Environmental &Social Report 2009

Environmental &Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group

14-18 Takatsuji-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8525, Japan
http://www.ngkntk.co.jp■Inquiries about this report:■
Environment & Safety Management Department,
Production Engineering Center,
Engineering Research and Development GroupTEL:+81 52-872-5980 FAX:+81 52-872-5942
e-mail:eco@mg.ngkntk.co.jp

VOC Free【During the preparation of this report】
The purchase of the materials (paper, ink, etc.) comprising this report, and also editing and printing related to thisreport, were carried out by an ISO14001-certiﬁed company. Also, the materials (paper, ink, etc.) used do not containcadmium, lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), or polybrominated diphenyl ether(PBDE).

We promote green purchasing for printing services.

Plate making: A CTP (Computer To Plate) method was used. As a result, ﬁlm and also developing ﬂuid and ﬁxing ﬂuid accompanying
the manufacture of the ﬁlm were rendered unnecessary, thus reducing the consumption of resources and also waste.
Ink:

Ink that does not contain VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) was used to minimize the generation of VOC. This ink also
conforms to the “voluntary regulations (NL regulations) concerning ink”, which are voluntary regulations of the printing
ink industry joint association.

Paper:We used paper approced by FSC (Forest Stewardship Counsel). This contributes to the conservation of the world's
ongoing forestation.

Printing:

We incorporated a printing method that does not use dampening solutions. No volatile organic compounds (isopropyl
alcohol) were used.

Results of questionnaire concerning Environmental and Social Report 2008
Thank you for sending us all your answers to the questionnaire in “Environmental and Social Report 2008” published inﬁscal 2008. We take your opinions seriously and are working to implement even more thorough information disclosure.
reading our Environmental and Social Report
Q1 Before
2008, how much did you know about NGK Spark Plugeasy did you ﬁnd our Environmental and Social
Q2 How
Report 2008 to understand?

Group's environmental policy or activities?
Nothing5%

Difficult0%Insufficient0%

Reasonably easy
18%

A lot 37%

Poor 0%
Too much17%

Normal28%

Easy 82%

Satisfied 83%

Good 72%[Overall][Amount of Information][Design]

A little
58%

Corporate Profile
Corporate Name NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.
Head Ofﬁce

14-18 Takatsuji-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya

Foundation

October 26, 1936

Capital47,869,270,000 yen

Business

Group Companies

did you ﬁnd particularly interesting?
Q3 What(Top four)

10%(1) Manufacturing and selling spark
plugs and related products for internalcombustion engines.

● Message from President: Seeking a sustainable society(2) Manufacturing and selling new
ceramics and applicable products.

● 6. Social contribution

37 subsidiaries (11 in Japan, 26 overseas),
7 afﬁliates

check the box or boxes that best describe yourQ4 Pleasesituation and position.

● 5. Environmental conservation - Factory/Ofﬁce

5%● 5. Environmental conservation - Products

5%

Q5 Have you read any of our previously issued reports?

& Social Report 2009
1 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Stock holder/investor
70%

Business/organization, or Working in CSR/
environmental affairs

have any other comments or requests regarding
Q6 Ifouryouenvironmental
activities, please write them here.
● I would like to see more information disclosure about
management and social activities.
(Response) We reviewed and sought to fill out ourgovernance and compliance related content.

Yes, every year
21%

No, this was my first time42%

● I would like to see more information related to therelationship between products and the environment.
I expect environmental technologies such as products
supporting green energy.
(Response) We included development status offuel cell technology on page 22.

Yes, occasionally37%

Request to answer the questionnaire
Thank you for reading through our Environmental and Social Report 2009. For the further improvement of this report, we
kindly ask you to fill in the foldout questionnaire.

F A X : +81 52-872-5942
e-mail : eco@mg.ngkntk.co.jp
Personal information
protection policy

We will only use your personal information to delivery next year's report to you. Even when we publish the results of thisquestionnaire, we will not show it in a form in which the respondents can be identiﬁed.

■Contact
Ofﬁce or factory

Contact (Department/Phone number)Ofﬁce or factory

Contact (Department/Phone number)

General Administration Dept.

+81 52-872-5915

Iijima Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 265-86-5211

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 52-872-5980

Nakatsugawa Ceramic Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 573-68-5300

Komaki Factory

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 568-76-1544

Kani Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 574-63-2511

Miyanojo Factory

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 996-53-2211

Nansei Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 599-65-3366

Ise Factory

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 596-39-1534

Kamioka Ceramic Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 578-82-1112

Nittoku Seisakusho Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 52-811-3921

Nichiwa Kiki Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 52-382-0511

Tono Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 574-63-1031

Ceramic Sensor Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 568-76-5400

Tokai Taima Kogu Co., Ltd. Operation Dept.

+81 52-794-6321

Head ofﬁce / Factory* In October 2009 Iijima Ceramic Co., Ltd., Nakatsugawa Ceramic Co., Ltd., and Kani
Ceramic Co., Ltd. are scheduled to merge and become NTK Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Affiliates[Publishing Director] Norio Kato,
Chief Environment Administrator[Editor in Chief]
Yoshihide Kami,
General Manager of theEnvironment & Safety Management
Department[Published]
October 2009
[Next Publication Schedule] October 2010

Business associate

Other

NGK Spark PlugCo., Ltd.

http://www.ngkntk.co.jp/english/environment/ecoreport.html

Customer

NGK Spark Plug Group employee,family member, or ex-employee

Editorial Policy
Easily Understood
This report has been prepared based on our corporate
code of conduct (page 6) with the aim of clearly
describing the concepts, mechanisms, and results of
our activities.
Importance and CompletenessWe have given consideration to the importance andcompleteness of the content of this document giving
reference to the“Environmental Reporting guidelines(2007 version)” issued by the Ministry of theEnvironment of Japan.
Trustworthy
We have worked to improve the trustworthiness of the
document by undergoing third party examination, andverifying items including the correctness, neutrality, andveriﬁability of the content.
Application of Website
We placed detailed information on our website. Places
where you can look up detailed information on thewebsite are marked with this mark:. Please view thewebsite data as well. Information not marked with a
URL within this document can be viewed in theEnvironmental and Social Report at our download
corner.

5%

5%

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report42

Message from the President ........................................................................... 3
Corporate Philosophy, Corporate Code of Conduct ....................................... 6

Index

Business Areas ............................................................................................... 7
Financial Data ..................................................................................... 8
1. Compliance ............................................................................................ 9
2. Consumers and Clients ........................................................................... 11
3. Fair Dealing ............................................................................................ 13
4. Communication ...................................................................................... 14
5. Environmental Conservation
Environmental declaration, environmental policy, environmental action plan .... 15
Environmental load from business activities ......................................... 17
Management ...................................................................................... 18
Products.............................................................................................. 21
Factory / Ofﬁce .................................................................................... 25
Region ................................................................................................ 30
6. Social Contribution ................................................................................. 31
7. Employees .............................................................................................. 33
8. Civil Society ............................................................................................ 39
9. Cultural Respect ..................................................................................... 39
10. Ethics...................................................................................................... 40
Messages from stakeholder............................................................................ 41
Third party examination ................................................................................. 41

Reporting Scope
Period covered:
From April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009
Some other very recent activities and cases are also
included.

NGK Spark Plug GrouptNGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. (excluding the sales ofﬁces and sales branch ofﬁces)tDPOTPMJEBUFEEPNFTUJDTVCTJEJBSJFTBOEBGmMJBUF
Affiliates

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.
Head Ofﬁce andHead Ofﬁce Factory
Komaki Factory

Covered Organization
Environmental aspects: NGK Spark Plug Group
Social aspects: NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

Nittoku Alfa Service Co., Ltd.

Iijima Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Kamioka Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Nakatsugawa Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Nittoku Seisakusho Co., Ltd.

Kani Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Nichiwa Kiki Co., Ltd.

Nansei Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Tono Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Nittoku Unyu Co., Ltd
Ceramic Sensor Co., Ltd

Miyanojo Factory

Ise Factory(Excluding the Satsuma Factory)

Tokai Taima Kogu Co., Ltd.

: Region (joint acquisition of ISO14001)
Factories and companies in blue: included in the consolidated environmental accounting* Tokai Taima Kogu Co., Ltd. is an equity method afﬁliate.
* The three subsidiaries that produce ceramic IC packages (Iijima Ceramic Co., Ltd., Nakatsugawa Ceramic Co., Ltd., and Kani Ceramic Co., Ltd.) are scheduled to be merged in October 2009.
* "Nittoku" in this document refers to NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report2Message from the President

In a Rapidly Changing World
The simultaneous global economic downturn in
October 2008 had a great impact on the NGK
Spark Plug Group with our business activities
dispersed around the world. With the freeze indemand beyond anyone’s expectation andthe effects of the high Yen, our businessenvironment became increasingly hostile leading
the regrettable ﬁscal period ending March 2009
to be a rare business experience not seen in
many decades. I reﬂected deeply on the highly
volatile circumstances, realizing that there was
no excuse for an optimistic view that things
would improve if we simply waited and watched.
We put into action committee reforms,
strengthening our corporate governance, andrapidly made necessary decisions. For the
products on which the future of our company
depends, we reformed our technology researchorganization into the Engineering R&D Group.
We brought together technologies developed indifferent ﬁelds such as spark plugs and IC
packages to develop strategic new products in 4
major
categories:
automotive,
energy,environment, and medical. Furthermore, in ourceramic IC package business, which is one ofour major products, we will implement a
restructuring including subsidiaries in order tomake strategic decisions and effectively invest
resources.
Based on a philosophy of storing strength inrough times, we prepare for the ﬁrst light toburst forth like buds waiting before the dawn.
We think now is the time to solidify our footing
as one team, bringing together management
and employee alike. As we quietly store up on
one hand, we prepare for a great leap forwards
when the time comes by controlling issues witha long term vision, maintaining high goals.

Norio Kato
President, Chief Environment Administrator
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

& Social Report 2009
3 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social ReportWe Desire to Contribute to Society through Environmental Products
As people who dwell in the earth, we bear many
shared global issues such as environment,
population, poverty, food supply, and resources.
In order for us to continue in the 21st Century,the 22nd Century and beyond, we mustovercome these issues. As a manufacturer we areparticularly aware that we directly interact with
the important themes of environment andresources.
Many years ago now, I began to double-pane thewindows of my home to increase safety andreduce energy consumption. Of course we
consider the functionality and properties of these
items as well, but the products and technology to
improve the environment are all around us andeasy to obtain. For example, as I am sure you areaware, increased presence and importance of theenvironment in various ﬁelds such as “green
vehicles” and energy saving home electronics hascaused environmental aspects to be regarded aspart of the functionality and characteristics ofproducts. This is a change that could not havebeen imagined when I started to double-pane
windows, and one looks on in wonder andamazement at the ever-widening application anddeployment of environmental technology.
These days there is expanding expectation
throughout the world in environmental
technology as a strategy for restoring the
economy, with the rapidly advancing spread of“green vehicles” such as hybrids leading the way.
Each company is chomping at the bit, readying
their own next generation vehicle including fuelcell and electric cars. We realize that our
products, from spark plugs to various ceramic
sensors, are key products in the development ofthese green vehicles. In particular precious metal
spark plugs improve consumption and sensors areproducts that contribute to reduction of exhaust
gasses. We have conﬁdence that we can supply a
car for everyone with good fuel consumption andclean exhaust for a low-carbon society andcomfortable drive. Our products are small and are
rarely seen by the average person these days, but
by providing these products we contribute to the
low-carbon society of the future.
The world of information technology continues
advance powerfully with these keywords: smaller,
denser, faster. We have great expectations thatthese technological advances in IT will greatly
contribute to reduction of social environmental
burdens. In terms of our products, our IC
package is widely deployed not only incomputer microprocessors, but also in mobile
telecommunication, various ofﬁce automation
machines, and automotive parts. We supports theadvanced information society, including the
supply of cell phone parts.
As mentioned earlier, this is a very difﬁcult time,
but with a lifecycle perspective we seek topromote new value for society, actively taking up
the challenge of developing new products andmaterials.

