For Making Reliable Products
Employees' Environmental Awareness Improved by KES Acquisition
![[image]Kazushi Watanabe President and CEO, Taiyo Kogyo Co., Ltd.](/csr/csr_images/society_symbiosis_img_01.jpg)
![[image]Trash bins with colored labels](/csr/csr_images/society_symbiosis_img_02.jpg)
Trash bins with colored labels
Kazushi Watanabe
President and CEO, Taiyo Kogyo Co., Ltd.
Based in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, Taiyo Kogyo uses precision sheet metal processing technology to produce enclosures for large-capacity data storage devices and automotive devices. The company had been promoting environmental activities since the 1990s. After taking part in a Hitachi environmental seminar for suppliers, the company applied for KES Step 2 and obtained certification in 2005.
President and CEO Kazushi Watanabe commented: “With improving employee awareness as our theme, we have been using employees' ideas and steadily working toward our goal as an extension of the small-scale group activities we have been conducting for the past 40 years. These activities include saving energy by having each division draw up an electricity management chart and sorting trash using colored labels. We have always engaged in dialogue with Hitachi and they have advised us on how to conduct environmental activities.
I gave a report on these achievements at an MMM Club*1 meeting.”
The Hitachi Group values partnership and openness with suppliers. We are committed to maintaining and improving the mutual understanding and trust of our suppliers over the long term. While providing equal business opportunities, we select suppliers from around the globe based on the principle of open competition.
In 2005, we revised the Guidelines for Procurement and Business Transactions—the basis of our business transactions—and asked about 5,000 suppliers worldwide to conduct CSR activities in line with these guidelines. In 2007, using the Supply Chain CSR Deployment Guidebook created by Japan Electronic and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), we issued a questionnaire on CSR promotion by our main suppliers (about 140, including global corporations). We will build a database of the results of this survey and share this information throughout the Group. We have also asked our suppliers to perform information security audits.
For green procurement,*2 we encourage all suppliers that are using environment management systems (EMSs) to acquire certifications. For small- and medium-sized suppliers
using EMS, we support the acquisition of simpler EMS certification, such as KES,*3 Eco Stage and Eco-Action 21. In partnership with suppliers, we organized the MMM Club with these suppliers as members, using information exchanges and training courses to promote qualitative improvements.
For handling chemicals, on which regulations are becoming stricter throughout the world, we require suppliers to manage them meticulously and to record all information on the product chemical content management system. This information is shared and used within the Group.
Revised in 2005
Detailed data and the activity report are here. Search category index.
![[image]Hitachi Group CSR Report 2008(PDF)](/csr/csr_images/common/sf_download.gif){kind=small}