aspects of product quality.
Environment
Sony recognizes that its various business activities are
only possible if our environment is healthy and sustain-
able. Sony is pursuing a variety of initiatives to help realize
environmental sustainability in accordance with its Road
to Zero environmental plan, whereby Sony aims to reduce
the environmental footprint of its business activities and
of its products throughout their life cycle to zero by the
year 2050. In line with this plan, Sony used backcasting to
set specific medium-term targets based on four key envi-
ronmental perspectives, namely, climate change, resource
conservation, management of chemical substances and
biodiversity. To achieve these targets, Sony is implement-
ing measures Group-wide to improve its performance
across all product life cycle stages (research and develop-
ment, product planning and design, procurement, opera-
tions, logistics, and take-back and recycling).
Community
Following in the footsteps of its founders and guided by
the phrase it uses to describe its CSR focus—“For the Next
Generation”—Sony has, over the past five decades, pro-
moted broad-ranging community engagement with a focus
on children. A principal emphasis is education for children,
which Sony provides in locations around the world through
the Sony Science Program, as well as through arts educa-
tion, career advisory support and other programs. Other
global community engagement priorities for Sony include
support for eorts to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), initiatives to promote environmental con-
servation and the provision of assistance in the aftermath
of major disasters. Sony will continue to address the needs
of communities by leveraging its innovative products and
technologies and the capabilities of Sony Group employ-
ees, both through independent initiatives such as these and
through partnerships with stakeholders that are conducive
to the resolution of social challenges.