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report4Seeking to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions
I was shocked to hear that some suspect wehave gone past the global warming tipping
point. I realized once more that climate change
and carbon emissions are issues that cannot be
avoided as the operator of an enterprise.
We set the goal in our Eco Vision 2010 to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 150,000
tons. Even as we realized the extreme difﬁcultyof this goal based on the growth of our business
up to the present day, but in order to show ourﬁrm determination to reduce emissions within
and outside of our company we have notchanged our stance.

In order to take one step closer to achieving ourgoal we changed our per ﬁscal year goals forcarbon dioxide, starting with ﬁscal 2009, in ouroverall emission volume. We can expect changes
in a time of organizational restructuring, but weare working ﬂexibly and appropriately to makeeffective use of energy and reduce overall
carbon dioxide emission levels. In order to takeup even greater challenges in our next Eco
Vision, we seek to be a strong company thatcan decrease carbon dioxide emissions, evenwhile increasing production.

Overcoming Issues with Full Participation
It is not an exaggeration to say today that acompany’s response to environmental issues will
determine its survival. It is clear that those thatwill not or cannot respond to hazardous
substances in particular, will be unable toparticipate in the marketplace. In the midst of
the greatly changing world, we must go beyond
grasping just environmental aspects, and beaware that we are being asked how we as
industry will provide environmental value andhow the low-carbon society will survive.
Our strength is found in how we have provided
uniform quality to the globe with fullparticipation based on the quality mindset
passed on to us from the foundation of thecompany. This comes together only as eachmember in their various roles directs sufﬁcientenergy to their task. We have sought
improvement and innovation to draw out thestrengths of our employees, and there is no limit
to these actions. By developing human resourcesthat create opportunities on their own, we
would like to overcome the issues that dailypressure us by using each person’s individual
strengths.
At this time we have published our Environmental
and Social Report 2009 to cover our activities
during ﬁscal 2008. I look forward receiving to
your unreserved comments and opinions.
September 2009

& Social Report 2009
5 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social ReportCorporate Philosophy

Aiming to become a proposal-making corporation, we continue to present new values to the world.
With global views and ideas, we pursue new values linking technology and people.

Three elements
constitute ourcorporate philosophy.

.Commitment
Corporate
Philosophy

With full use of the most suitable technology andour accumulated experience, we continue striving
to offer new values to the peoples of the world.

.Management Policy
We offer a working environment in which each one of us
is encouraged to make full use of his or her personality
and capability. With all our power we are dedicated topursue management based on trust and conﬁdence.

.Action Guideline
Ever onward!
Always mindful of what is the best course, we
swiftly put it into action.

SloganWith established trust and conﬁdence inside and outside the Corporate, we aim to contributeto the peoples of the world by creating and putting at their disposal new values for the future.
(Adopted in November 1996)

Corporate Code of Conduct
At NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd., in order to make the corporate philosophy expressed in our slogan, “With established trust and conﬁdence
inside and outside the Corporate we aim to contribute to the peoples of the world by creating and putting at their disposal new values for the
future” an everyday reality, we undertake to conduct ourselves in a socially responsible manner in accordance with the following 10 principles.

1. We
shall respect human rights and observe both the spirit as well as the letter of all laws and regulations
applicable to our activities throughout the world.
Complianceand provide socially beneﬁcial and safe goods and services by making full use of the most suitable technologies and our accumulated experience
2. Weand shallshall develop
strive to earn the conﬁdence of our consumers and customers, while taking necessary measures to protect personal data and customer-related information.
Consumers and Clients

3. We
shall promote fair, transparent, free competition and sound trade. We shall also ensure that our
relationships and contacts with government agencies and political bodies are of a sound and proper nature.
Fair Dealing

4. Emphasizing
communication not only with our shareholders but also with members of society at large, we shallengage in active and fair disclosure of corporate information through ongoing corporate communications.
Communication

5. Recognizingthat a positive involvement in environmental issues is a priority for all humanity and an essential aspect of ouractivities and a prerequisite for our very existence as a company, we shall approach these issues voluntarily, proactively, and speedily.
Environmental Conservation

6. Asbeneﬁt
a good corporate citizen, we shall actively engage in philanthropic activities and other activities of
to society.
Social Contribution

7. We
shall strive to respect the diversity and individuality of our employees and foster a safe and excellent
working environment where they can realize their full potential.
Employees

8. We
shall reject all contacts with organizations involved in activities in violation of the law or accepted
standards of responsible social behavior.
Civil Society

9. We
shall respect the cultures and the customs of local communities where we do business and strive to manage ouractivities throughout the world in such a way as to promote and contribute to the development of local communities.
Cultural Respect

10. Management
shall exercise leadership in making the letter and spirit of the Code of Conduct integral to everyday business practice,thoroughly implementing the Code of Conduct throughout the Company and inculcating it throughout the Group and its supply
Ethicschain. To this end, management shall continually improve internal systems while striving to cultivate ethics.

(Revised November 2004)

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report6Business Areas
Our scope of business extends to products used in various field, such as thefield of transportation and information, in order to meet social needs.
We are constantly making an effort to be on the cutting edge of the information and communication ﬁelds, including
motorization, which will be the core industry of 21st-century society. We are also making vigorous efforts in the
medical ﬁeld in order to adapt to the super-aging society to come, based on the application of our ceramics-centered
techniques. Furthermore, the object of our vigorous activities includes the environmental ﬁeld.

Primar y Products
Spark Plugs, Related Products

Spark Plugs for
Automobile

Igniter Plugs for
Aircraft

Sensors

Power Cables

Exhaust Gas Oxygen Temperature
Sensors
Sensors

Knock Sensors

Glow Plugs

Ceramic Type
Glow Plugs

Metal Type
Glow Plugs

Automotive
Components
Group
Our products with good balance
between tradition and progress
promote motorization.

Technical
Ceramic Group
Communication
Media
Components Group

More and more ceramic products arebeing used to meet the needs ofindustry and times.

Medical Products
P d t

NGk Spark Plug Co., Ltd. with its operations
becoming more sophisticated and dense,
strongly supports the age of bulk
transmission at high speed.

SemiconductordComponents

Bone Filling
Materials

Bone Paste

OxygenConcentrator

Industrial Components

Ceramic
IC Packages

Organic
IC Packages

Electronic Components

Derivative Filters& Social Report 2009
7 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Ultrasonic
Wave Oscillator

Vessel for
Silicon Rectifier

Vacuum Switch
VesselCeramic Heaters

Cermet Inserts

Micro Grain Carbide Chips

Cutting Tools

Ceramic Inserts

Domestic and Overseas Network

AmericasAfﬁliated Subsidiaries:
6
Non-afﬁliated Subsidiaries: 1

EuropeAfﬁliated Subsidiaries:

5

Japan
NGK Spark Plugs Co., Ltd.
Afﬁliated Subsidiaries:
11
Equity Method Afﬁliates: 1

Asia, Australia, Other
Afﬁliated Subsidiaries:
14
Equity Method Afﬁliates: 1

Head Office / Factory
Liaison Offices
Subsidiaries/Affiliates

http://www.ngkntk.co.jp/english/company/network.html

Financial Data
Net sales

Net income
Non-consolidated

20,00010-74,117-71,669-40,000-60,000
2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

Sales Composition by Region
Other regions
11%

Japan
20%

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

-30
-30.6

-40

Sales Composition by Industry Segment
Communication
media components
andTechnical Ceramics
34.6%

Other
1.5%

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

Number of Employees
Non-consolidated
Consolidated(people)14,000Asia
11%

10,407
5,626

5,882

6,050

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

8,000
Automotive
components
63.9%

11,599

9,815

North
America
37%

5,106

10,000292,121
million yen

6,000
4,000

11,97912,000292,121
million yen

Europe
21%

-20

9,406

2004

-80,000

ROE is one indicatorof a company’s
profitability.
Net Income
ROE=
Shareholders’ Equity
ROE reveals how
effectively
shareholder equity is
being used; higher
ROE means higher
profitability.

7.7

4,915

0

12.5

10.5

-10

100,000
50,0008.0

014,40522,1440-20,000

Consolidated(%)
20

28,14834,072

234,697
292,121150,000

295,240
345,584

200,000

210,496
241,185

250,000

250,361
284,884

300,000

306,663
344,891

350,000

Consolidated

40,00021,095
25,104400,000

Non-consolidated(million yen)

14,03817,147

Consolidated(million yen)

ROE

Return on Equity (ROE)

2,000

Foreign sales are sales in regions and countries
other than Japan by NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.
and affiliated subsidiaries.

0

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report81. Compliance
We shall respect human rights and observe both the spirit as well as the letterof all laws and regulations applicable to our activities throughout the world.
●NGK Spark Plug Group is a global corporation with a foreign sales ratio of 80% andproduction and sales organizations worldwide. To maintain the trust of international society,we will “respect human rights and abide by all laws and international rules as well as the spiritof the law, whether in Japan or overseas,” namely the respect of human rights andcompliance, as the basis of our actions.
●To earn respect and popularity from the people of the world, each employee of our group will
behave in accordance with our code of conduct and with social decency.

Corporate GovernanceCorporate
Governance
Refers to the process
or systems by which abusiness operator
oversees to ensurethat the enterprise isbeing appropriately
and healthily
engaged in.

We believe that it is a foundational and important
operational issue that we construct and maintain a fairand effective management system by preserving thehealth and transparency of our management to increase
the value of our corporation by meeting our completesocial responsibility.
We furthermore are working to manage information,
determining “Internal Information Management Regulations”
to perform rapid, correct, and fair disclosure based on the factthat the provision of appropriate and timely corporate
information to investors is the root of a healthy stock market.
We seek to improve and maintain internal control
regarding ﬁnancial reporting, receiving oversight fromauditors while implementing effective evaluation ofinternal controls for ﬁnancial reporting to conserve thetrustworthiness of ﬁnancial reports based on the Internal
Control Report System of the Financial Instruments andExchange Act.

