The Sanyo Group has been striving to reduce use of environmentally-hazardous chemical substances through expanding green procurement both in Japan and overseas by purchasing articles that meet Sanyo's own environmental standards from suppliers that actively practice environmental protection.
Specifically, we issued "Sanyo Group Management Standards for Environmentally Hazardous Substances," under which we request our suppliers to submit "Consent to non-use" and "Certificate of non-use" of chemical substances that are prohibited for use in the manufacturing process and of those that do not satisfy our management standards. Since fiscal 2005, we have been asking suppliers to enter into a basic transaction agreement or memorandum specifying their environmental obligations, while requesting them to submit "Consent to non-use" of specified chemical substances in products produced in Japan and those for the EU market.
These actions are also in response to the requirements of various chemical regulations around the world, including the RoHS Directive and China RoHS, as well as the Japanese J-Moss. Sanyo will continue to actively promote green procurement based on its management standards.
REACH briefing for suppliers held in Southern China in February 2009
The building of partnerships with suppliers is essential for the promotion of green procurement. Every year from October to December, Sanyo investigates the situation at suppliers including their environmental management systems and requests improvement as necessary. In the case of new suppliers, we execute a similar survey when the first transaction takes place. In 2006, Sanyo started management system evaluations according to the Guidelines for the Management of Chemical Substances in Products newly established by the Japan Green Procurement Survey Standardization Initiative (JGPSSI). To facilitate management, Sanyo held briefings for suppliers on the purpose of investigation, evaluation methods, and online questionnaire system.
Today, cooperation with suppliers regarding chemical substances in products, in terms of data sharing and management system operation, is increasingly important due to the necessity of observing REACH*1 etc. To this end, Sanyo is working to strengthen its management system throughout its supply chains.
*1 Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals European regulations pertaining to registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemical substances
To ensure the environmental friendliness of purchased goods, each of our business facilities requests its suppliers to conduct a survey on chemical substances contained in their goods prior to placing the first order. If their goods are found to be noncompliant with our standards, as a result of the survey, we request them to take improvement measures and then decide whether to purchase the goods or not. The suppliers are also requested to register the data of chemical substances contained in the goods and answer our questions on our website, and this information is shared by the entire Sanyo Group. Through the promotion of green procurement, the Group aims to reduce chemical substances contained in products, as well as to support the suppliers' efforts for the environment.
In addition, the Sanyo Group has specified chemical substances, which are prohibited for use in the manufacturing process, and the non-use for product to be purchased is confirmed at the time of purchase. When a finished product is purchased, the product is evaluated according to our product assessment standards, and only those products that have met the standards, are purchased.