Internal Control
Report System/( Appointment)
dismissal

General meeting of shareholders

Publicly traded
companies must
publish internal
control reports
prepared by oversightfrom a charteredaccountant orauditing firm eachbusiness year basedon the 2006 revisionof the Financial
Instruments andExchange Act toimprove thetrustworthiness offinancial reporting.
The name of the
Financial Instruments
and Exchange Act
prior to revision was
the Securities andExchange Act.

Board of auditors(Cooperates mutually)

Accounting auditors(Audit)(Appointment /dismissal)

Board of directors(

Appointment /dismissal)(Indication)(Indication)

Business operating
section(Indication)

President
Managing directors
committee

Various conferences
and committees(Indication)(Audit)(Cooperates
mutually )Internal audit section

Administration director
in charge(Disclosure)■Management Organization
The board of directors oversees the condition of business
operations of each executive in addition to deliberating anddetermining items determined by law or bylaw and otherimportant items to the management of the business. In order to■Management Oversight Functions
Our board of auditors consists of four auditors (two ofwhom are external auditors). These auditors oversee
business operations of the executives through methods
including their presence at the meetings of the board of■Internal Audits
The internal audit division offers opinions for the
improvement or correction of points of issue as needed,
and reports to the management the results of inspections
through business auditing covering both NGK Spark Plugs& Social Report 2009
9 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

rapidly gain understanding of situations and react to environmental
change we have created bodies such as the managing directors
committee planned by the executives as places for active
discussion.

directors and, as needed, at the various committees tounderstand the state of important issues, and throughaudits of major ofﬁces and subsidiaries.

and our afﬁliates. This division also attempts to have close
cooperation with the auditors and accounting auditors byexchanging information such as auditing principles,
auditing plans, and auditing implementation status.

1Compliance

Compliance

ComplianceThis refers tocompliance with laws
and regulations; thefair operation of abusiness inaccordance with therules governing it.

We work to increase employee understanding ofcompliance to act in sound social judgment notforgetting that our enterprise is also a member ofsociety.
Compliance Education

Corporate Ethics Helpline
We have a corporate ethics helpline as an internal
communications system to resolve issues related tocorporate ethics early and prevent illegal activities. In
addition to places of contact within and outside thecompany for the provision of information or counselingfor employees, etc., that become aware of illegal
activities that have taken place or may take place, wehave ensured that the environment makes it easy to
discuss issues by making it clear that the identity of any
informant is protected. We also sincerely work to support
individual themes related to legal or ethical issues.

Unfair Competition
Prevention Act

Security Control
With the advance of legal systems such as the Unfair
Competition Prevention Act and the Act on the Protectionof Personal Information, we must work hard to prevent
any leaks of private information.
We endeavor to appropriately handle private information,
establishing security control regulations to maintain anddevelop the health of our business, thoroughly managing
issues related to conﬁdential information about ourcompany, our customers, and our clients.
Our privacy policy is available on our website.

Act on the Protectionof Personal Information
While considering theusefulness of personal
information this law
seeks to preserve theindividual’s profit
rights. It regulates suchthings as passing on
personal information
without notifying theperson.

Export Controls
In order to preserve international peace and safety Japanhas placed legal regulations on trade that would assist
the expansion or outbreak of conﬂicts. Recent years inparticular have seen progressive strengthening of
regulations domestically and internationally. In August
2005 NGK Spark Plugs Co., Ltd. established an export
controls committee to ensure thorough compliancewith export regulations by enacting export controls.
We were recognized as an Authorized Exporter in June2008 based on the Authorized Exporter Declaration
System after veriﬁcation of our efforts establishingsecurity management and compliance systems.
We recognize ourselves as an enterprise with a highexport/import ratio and so we strive to maintain export
management in compliance with laws while effectively
operating our export business.

This law is intended toensure fair competition
between business
operators. It prohibits
activities such as
improper gathering ofconfidential
information, and theimproper use or
publication thereof, as
well as preserving thetrust and confidentialityof businesses.

Authorized Exporter
Declaration System

Privacy Policy
http://www.ngkntk.co.jp/english/privacy.html

Risk Management
We face many risks including natural disaster, accidents,
terrorism, and the spread of new contagious diseases. We

have taken steps to ensure the smooth continuity of ouroperations should some unfortunate circumstance occur.

Preparing Response to Large-scale Earthquakes

Preparing Response to New Contagious Disease

The NGK Spark Plug Group’s operation are primarily located in
Aichi Prefecture at the center of the Tokai region, which has
been designated as a strategic earthquake disaster prevention
region in relation to the foreseen Tokai Earthquake.
We have therefore created an earthquake disaster prevention
strategy manual setting out measures to protect the safety ofpeople’s lives, to avoid damage to facilities, to prevent
secondary disaster, and toenact rapid restoration. We
also operated a personalsafety veriﬁcation system torapidly gather information
related to the safety of
employees.
Evacuation Drill

In the event of the outbreak of a new contagious
disease such as a new form of inﬂuenza, there is thepossibility of it affecting business operations as
employees that cannot make it to work take time off. It
is also possible that our company could cause thedisease to spread into society.
Recognizing the importance of our response to newcontagious disease, we began preparations in 2008.
We have made ready plans to minimize the effects andprevent the spread of contagion as it occurs,
determining strategy based on the severity.

Under this system,
Customs recognizes
exporters withexceptional
compliance as
Authorized Exporters
and gives themfavorable treatment.
This is intended to
speed up paperwork
at Customs andstrengthen security
measures. Receiving
recognition as an
Authorized Exporter
makes a definite
improvement inspeed passing
through Customs
which we expect will
have effects including
reduced logistics
costs and lead time.

Strategic Earthquake
Disaster Prevention
Region in Relation to
the Foreseen Tokai
Earthquake
Because there is thepossibility of major
damage from anearthquake in theevent that alarge-scale
earthquake occurs,
this is a designatedregion requiringstronger measuresrelated to earthquake
disaster prevention.
This region includes
Nagoya, Ise,
Nakatsugawa, andIijima.

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report102. Consumers and Clients
We shall develop and provide socially beneficial and safe goods and services bymaking full use of the most suitable technologies and our accumulated experienceand shall strive to earn the confidence of our consumers and customers, while taking
necessary measures to protect personal data and customer-related information.
●The corporate philosophy (commitment) of NGK Spark Plug Group declares, “With full use of the most suitable
technology and our accumulated experience, we continue striving to offer new values to the peoples of theworld”.
●To put this philosophy into practice, we will develop and manufacture innovative products to satisfy thedemands of various customers and achieve our mission of providing products with the same level of safety andquality from any production site in the world.
●From this fundamental standpoint, we will provide accurate and appropriate information on our products and services
and handle and protect individual data and customer data related to our business activities in a proper manner.

Quality Management System
TQM
Total Quality
Management is anoperational method
and management
technique that
contributes to theimprovement ofoperational quality inan enterprise.

Since our establishment in 1936 our basic stance andphilosophy have been maintained coherently to thepresent as the “Nittoku quality mind” including the“client viewpoint,” “good product principle,” and“total involvement.”
The corporate quality policy, which was established in
February 2006, reﬂects the “Nittoku quality mind,”revolving around TQM (Total Quality Management)
demonstrating initiative for high quality production.
We act with the goal of being a company trusted by ourcustomers, promoting the improvement every element
related to this quality management, or the
improvement of people, things, and systems activities
throughout the company, and providing products andservices that satisfy our customers.
The following activities implement the core of the TQM

activities:t Top down activities embodying company
management through policy management.
t Workplace activation and human resource
development through small group quality andbusiness improvement and other activities.
t Businessstandardization
andmaintenancemanagement as well as improvement activities
determined at each workplace by daily management.
To successfully implement these measures we areundertaking accreditation and are working hard toeffectively establish and operate an appropriate quality
management system in conformance with the ISO9000
series and ISO/TS16949 standards, while continually
improving our methods.

Corporate Quality Policy
We continue to supply Quality Products to the society with emphasis on“Customer First”, “Total Involvement” and “Continuous Improvement”.
●Customer First
Our customers determine the quality of our products and services. In order to provide products and services thatsatisfy our customers, we strive to understand their continuously changing needs from their point of view, andmake proposals exceeding their expectations according to the philosophy of “quality ﬁrst”.

●Total Involvement
People are fundamental elements of a company and the most important management resource. While respecting
the individuality of employees and enhancing each one's ability, autonomy and creativity, we pool our abilities tosolve problems and overcome the tasks we face fully engaging our individual roles with a shared understandingof the problem space.

●Continuous Improvement
The development of a company requires swift and suitable responses to the changing social environment, market
conditions and customer demands. For this purpose, we are continuously improving the effectiveness andefﬁciency of all management resources including our organization, system, processes, products and services.

& Social Report 200911 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

2

Consumers and Clients

Small Group Activities
We have developed small-group quality control “NQC
Activities” to continuously improve problems and issues
NQC Activity Policy
The employees themselves are the driving force
behind the future growth of the NGK Spark PlugGroup. Based on this understanding, the employees
increase their knowledge and technical abilities
through improvement activities. In order to work
together well we engage the following basic stancesin our human resource development:
1) Demonstrate human ability to create unlimited potential
2) Respect humanity to create a lively, friendly
workplace3) Contribute to improving and developing thecompany characterin the workplace. In the NQC activities we use agrassroots approach to solve issues including those that
do not get dealt with normally, ones often missed or
passed over, problems that are difﬁcult to handle withcurrent systems or that, though recognized, cannot be
addressed.
We hold a presentation meeting to show the results of
NQC Activities and award signiﬁcant examples.
Furthermore, we award those small groups that havesteadily continued
their activities toimprove and maintainmotivation.

QC Small Group Activities
QC stands for quality
control. Small groups
are formed within theworkplace with thegoal of autonomous
handling of issues
including safetymeasures, reductionof faulty product, andimprovement andquality control ofproduction.

Central exhibition

Quality Education
Quality education involves year-round training withestablished training programs related to quality control,
control technology processes, QC small group activities,
quality management systems, measurement management,
etc., as part of our TQM study. We also implement
application guidance and support as needed to ensure
the knowledge gained through study and training isapplied in the workplace.

■Measurement Training Program
For training related to measurement management, in
addition to the conventional tutorial style training, we
also have practice in ameasuring training roomand have opened training
facilities that are always
available for employees touse when they would liketo learn or practice at Measuring Training Room
Training Practicemajor domestic factories.

Quality Improvement / Quality Informing Activities
NGK Spark Plugs is deploying bottom up activities,
human resources development, and ongoing
improvement through improvement proposals,
discovery projects, NQC activities and more. The
environment our company is surrounded by features
ever-growing demands for higher design quality andlower cost plans, and diversiﬁed and advanced products
and manufacturing processes. Through these activities
we blend bottom up and top down approaches to solve
any problems or issues through the wisdom andinnovation of all employees.

■All Nittoku Improvement Result Presentation Meeting and Award Ceremony
improvement activities
NGK Spark Plug Group holds various presentations as a way
throughout the NGK
to announce and share improvement proposals, discovery
Spark Plug Group.
projects and the effects of NQC activities. Outstanding
examples give presentations at the All Nittoku Improvement
Result Presentation Meeting and Award Ceremony andemployees are awarded to contribute to the stimulation of
A presentation at the All Nittoku■Quality Month
During Quality Month every November, a host theme ischosen and various activities are hosted on that theme,
improving and training employee knowledge about quality
to improve motivations and take our quality control to a
new level.
As part of the Quality Month activities we hosted many
events including quality lectures, “Top Inspections” (tourof processes by the president), quality exhibitions, the
NQC activity central presentation meeting (result
presentation), various kinds of announcement activities(articles in the company news, broadcast of messages to

Improvement Result Presentation
Meeting and Award Ceremony

the whole company, event guides via the electronic
announcement system, implementation announcements,
poster displays, etc.).

Top Inspection

Quality Exhibition
Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report123. Fair dealing
We shall promote fair, transparent, free competition and sound trade.
We shall also ensure that our relationships and contacts with government agencies
and political bodies are of a sound and proper nature.
●We believe that a business environment based on the rules of “fair, transparent and free competition” both inJapan and overseas is the key for NGK Spark Plug Group and its products to gain the trust of worldwide
consumers and customers. NGK Spark Plug Group will also proactively develop such “fair, transparent and freecompetition”.
●It is important to establish healthy partnerships with our consistent suppliers who are vital for our businessactivities, and we will therefore build mutual trust with a long-term perspective and carry out properpurchasing transactions.
●To achieve optimal procurement worldwide, NGK Spark Plug Group will perform transactions based on fairness,transparency, free competition and rationality on the international stage, too. We will also maintain transparent
relations with governments and public administrations and avoid actions which may raise doubts of collusion, etc.

Procurement Policy
In order to realize an optimal procurement world aspart of our good product principle, we procurematerials and parts based on the following principles:• With a foundation of fair, transparent, and freecompetition, we trade rationally.
• We engage in business complying to the related laws,
domestically and internationally.
• By procuring better (quality), cheaper (cost), faster(deadline), and more friendly to the earth(environment), we contribute to the beneﬁt ofcompany.

Sharing our Corporate Policy
The stable procurement of raw materials, parts, and so
on, requires a relationship of trust with the supplier as asound partner. Each year we host a corporate policy
seminar as an opportunity to deepen the understandingof our clients of our goals.
At the seminary held in April 2008 we veriﬁed ourefforts towards the achievement of mutual goals,

strengthening our trust relationships and requesting
cooperation.
We will deploy to the all our clients a completely revised
new basic client contract in ﬁscal 2009. We are working
to achieve our corporate social responsibility together
with our clients. Major points of the revision are as
follows:① Clariﬁcation of corporate social responsibility② Strengthening of security control③ Inclusion of environmental management items④ Clariﬁcation of anti-social forces and related
exclusions⑤ Changes to express the perspectives of both
directions

Corporate policy presentation

Nittoku Suppliers Association
The Nittoku Suppliers Association is composed ofsuppliers who deliver raw materials, equipment, parts,and so on, to the NGK Spark Plug Group. The
association continues activities with the goal ofpromoting rational management and improving
productivity.
Each year the association holds various lectures andtraining meetings, sessions for presenting examples ofimprovement, and so on, working to exchange
information and have open communication. At thepresentation in November 2008, NGK also presented an
improvement case study. Additionally, our clients in the
Nittoku Suppliers Association have helped use in our& Social Report 200913 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Reportbusiness activities and participate as needed in highly
important or active internal training at NGK Spark Plugs.

Session for presenting
examples of improvement

4. Communication

3
4

Emphasizing communication not only with our shareholders but also withmembers of society at large, we shall engage in active and fair disclosure ofcorporate information through ongoing corporate communications.

Fair dealing
Communication●To enhance our credibility in Japan and overseas, we seek to practice “transparent management” by disclosing
information on our business and ﬁnancial performance as well as other everyday actions, including
environmental activities, via our website and other media.
●In order to respond to the trust of our stakeholders in the capital market, such as our shareholders andinvestors, we endeavor to increase our market value and provide information on our management, including
our growth strategy, through IR activities in a timely and proper way.
●We are aware of our social responsibility not only to our shareholders but to a wide range of other stakeholders
such as customers, suppliers, employees and local residents, and will therefore deepen mutual understanding bystrengthening our PR and communication channels and promoting interactive communication.

Disclosure of Information
In order to have timely and appropriate disclosure ofﬁnancial information, we supply information using
various tools in addition to meeting the legal disclosure
standards. In particular we attempt to sufﬁciently
publish on our website information that a broad rangeof our stakeholders can view.
Investor Relations
http:/ / w w w.ngkntk.co.jp/english/ir /index.html

We additionally publish corporate information andenvironment and social reports to have reader better
understand the NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. and ouractivities as part of our efforts at information disclosure.
We endeavor to communicate information about ourlatest technology and products through booths at
various exhibitions.


NGK SPARK PLUG CO., LTD.

May 8, 2009

Consolidated financial reports in accordance with Japanese GAAP
for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009
URL
Stock listing
Code number
Head office
Representative

http://www.ngkntk.co.jp
Tokyo 1st section, Nagoya 1st section
5334
14-18 Takatsuji-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8525, Aichi, Japan
Norio Kato, President

Financial results highlights
Millions of yen

Net sales:
Automotive components
Spark & glow plugs
Automotive sensors
SubtotalCommunication media components &technical ceramics
Communication media components
Technical ceramics
Subtotal
OthersElimination
Total net sales
Operating income (loss):
Automotive components
Communication media components &technical ceramics
OthersTotal operating income (loss)
Ordinary income (loss)
Net income (loss)
Capital expenditure:
Automotive components
Communication media components &technical ceramics
OthersTotal capital expenditure
Depreciation:
Automotive components
Communication media components &technical ceramics
OthersTotal depreciation

Fiscal year ended
March 31, 2008

Fiscal year
ended
March 31, 2009

Fiscal year
endingMarch 31, 2010
(Forecast)

128,894
80,498209,393

119,264
67,420186,684

97,942
58,058156,000

108,267
22,678130,9465,353(109)
345,584

80,532
20,408100,940
4,597(101)
292,12149,763
14,73764,5003,578(78)
224,000

36,11021,535

12,500(1,160)(26,564)(10,000)

89
35,03934,93822,144(192)(5,222)(7,528)(71,669)

24,84016,15438,267

7,884

Stakeholders
Stock holder, client,employee, local
citizen and otherconcerned parties

0
2,500
2,000
(1,000)

8,789
2,511

123
63,231

133
24,1730
11,30013,036

15,771

14,261

12,421

15,9654,630

1525,47430
31,767918,900-1-

To All Our
Investors (Japanese only)

AnnualReportFinancial
Reports

Automotive Engineering
Exposition 2008

General Meeting of Stockholders
Each June, we hold our Regular General Meeting ofStockholders and explain the business developments ofthe previous year to our stockholders.
The stock distribution of
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.
is shown in the graph on
the right.

■Stock Distribution
Stockholders by Category

Total:
16,280investors

Ratio of Held Stock

Financial
Institutions

Financial
Institutions

Financial Commodity
Traders(Previously Securities
Companies)

Foreign Organizations /Investors

Stockholder
Relationships
Connected to theTrust Business
Financial Commodity
Traders(Previously Securities
Companies)
Other Domestic
Organizations

Individuals,
Other

Foreign Organizations /Investors

Other Domestic
Organizations

Total:
229,545,000
sharesIndividuals,
Other

Regular General Meetingof Stockholders(as of March 2009)

Investor Relations Activities
The NGK Spark Plug Group provides business informationsuch as business content, performance and stock prices toshareholders and investors, and also holds IR events todirectly answer any enquiries. In July 2008, weparticipated in the Nagoya Stock Exchange IR Expo, andreceived enthusiastic comments and questions frompersonal investors. We also periodically hold presentations
for analysts and institutional investors in Japan, and give
explanations to overseas investors as well.

IR Activities
Investor Relations
involves
communicating
detailed information
about ourmanagement,
finances and results.

Results Brieﬁng

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report14

5. Environmental Conservation
Recognizing that a positive involvement in environmental issues is a priority
for all humanity and an essential aspect of our activities and a prerequisite
for our very existence as a company, we shall approach these issues
voluntarily, proactively, and speedily.
●To contribute to the battle against global warming and the establishment of a recycling-oriented society, we arecommitted to measures such as energy saving, zero waste discharge, recycling and enhanced chemical control.
●For the simultaneous pursuit of environmental conservation and economic growth, we will strive to reduce
environmental impact and risk in all business activities through the improvement of productivity, enhancementof resource and energy efﬁciency, and development and use of alternative materials. We also aim to develop,
introduce and disseminate innovative technologies, products/services and business models that can contributeto solutions for environmental problems.
●We will proactively deal with environmental issues, based on our corporate philosophy (or action guidelines):“Ever onward! Always mindful of what is the best course, we swiftly put it into action.”

Environmental Declaration

Environmental Action Plan and NGK Spark Plug GroupNGK Spark Plug Group will strive for harmony with society andthe global environment while serving the people of the world,
offering new value based on the principle of high quality
throughout the entire life cycle of our environmentally friendly
NGK spark plugs and NTK new ceramic products.
To achieve this, we have formulated an environmental action
plan based on our environmental policy as a way of accepting oursocial role and responsibility as a trusted corporation. With theparticipation of everyone concerned, we will pursue thedevelopment of a sustainable society and business operations.

Item

Environmental
Management
SystemManagement(revised April 2004)

Environmental Policy

Management

Factory /Ofﬁce

Products

Communication

Mind

We will abide by all laws, regulations, protocols andvoluntary standards relating to environmental conservation.
We also aim to increase our environmental efﬁciency
by continually trying to enhance our environmental
management system (EMS) and performance.

We will promote communication with stakeholders through clear
disclosure of information. We will also contribute not only to local
communities but to the wider society through consideration for
the natural environment as well as participation and support forenvironmental conservation activities.
We will strive to raise awareness of environmental
conservation through environmental education andpublicity activities as well as the dissemination of thesepolicies among all our employees. We will also seek theunderstanding and cooperation of our business associates.
(revised April 2004)

15 NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report
Environmental & Social Report 2009

Sharing of environmental policy by relatedcompanies including overseas companies
Construction of total management
system (QMS, EMS, OSHMS)

Environmental
operations

Centralization of environmental
management data control

Environmental
accounting

Integration of environmental accounting
and management accounting

Prevention of
global warming

Total greenhouse gas emissions inJapan of 150,000 tons or less
* (10% down on 2001)
Efﬁcient use of water resources

Factory /Ofﬁce

Effective use ofresources

EPR (extended producer responsibility) operations
Reduction of waste emissions
Reduced environmental load due to waste

We will remain constantly aware of the need forenvironmental harmony, working to prevent air,earth and water pollution, use energy andresources more effectively, and reduce wastematerials.
We will work towards the development, design,
procurement, manufacture, sale, distribution anddisposal of environmentally friendly products.

Eco Vision 2010

Total 36 tons of PRTR substances released(80% down on 2002)
Hazardous
substances
Control of environmental pollutants

Products

Eco-design

Green procurement Green supplier system of identiﬁcation and registration of all our business associates
Distribution

Construction of efﬁcient distribution systems

Eco-business

Development of eco-businesses

Disclosure
Communication

Eco-friendly design and product creation

Community

Disclosure of clear environmental data
Continuous issue of CSR reports
Support for and participation in NGO and NPO activities

Natural environment Promotion of nature conservation and social contribution

Mind

Education andinstruction

Thorough education of eco-minded
employees
Reﬂection of environmental
performance in business evaluation*Revised upwards from 13,886 tons (October 2008)

5

Environmental Conservation

Regarding Targets for Carbon Dioxide, Emissions, and Water
Our target reduction values that we have acted
upon for CO2, water, and emissions were set inﬁscal 2006.
We think of our target values as “reduction
volumes” by the implementation of energy saving
measures and so on. With our goal of projected
reduction volumes based on our initial projected
production volumes, we are better able to trackthe effects of energy saving and resource saving
activities by being able to evaluate the level ofachievement of goals due to the difﬁculty forchanges in production to affect the related
implementation period by annually converting
calculations. This allows us to attempt to reduceeach emission volume and used volume byconnecting results to promotion of targeted
activities.
In ﬁscal 2008 we set reduction volumes for eachindicator and managed speciﬁc consumption
emissions volumes, usage volumes, and emissions
volumes together. We will continue to manage
total volume speciﬁc consumption and reduction
volumes moving forwards, but because wedetermined a goal for total emission volume ofcarbon dioxide Eco Vision 2010, in ﬁscal 2009 ourgoal will be total emissions and with otheremissions and water our goal is set to continuous
reduction volume.

Eco Vision 2010○: Achieved ×: Not achieved △: Ongoing

Fiscal 2008 targets
Support ISO14001 certiﬁcation of all overseas
manufacturing and sales organizations

Results Page

Fiscal 2009 targets

×

18

―

Research EMS structures in domestic business sites
Research combining systems with OSHMS△―

Research sufﬁcient environmental education in domestic business sites△―

Research the effectiveness of combined audits

―

―

―

Research integrating QMS and EMSWork to revise and improvement the collection and managerial methods of environmental data for operating organizations△―

Work to revise and improvement the collection and managerial methods of environmental data for operating organizations

Collect data from the NGK global network○―

Continue to handle environmental accounting procedures and reporting

○

20

―
―

Use environmental accounting as an evaluation item for our methods×―

Use environmental accounting as an evaluation item for our methods

Research the need to secure CO2 credits

○

―

―

Reduction targets : NGK Spark Plug : 14,447 tons
Afﬁliated companies : 2,121tons○

25

Total group emissions of carbon dioxide under 169,000 tons

Reduction targets : NGK Spark Plug : 87,738 m3
Afﬁliated companies : 8,093 m3○

28

Reduction targets : NGK Spark Plug : 11,527 m3
Afﬁliated companies : 874 m3

Establish methods for recycling used products×―

Establish methods for recycling used products

Reduction targets : NGK Spark Plug : 7,330 tons
Afﬁliated companies : 53 tons○

27

Reduction targets : NGK Spark Plug : 228 tons
Afﬁliated companies : 26 tons

System of tracking
volume of emissions
to the environmentof designatedchemical substances
and the reporting
thereof.

VOC(Volatile Organic
Compounds)

Examine changes that can be made to processing methods that ensure a lessening of waste in recycling
Complete HCFC-225 substitution

△

―

○

29

Incorporate a low environmental burdens disposal method―

Reduce VOC released
Carry out uniform control with MSDS△

29

Reduce VOC released△―

Carry out uniform control with MSDS

Strengthen environmental risk (environmental accident) readiness

○

19

―

―

―

Research environmental burden management systems

Offer the addition of LCA methods for product assessment
500 companies (expand toward equipment, tool, and auxiliary material manufacturers)
Transport with waste efﬁciency

×24

Offer the addition of LCA methods for product assessment△

23

500 companies (expand toward equipment, tool, and auxiliary material manufacturers)△

26

Transport efﬁciently (efﬁcient load ratio and conveyance count)○24

Support internal ELV material analysis and establish other green
procurement related material analysis methods.

Differentiate web and printed matter with regards to information disclosure

×30

Issue Environmental & Social Report○30

Differentiate web and printed matter with regards to information disclosure
Issue Environmental & Social Report

Support and participate in NGO and NPO activities△―

Support and participate in NGO and NPO activities

Continue to participate in community environmental events, etc.

○

30

Continue to participate in community environmental events, etc.

Develop and implement an environmental education system for the Group

×

―

―

Create a system for implementing environmental
education for all employees△

18Create a system for implementing environmental education for all
employees―――

Research a system to evaluate the level of contribution ofenvironmental activities in the work of employees

Establish ELV material analysis and research othergreen procurement related material analysis methods.

PRTR(Pollutant Release andTransfer Register)

The source ofphotochemical
oxidants andsuspended particulatethat pollute theatmosphere.

MSDS(Material Safety Data Sheet)―This sheet contains
information about
the level of danger ofa chemical substanceand precautions for
its handling.

LCA(Life Cycle Assessment)
A method ofassessing the total
environmental burden
including the
manufacturing of a
product, its use, andits disposal.

ELV(End of Life Vehicle)
Directive
Effected in the EU in
2002; regulates
designated regulated
substances andrecyclable ratio of aused automobile.

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report16

5

Environmental
conservation

web
Material balance ofdomestic business sites

Environmental Load from Business Activities
Environmental Load from Business Activities

The ﬁrst step in performing environmental protection
activities is to know what kind of load one's activities impose
on the environment. The tables below show the amount of

resources and energy used in the business activities of the
NGK Spark Plug Group (input) and the products, waste andso on created as a result of these activates (output).

Paper
Paper Quantity of copy paper and wrapping paper used (estimated)

Input

Classiﬁcation
Paper

Non-consolidated

NGK Spark Plug Group

2,617 tons

3,288 tons

EnergyOther materials and auxiliary materials

Purchased electric power, Gas, Heavy oil A Quantity used at ofﬁces and factories
Gasoline Quantity used during testing and transportation

Plastic materials, chemical materials, oils, other materials, other gases

LPG, Diesel oil Amount used at ofﬁces and factories, and during testing and transportation
Classiﬁcation

Non-consolidated

Purchased electricity

255.67 GWh
15.27million m

Gas

3

Quantity used by each department (estimated)

NGK Spark Plug Group
368.86 GWh
16.03million m

3Classiﬁcation

Non-consolidated

Plastic materials

764 tons

NGK Spark Plug Group
2,566 tons

Chemical materials

9,794 tons

12,522 tons

4,869 tons

10,559 tons

276 tons

344 tons

Heavy oil A

51 kL

51 kL

Other materials

5,416 tons

5,702 tons

Gasoline

732 kL762 kL

Other gases

7,689 tons

11,174 tons

Diesel oil

50 kL

128 kL

LPG

Oils

Water

Main raw materials

Tap water Quantity of service water and industrial water used

Ceramic materials, Metal materials Purchased quantities

Well water Quantity of underground water used

Reused elements Quantity of reused ceramic material

Recycled water Quantity of water reused after being puriﬁed on the premises

Classiﬁcation

Non-consolidated

NGK Spark Plug Group

Non-consolidated

NGK Spark Plug Group

Ceramic materials

ー

14,193 tons

Tap water

982,498 m3

1,165,701 m3

Metal materials

ー

21,182 tons

Well water

841,991 m3

963,205 m3

Reused materials

9,552 tons

12,421 tons

Recycled water

1,300,042 m3

1,430,957 m3

Classiﬁcation

Factors used to
calculate CO2

PRTR law-regulated
substances

Japan Auto Parts Industries
Association (2001)
CO2 conversion factor

OutputPurchased
electricity 0.33kg-CO2/kWhGas

2.558kg-CO2/m3

LPG

3.007kg-CO2/kg

Heavy oil A 2.712kg-CO2/L
Guidelines from theordinance regarding
calculation of emission
volume of greenhouse gas
emissions resulting from thebusiness activities ofdesignated emitters
CO2 conversion factor

Atmosphere, water area

Quantity of matter released to atmosphere and the water
area, concerning which notiﬁcation is made in each region

CO2 from energy
consumption

Classiﬁcation Non-consolidated NGK Spark Plug GroupOfﬁces, factories, testing, transportation

Emission of CO2 generated by the use ofelectricity, gas, and so on
Classiﬁcation Non-consolidated NGK Spark Plug Group
Offices and factories

Gasoline 2.32kg-CO2/L

Testing

Diesel oil 2.62kg-CO2/L

Transportation

138,147 tons

194,580 tons

1,675 tons

1,675 tons

211 tons

483 tons

Atmosphere12.8 tons

151.6 tons

Water area

0.5 tons

0.5 tons

Waste
Recycling

Quantity of matter that is consigned to be recycled (including items sold)・Not including energy

Buried or incineration

consumption andCO2 emissions due totransportation
outsourcing.
・For some operationsites that have no
installations tomeasure the volume
of water discharged,
the wastewater
volume is taken as
the combined
volume of tap water
and well water.

Quantity consigned to be buried or incinerated

Wastewater

Classiﬁcation Non-consolidated NGK Spark Plug Group
Recycling

Wastewater

Buried or incineration

Sewage, Quantity of water discharged to the public water area

19,363 tons

21,610 tons

138 tons

161 tons

Evaporation, Other

Volume other than wastewater (e.g. evaporated coolant)

Wrapping/packaging materials

Classiﬁcation Non-consolidated NGK Spark Plug Group
Wastewater

1,319,464 m3

1,580,483 m3

Evaporation, Other

520,448 m3

563,846 m3

Product shipment
Product& Social Report 200917 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Quantity used by each shipping department (estimated)
Category

Non-consolidated NGK Spark Plug Group

Quantity of shipped products as consigner*1

Plastics

993 tons

1,201 tons

Classiﬁcation Non-consolidated NGK Spark Plug GroupPaper

1,651 tons

1,872 tons

917 tons

1,336 tons

Product*1 The counting method was changed in ﬁscal 2006.

Plastics, Paper, cardboard

ー

44,777 tons

Cardboard5Management
Environmental Management

Fiscal 2008
TopicsEnvironmental Conservation
Environmental Load from Business Activities

As part of the NGK Spark Plug Group, Tokai Taima Kogu Co., Ltd.
participated in related activities and received ISO14001 certiﬁcation.

Management System
In order to advance environmental conservation activities in asystematic and effective manner, throughout the Group we
have established an Environmental Management Systemand fulﬁll the activities thereof with full participation.
With our shared environmental policy in every part of
the NGK Spark Plug Group, each division and region
sets goals, implements activities to meet them andevaluates progress and results.

Our ongoing improvement is also connected to review
and veriﬁcation of issues and promotion of activities.
Each year we host a environmental committee meetingin each region four times, and a central environment
committee meeting twice chaired by the Chief
Environment Administrator, the highest level ofmanagement for the environment.

Environmental Activity Promotion Organization
Central Energy Saving
Expart-committee

President
Chief Environment Administrator(Central Environment Committee Chairman)

Central Environment Committee

Central Waste Sub-committee
Chemical SubstanceSub-committee

Environmental
ISO Bureau

Internal
Environment Auditor

Environment Administrators

Green Procurement
Sub-committee
Energy Saving Expert-committee

Environment Committee

Waste Sub-committee<Each Region>* For the deﬁnition of each region, refer to p.2.

Central Environment Committee Meetingweb

Conditions for the Establishment of a System
NGK Spark Plug Group has integrated ISO14001
certiﬁcation across the Group. In ﬁscal 2008 as Tokai
Taima Kogu Co., Ltd. was included in the activities of
the Group and it also achieved ISO14001 certiﬁcation.
As a result, domestically four factories and all 12
afﬁliated companies have received this certiﬁcation.
Additionally at the end of March 2009, 14 of ouroverseas consolidated companies have received
certiﬁcation and are promoting environmental activities.
Only one manufacturing and sales organization remains
has not yet been certiﬁed, meaning 97% of ourworkforce (including sales locations) has received
ISO14001 certiﬁcation.

ISO14001 certiﬁed
locations

ISO14001
An international standard
related to environmental
management systems.
Business locations thathave established systems
in accordance with thestandard can receive
certiﬁcation from externalorganizations.

ISO External Auditing■ISO14001 Certified Companies
Companies
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

1

Afﬁliated companies

12

Overseas consolidated companies

14

web

Environmental Education
In order to promote environmental conservation activities with fullparticipation, the NGK Spark Plug Group is working to havesufﬁcient environmental education. Based on environmental
education in the workplace, we work to improve the knowledge
and understanding of employees through efforts such as tiered
education from new employee training to training for newly
appointed management, making our environmental policies widely
known by distribution ofenvironment cards to all
employees, and supplying
environmental information
via our company newsletteror internal electronic
announcement system.
Environmental Education

We also implement an annual Health, Safety andEnvironment Conference and we conduct lectures
about the environment, or health and safety, and panel
exhibitions. In ﬁscal 2008 two vice-presidents gave
lectures on the topics of environment, and health andsafety, calling for better activity promotion in the future.
The content of the lectures was included in thecompany newsletterand distributed toall employees.

Numbers of ofﬁcial
qualiﬁcation holders
and internal auditors

Health, Safety, and Environment
Conference (Lecture by Vice-President)
Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report18

5

Environmental
conservationweb
Measured data
related toatmosphere, water
quality, noise, andvibration

PCB(Poly ChlorinatedBiphenyls)
Widely used as an
insulating oil due to good
insulation properties andchemical stability,
however PCBs are highly
toxic to people and arepresently prohibited fromproduction and use.

Asbestos
A mineral fabric that has
been widely used as an
insulator. It is dangerous
as inhalation may result inlung cancer ormesothelioma tumors.

Management
Fiscal 2008
TopicsCompliance

We had a single occurrence of going over legal regulated values and nineoccurrences of complaints; in each case we responded as appropriate.

Environmental Risk Management
Risks including environmental accidents, pollution andthe violation of legal regulations are all present whenengaged in business activities. NGK Spark Plug Grouphas identiﬁed these kinds of risks and works to reducerisk and actively prevent these issues.

To strengthen our response to environmental risks inﬁscal 2008, we added a system for environmental
internal auditors to check risks and veriﬁed thecondition of efforts in each department.

■Soil Survey■Chemical Leak Prevention

The NGK Spark Plug Group has clariﬁed our soil
surveying method, auditing period, and evaluation
standards to prevent soil or underground waterpollution through our business activities.
In ﬁscal 2008 we implemented a soil survey at the timeof purchase of land at the Miyanojo factory and veriﬁedthat pollution was not present.

The NGK Spark Plug Group manufacturing processes
include processes that use chemicals that are toxic. To
prevent pollution of soil or water from chemical leaks,
we prevent leaks by double layering storage tanks andmoved pipes above ground to identify leaks early.

■PCB Management■Asbestos Response

The Head Ofﬁce Factory, Komaki Factory and Nittoku
Seisakusho, store waste materials containing PCBs. We
carry out stringent control of such materials, until the
day that they can be properly disposed of.

To prevent harm from asbestos we have taken steps forappropriate disposal. Removal of asbestos fromfacilities has been completed. However, some asbestos
still remains as an insulator in buildings and we aretaking appropriate measures.

■On-site Conﬁrmation of Waste Material Treatment■Drills for Emergency Situations

To ensure that waste material consigned to be treated by aprocessing contractor speciﬁed by the Group was being
appropriately treated, we carry out annual on-site checks
at the interim treatment
plant and also at the ﬁnal
disposal site. In 2008, wevisited 38 companies andweresatisﬁedthat
disposal was taking place
without problems.

In order to prepare for emergency situations such as
unforeseen accidents, we implement regular drills toprevent the spread of pollution beyond our company.
We have projected
accidents for eachdepartment and areprepared for any
scenario.

On-site Inspection

A Drill for an Emergency Situation

Legal Violations and Complaints
In order to ensure compliance with environmental regulation, theNGK Spark Plug Group is working to prevent violations of legal
regulations and complaints through efforts as part of ourmanagement system. We have also endeavored to prevent
environmental pollution by setting more rigorous standards thanthose required by law, joining in cooperation with local governments
and other such initiatives.
In ﬁscal 2008 there was a single case of violating legal regulations
with regards to noise and nine cases of complaints. In each case, we
appropriately responded and attempted to prevent a reoccurrence.

■NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

■Afﬁliates

2006(cases)

2007

2008

(cases)

2006

2007

2008

Violations

0

0

0

Violations

3

2

1

Complaints

0

2

8

Complaints

1

0

1

Response to Complaints and Violations in Fiscal 2008

Response to Complaints and Violations in Fiscal 2008

The Komaki Factory received six requests to improve noise levels andtwo requests related to electronic interference. Seven of thesecomplaints were related to our new factory that was built in ﬁscal
2007. The noise was generated by speakers and the opening andclosing of shutters, and we implemented improvements or stopped
the sources. The case of electronic interference was also handledappropriately, and a mutual understanding was reached.

1. Nichiwa Kiki violated legal noise regulations. This case wasresolved by a return to regulated values by removing thesource device that was being used in facility renovation.
2. Ceramic Sensor received a request to improve with regards
to noise. We were able to come to an understanding byimplementing measures including stopping of use of
forklifts outside during the night.

& Social Report 200919 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

5
Environmental Management

Fiscal 2008
TopicsEnvironmental Conservation
Management

Our environmental preservation costs in ﬁscal 2008 were 9,580 million
yen non-consolidated, and the effect of environment conservation
measures was 426 million yen.

web

Environmental Accounting
In order to more efﬁciently promote environmental
management, it is important to obtain a quantitative
grasp of the cost and effectiveness of environmental
protection. Since 1999, the NGK Spark Plug has been
carrying out environmental accounting, and in 2003 its
scope was increased to cover the entire Group.
The environmental preservation costs for ﬁscal 2008
were 9,580 million yen on a non-consolidated basis, and10,068 million yen for the Group. This was a decrease of
approximately 13% compared to ﬁscal 2007. Also, theeffect of environment conservation measures was 426
million yen on a non-consolidated basis.

Environmental Preservation Costs
Indicates the expenses and facility investment
required including research and development ofenvironmentally friendly products, management
activities such as education, and conservation
activities including waste treatment, energy saving,and pollution prevention.
Effect of Environment Conservation Measures
Indicates the reduced costs of treatment expenses due
to reduced waste, reduced expenses due to energy
and water saving, and proﬁt on sales of waste.

Envir onm ent al Pr es er vat ion Cos t s and Ef f ect of Envir onm ent Cons er vat ion Meas ur es (non-cons olidat ed)

Environmental Preservation Costs (group-wide)*

15,000600

Environmental
conservation costs
Environmental
conservation effective
value
Environmental
conservation effective
volume15,000

485

9,212
8,402

9,758

400

9,580

8,122

7,925

426

8,937
8,960

7,616
234
192

5,000

0

200

786

2004

Expenses

1,287

1,636

2005

2006

Investment

Effect10,456

Cost (million yen)

10,00011,007

Effect (million yen)

Cost (million yen)388

10,000

9,786
8,966

9,435

8,125

5,000

620

2008
(fiscal year)

10,068

8,660

8,421

2,070

2007

11,631
9,453

0

0

2004

Expenses

1,796

1,365

841

2005

2006

2,178
633

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

Investment*Not including Nittoku Alpha Service

Eco-efﬁciency (Environmental Effectiveness)
The NGK Spark Plug Group evaluates the quantity of CO2
emissions, the quantity of waste generated, and so on, as theenvironmental effectiveness, and is promoting environmental
management. In ﬁscal 2008 the carbon dioxide index
worsened compared with the previous year. Althoughproduction volume fell, there was little effect on carbon
dioxide emissions volume due to increased ﬁxed energy
required by the establishment of the new factory in mid-ﬁscal
2007. Added production value decreased as a result of worse
environmental efﬁciency. Waste indicators improved due todecreased emissions as a result of reduction measures.

This is an indicator of the ratio of the createdeconomy value to the environmental loadaccompanying business activities. The higher
the value the better is the efficiency.
Eco-efficiency =Added production value
Environmental load

Index of output waste (non-consolidated)(Fiscal 2001 = 100)

140

140
122

123

116

120

120

107
100

115

116

107

101

100

100

100

97

97

91

88
84

80

80

60

60

Added production value

40

81

Added production value

40

CO2 emissions from production

Output waste volume

20

0Energy that is usedregardless of production
volume such as lighting or
air conditioning.

* The added production value is the amount left over after subtracting thecost of materials and subcontracting (including the cost of parts purchasedfrom afﬁliates) from net sales.

Index of CO2 from production (non-consolidated)(Fiscal 2001 = 100)

Fixed Energy

Eco-efﬁciency

20

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

0

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report20

5

Environmental
conservation

Products

Development of Eco-products

Fiscal 2008
TopicsWe are aiming to reduce the environmental burden
through the entire product lifecycle in accordance with
our environmental product policy: “We will work
towards the development, design, procurement,
manufacture, sale, distribution and disposal ofenvironmentally friendly products.”

We achieved a power generation efﬁciency of the world’s highest
standard in our in-development 1kW class solid oxide shaped fuel cellstack.

Our seven divisions send a wide range of products
around the world. Many of these products are simply
components that the average consumer will never see,but we continue development to create products that
contribute to society and the environment into the
future.

Spark Plugs
Spark plugs are mounted in automotive engines asfunctional components that ignite the fuel.
Our iridium plug uses iridium alloy in the electrode,enabling a narrow-radius electrode because of its highstrength and melting point, reducing use of noble
metals, lengthening product lifetime and improving
ignition to improve fuel consumption and reducing thetoxic substances in the exhaust gases.

10/15 ModeOne method for themeasurement of fuelconsumption of an
automobile.
Measurements are
performed with 10
patterns designed basedon urban driving, and 15
patterns based onsuburban driving.

Iridium plug and common plug fuel consumption comparison
10/15 mode consumption (km/L)
13←Electrode

14

15

Engine : 1.5L, 4 Cylinder,
DOHC
Test mode : 10/15 mode

M14
HEX16
Normal
Reach

M12
HEX14
Long
Reach

M10
BI-HEX12
Long
Reach

15.0

Iridium plug

←Electrode16

Narrowing the spark plug contributing to improved
characteristics including reduced fuel consumption andlow emission engine, as well as reducing required
resources and energy used in product processing (inparticular, the ceramic baking process). Therefore we
reviewed the durability of component parts and wereable to lengthen the usable lifetime of our spark plugs.

2%
improvement

14.7* Internal evaluation example.
Effects will vary based on engine
type and driving conditions.

Common plug

Spark plug size and weight comparison

Glow Plugs
Glow plugs are used as preheating devices supporting
combustion in diesel engines. Diesel vehicles have goodfuel efﬁciency and low carbon dioxide emissions andare thus being considered as a means of preventing
global warming.
We produce high performance ceramic type glow plugs
taking advantage of the heat resistant characteristics ofceramics. By using ceramics in the heater part, we canrapidly heat to a high temperature reducing startup
time and reducing the toxic substances in the gas
released immediately after startup.
There is also great demand for metal type glow plugs
with their low electricity consumption and lower
material cost. We have developed metal type glow

plugs that feature the same rapid heating as ceramic
type glow plugs that are being incorporated by many
automobile manufacturers.

Ceramic type glow plug

Metal type glow plug

Small Heaterless Sensors for Motorbikes
Air-fuel Ratio
The ratio of fuel to air
required for combustion.
If the mix is too fuel richor too thin the toxicity ofthe exhaust increases.

Automotive oxygen sensors give off electric signals
based on the oxygen concentration in the exhaust. The
signals from the sensor are used to appropriately adjust
the engine's air-fuel ratio. The sensor thus fulﬁlls the roleof reducing toxic substances in the exhaust gases.
Recently there are heightened demands for air fuel ratio
control using oxygen sensors similar to that of four-wheeledvehicles with stronger regulations for exhaust gas even withmotorbikes. We developed a small heaterless sensor
appropriate for use in two-wheeled vehicles using our
experience with oxygen sensors for four-wheeled vehicles.
We contributed a new level of environmental conservation& Social Report 200921 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Reportconnected to improvement of fuel consumption, reducing
electrical consumption throughout the vehicle to not
require power due to making the sensor heaterless, inaddition to being small and light.

5

Environmental Conservation
Products

Microprocessor Packages
Growth in rapidly selling netbooks, small and light
laptops, are driving the current mobile computing ﬁeld.
Netbooks not only provide a network environment tomany people as a small, light, cheap and low energy
consumption machine, but are also expected to be anenvironmentally friendly product.
NGK Spark Plugs Co., Ltd. organic packages areincorporating the microprocessors that are at the heartof these computers. Compared with conventional
products these are extremely miniaturized, down to
one third or one fourth of the area, and with this thenumber of solder balls used in connection with theprint board also decreased. This miniaturization has
reduced materials some 50 to 80 percent.

Dielectric Resonators
Dielectric resonators select radio waves at the wirelesscommunications base station and are used as a ﬁlter forreception. With that intended purpose, there is avariety of required shapes and sizes.
Many dielectric resonators contain rare elements.
Manufacturing processes produce waste such as press
burrs and grinding shavings. From a viewpoint of waste

reduction and effective use of material recycling, we have
had success in active promotionof process improvement andprocess design with press shaving
collection, reuse and removal ofabrasion in all products.

Cermet Tool C7Z
The new cermet tool C7Z is a tool used in theprocessing of steel or alloys.
By innovating in the material components and ﬁring
method we created a cermet with twice the use life of
conventional tools.
Of course one can reduce the use volume of the tools,
but increasing the capacity rate of processing machines
by decreasing replacement frequency we can reduce
total energy consumption. These products havereceived three stars, certiﬁed under the eco productcertiﬁcation system regulated by the Japan Cemented
Carbide Tool Manufacturers' Association.

Automotive Part Boring Process
Material
S53C
Cutting Conditions
V-200m/mim
f-0.07mm/rev
WET

C7Z
Eco Product
Certification
Environment
Label

510pic. /corner

Conventional
300pic. /corner
Coating Cermet

Ceramic Ozone Panels and Ion Panels
Ceramic ozone panels and ion panels are parts used indeodorization equipment and air puriﬁers, based on
the principle of creeping discharge through highfrequency voltage and alumina ceramics.
This product contained lead based solder in the wiring
connection points but we have switched to an
environmentally friendly lead-free solder over thecourse of two years. This product is environmentallyfriendly in its properties and its
components.

Fuel Cell

Fuel Cells
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. is developing Solid Oxide Fuel
Cells (SOFC).
In power generation tests of our 1kW class SOFC stackin our development to date we have achieved world
top-level DC terminal power efﬁciency of 60%.
We also developed the world’s smallest class 1kW class
SOFC generator system, simultaneously advancing
development of generator system units incorporating
the stack, and have veriﬁed 57% DC terminal
generation efﬁciency in tests using municipal gas.
In the future we are implementing mass production
research
andverifyingreliability,
developing

cogeneration generating test units containing adesulfurizer, and exhaust gas heat exchanger for
creating hot water.

A power generation
device that creates
electricity from thechemical reaction
between hydrogen andoxygen. This is more
efﬁcient than methods
creating electricity byburning fuel and is being
looked to as a global
warming prevention
measure. SOFC is atechnology withparticularly high efﬁciency
even in this ﬁeld.

Cogeneration
By creating hot waterusing the exhaust heatgiven off while generating
electricity, this system
uses both electricity andheat from fuel. This
comprehensive approachincreases energy
efﬁciency and is useful forenergy saving.

1kW Class Power Generation Stack

1kW Class SOFC Generation System
Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report22

5

Environmental
conservation

Products

Control of Hazardous Substances
Basic Philosophy
ELV Directive
End-of-life Vehicles
Directive.
Implemented in 2002
in the EU to regulate
speciﬁed substancesand recycling rate forused vehicles.

RoHS Directive
Restriction ofHazardous
Substances Directive
covering electric andelectronic devices.
Implemented in the
EU in 2006.

REACH
Regulations
Registration,
Evaluation,
Authorization andrestriction ofCHemicals.
Implemented in 2007
in the EUcomprehensively
regulating hazardous
substances for
substances included
in products andsubstances
manufactured orimported.

IMDS
This system gathers
information on
included substancesand materials forparts for nearly
30,000 components
comprising a vehicle.

JGPSSI
Japan Green
Procurement Survey
Standardization
Initiative. This
association takes
measures to share
surveys of chemical
substances included
as parts and materials
and brings together
electric and electronicequipment
manufacturers on a
voluntary basis.

AIS
This sheet is for
supplied by JAMP
(Joint Article
Management
Promotion
consortium) totransmit information
related to chemical
substances included
in products.

Regulations on hazardous substances are becomingstronger worldwide, and NGK Spark Plug group is
working to support them including the ELV directive
and the RoHS directive. Also, in 2008, the REACH
regulations were implemented in Europe, and as aresult it is necessary to implement event stricter
controls.

Customers



Suppliers

Customers are placing more stringent requirements
as the regulations on hazardous substances included
in our products are made stronger.
We work to appropriately support the demands ofour customers including the submission of a

The cooperation of our clients is essential for use toappropriately control the hazardous substances
contained in our products and prevent inclusion ofregulated substances. The NGK Spark Plug Grouphas gained this cooperation including procurement

In order to appropriately support the requirements ofthese regulations, and to prevent environmental
pollution from our products we have constructed andare implementing a control setup consisting of threestages: (1) meeting the customer's demands, (2)handling control within the Group, and (3)procurement from suppliers.

non-inclusion certiﬁcate for prohibited substances
as indicated by our customers, submission of
product chemical substance data including IMDS
and JGPSSI data sheets and AIS, and support for
inspection or oversight of control systems.

of items with Green Procurement Guidelines,
submission of chemical substance inclusion data ofpurchased materials, and a non-inclusion certiﬁcate
for substances we prohibit.

Green Supplier System

Certiﬁcation Standard

We have established a green supplies system,
certifying clients that have actively taken
environmental measures as green suppliers. We
have certiﬁed 209 clients that have met ourconditions in two categories: systems standards andmaterial standards.

System Standard

Material Standard●Acquisition of third party
certiﬁcation underenvironmental
management system●Non-inclusion ofsubstances on our
prohibited substances list

Submission of third party
certiﬁcation survey

Submission of
non-inclusion certiﬁcateand data about six
speciﬁed substances*

OK

OK

Green Supplier
Green Procurement Guidelines(For Suppliers) 4th Edition

EcoAction 21
One Environmental
Management System.
This system isdesigned for small- to
mid-sized businesses
and features lower
costs than ISO14001
accreditation, andallowing inspections
and consultation.

Certiﬁcate* Six speciﬁed substances : Lead, mercury, hexavalent chrome, cadmium,polybrominated biphenyl, and polybrominated diphenyl ether

Supporting our suppliers
In order to promote environmental conservation
activities with our clients we support theestablishment of environmental management
systems. In ﬁscal 2008 all 5 companies that we& Social Report 200923 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

supported in receiving ISO14001 received
certiﬁcation and 9 companies received EcoAction 21
accreditation.

5

Environmental Conservation
Products

NGK Spark Plug GroupWe set “hazard ranks” at NGK Spark Plug Group inorder to control environmentally hazardous
substances used in our processes or contained in our
products. We control the quantities of substances inthis hazard rank, and also manage the situation
concerning the substitution and reduction ofprohibited or restricted substances.
We regularly review hazard ranks based on
regulatory and customer requirement trends, andprevent the inclusion of environmentally hazardous
substances in our products.

Control System
Legal Regulation

Customer Request

Information Acquisition

Information control

Hazard rank
(in-house standard)

Control of Reduction

Control of used quantity

Hazard Rank

Information control

Hazardous substances are divided into prohibited,
restricted, and controlled substances, depending
upon the degree of danger or toxicity. Also, a
handling standard is established for each rank.

Information concerning acquired legal regulations
and customer requests have been arranged into alist in such a way that it can be perused using an
intranet within our shared internal web site.

Hazard rank Handling standard

Substances covered

Prohibited Use is prohibited.
substances

Substances prohibited fromuse or strongly restrictedby regulations.

A substitution
program shall be
Restricted proposed and thesubstances substances
switched.

Hazard level and toxicity areequivalent to prohibited
substances, but an immediatechangeover is impossible due
to its special characteristics.

Emission into theControlled environment andMainly substances subject
substances transportation upon to PRTR Law
use are controlled.

Product Assessment
We have implemented product assessment during thedevelopment of new products and any changes in
speciﬁcation. Verifying the conditions of inclusion of
hazard rank substances, we examine the environmentalload caused during each stage from design andmanufacturing/logistics, to use and disposal, to proactively
prevent environmental pollution in our products.
Moving forward our goal is improving the productevaluation method, and we are researching theincorporation of asset management and introduction ofeasy LCA.

List of Legal Regulations

DesignStage●Are environmentally hazardous substancesused in the product?
●Does it use fewer resources thanconventional versions?

Manufacturing /Logistics Stage●Are environmentally hazardous substancesused during manufacturing?
●Do manufacturing processes use less energy andproduce less waste than conventional versions?

Use Stage●Does it generate less environmental pollution
than the conventional version?
●Does it consume less energy than theconventional version?

Disposal
Stage●Will it be disposed of while containing
environmentally hazardous substances?

Internal Analysis of Environmentally Hazardous Substances
In order to verify the state of inclusion of environmentally hazardous substancesin the product, we perform partial analysis of the presence of these substancesin our products at our internal analysis center. By establishing analysis methods
for hazardous substances and submitting trustworthy data to clients, we preventthe shipping of noncompliant products.
Analysis

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report24

5

Environmental
conservation

Factory/Office
Fiscal 2008
TopicsPrevention of Global Warming

We achieved our reduction goal by implementing measures to reducecarbon dioxide by 17,494 tons. As a result carbon dioxide emissions of
the Group were 194,580 tons (or 7% less than the previous year).

Basic Philosophy
Global Warming

We are promoting measures with the understanding that the prevention of global warming
is an issue that must be resolved for our continuance into the 21st Century.
In order to reduce our volume of greenhouse gasses our goalfor 2010 is to have NGK Spark Plug Group total emissions
volume at 150,000 tons or less. Compared with when thegoals were ﬁrst set, our production has grown and we haveestablished new factories so our emissions volume has
increased, but seeking to achieve our goals we began carbon
dioxide reduction projects in ﬁscal 2008 to reduce
non-essential energy use. In addition to improving
productivity, we endeavor to make efﬁcient use of energy andengage in energy saving activities.

The phenomenon ofrising average global
temperatures caused
by increasing volumesof certain gases(greenhouse gasses)
trapping heat in theatmosphere andheating the surfaceof the earth.

Tsuneo Ito, Managing Director,
Chairman of the Central Energy
Conservation Sub-committee

Energy Saving Patrol
Reduction Goal
Refer to thephilosophy on P16.

Results with Respect to Fiscal 2008 Targets
In ﬁscal 2008 we endeavored to reduce carbon dioxidethroughout the NGK Spark Plug Group by 16,568 tons.
As a result of these efforts we implemented reduction
measures resulting in a reduction of 17,494 tons toachieve our goal.
In ﬁscal 2009 we adjusted our total emission volume
goal taking measures to further reduce carbon dioxideby managing our reduction goal with our total
emissions goal.

Fiscal 2008 target

Fiscal 2008 results

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

14,447 tons

14,830 tons

Afﬁliates

2,121 tons

2,664 tons

Total

16,568 tons

17,494 tons

■Main countermeasure examplest &OFSHZ TBWJOHT GSPN VTF PG XBTUF IFBU JO GVSOBDFT
(see case example on P.26)
t&OFSHZTBWJOHTGSPNSFWJFXJOHBJSTVQQMZNFUIPE TFFcase example on P.26)
t&OFSHZTBWJOHTGSPNDIBOHJOHGVSOBDFFOFSHZ

Total CO2 emissions and Eco Vision 2010
The NGK Spark Plug Group has set goals for the
reduction of total CO2 emissions in Eco Vision 2010,
and carries out activities aimed at achieving our goals.
In ﬁscal 2008, we reduced our total emissions
volume compared with the previous year, however
effectiveness on a per-unit basis worsened. Our ﬁxed
energy use is high, including air conditioning for clean
rooms so our reduced output resulted in per-unit
energy use not reducing as well. Moving forwards wewould like to work at improving per-unit levels centeredon a reduction of ﬁxed energy and other energy waste
to reduce total emissions.
Furthermore, in ﬁscal 2008 our total CO2 emissions
including domestic and overseas business places was
226 thousands tons, which is an 5% decrease from theprevious year. As a global enterprise, we aim topromote global warming prevention measures overseas
as well.

Transition of CO2 emission (ofﬁces and factories)

CO2 emission for overseas manufacturers plants in each region*

400

20

1.6
1.420
1.332

300

1.2

1.218
1.051
1.002

0.992

1

50
0

226.4

150

194.6
138.1

145.7

208.9

195.9
221.1
135.6

169.2
124.2

117.6

163.6
118.2

0.8

1990

0.6
0.4

70.1

100

179.3

200
150

238.4

250

0.2

2001

2004 2005

2006

2007

2008

Non-consolidated
NGK Spark Plug GroupNGK Spark Plug Group including overseas manufacturers
Basic unit (non-consolidated)& Social Report 200925 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report02010(fiscal year)▲

Target value

CO2 emissions (1,000 tons of CO2)

CO2 emissions (1,000 tons of CO2)

1.144

Kerosene18

1.4

Basic unit (tons of CO2/1 million yen)

350

Light oil

16

Heavy oil

14

LPG

12

Natural gas

10

LNG

8

Electricity

6
4
2
0

North
AmericaSouth
America

EuropeAsia

Africa* Regarding the CO2 emission from purchased electricity, we use eachcountry's GHG protocol coefﬁcient.
Regarding fuel, we use the same coefﬁcients as in Japan. (See P.17.)

5
Logistics

Act on the
Rational Use ofEnergyClean Energy

The volume of cargo (including products and waste) that
we shipped in ﬁscal 2008 totaled 42,686 thousands
ton-kilometers making us a speciﬁed consigner as
determined in the Act on the Rational Use of Energy.
To curb the amount of greenhouse gasses expelled as partof our shipping operations in ﬁscal 2008 we took action
looking to the waste of transportation. In ﬁscal 2008 weemitted 2,910 tons of carbon dioxide as a consigner, a
17% reduction from the previous year.

NGK Spark Plug Group promotes the use of solar panels
as clean energy.
The head ofﬁce and factory has three sets of solar
panels installed as well as a thermal heat water heater.
A large-scale solar panel that can produce up to 107
kW is also installed on the roof of the Komaki factory. In
ﬁscal 2008 this contributed to a 57 ton reduction ofcarbon dioxide as a total 173 thousands kWh of power.

Carbon Dioxide
Emissions (tons)

3,550

In cases whereburdens fromshipping volume
exceed 30,000,000
ton-kilometers
reduction efforts are
required for speciﬁed
consigner.

Clean Energy
Energy use associatedwith low carbon
dioxide emissions.
This includes solar,
wind, hydro, andbiomass energy.

Transitions in Carbon Dioxide as a Consigner*
4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0

Environmental Conservation
Factory/Office

3,480
2,910

2006

web

Solar Panels

2008 (fiscal year)

2007* Including the portion outsourced.

Greenhouse Gasses other than Carbon Dioxide from Energy Sources
In ﬁscal 2008 the total volume of greenhouse gasses
other than carbon dioxide from energy sources
converted to carbon dioxide was 3,201 tons, a 22%
reduction from the previous year.
These emission volumes are not covered by the Law
Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to Copewith Global Warming but we are working to prevent
global warming through ongoing calculation ofgreenhouse gasses.

Green Curtain
At the Miyanojo factory, efforts have been made towards a curtain ofgreen since 2008. By reducing the warming of temperature inside,
cultivating vegetableson the southern wallof the ofﬁce building,
reducing the electricity
used by air conditioning
during the summer
months.

Results of computing
greenhouse gases
according to thesystem forcomputing, reportingon, and publicizing
the quantity ofgreenhouse gases

Greenhouse Gas
Gasses that cause
global warming. They
Kyoto protocol covers
carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous
oxide,hydroﬂuorocarbons,
perﬂuorocarbons,and sulfur
hexaﬂuoride.

Green Curtain

Case Example

Law Concerning thePromotion of the
Measures to Cope with
Global Warming

Case Example

Energy Savings from Use of Waste Heat in Furnaces

Energy Savings from Reviewing Air Supply Method

When utilizing processes that emit gasses with strong smells, suchgases are combusted in a deodorizing furnace in order to prevent
those odors from spreading into surrounding areas and are only
emitted after the odor has been eliminated.
We have improved the design and taken measures in manufacturing
processes for automotive sensors to use the excess heat in order toreduce energy usage associated with the deodorizing furnace. Useof the excess heat in the deodorizing furnace with the odorous gas
enabled reduction of the used amount of fuel.
This allowed us to reduce annual carbon dioxide by 186 tons.

At Iijima Ceramics we reduced the requiredenergy supply for factory air-conditioning.
By installing air tanks we reduced pressurechanges and, with the introduction of inverter
compressors, by reviewing the entire control
method we reduced the used electricity.
This resulted in an annual reduction of 109 tonsof carbon dioxide.

Diagram

Improvement Effects

Released toatmosphere

Green Curtain

kWh
2,500

Waste heat reused

2,000
Odorous gas

From
manufacturing
procedure

Under the system forcomputing, reportingon, and publicizing
the quantity ofgreenhouse gases,
business places
emitting more than
3,000 tons are maderesponsible for thereporting ofemissions.
In the report for ﬁscal
2009 we report on a
per-business unit.

Compressors (37 kW) in a Single Factory
2,255
1,723

1,500

A natural curtain
cultivated by vine-likevegetation in front of
windows. The
absorption of thedirect sunlight andtranspiration by thevegetation has acooling effect toreduce indoor
heating.

1,466

1,355

1,000
Odorous gas in heat exchanger

854

500

Combustion

Burner543

0
Before Improvement
Average Weekday Usage Volume

After Installationof Air Tank

After Introductionof Inverter Machine

Average Weekend Usage Volume

Air Tank Installation: Reduced Weekday Use by 23.6% and Weekend by 37%
Inverter Introduction: Reduced Weekday Use by 35.0% and Weekend by 60%

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report26

5

Environmental
conservation

Factory/Office

Waste Material
Reduction Goal
Refer to thephilosophy on P16.

We achieved our reduction goal by implementing waste reduction
measures accounting for 7,585 tons of waste. The total emissions were
21,771 tons, down 25% from the previous year.

Fiscal 2008
TopicsBasic Philosophy

Results with Respect to Fiscal 2008 Targets

The NGK Spark Plug Group takes measures to eliminate
waste emissions volumes ﬁrst in order to makemaximum effective use of resources, and works torecycle what waste is emitted.

Waste Handling Priority Ranking

During ﬁscal 2008, the Group worked to reduce waste
by 7,383 tons. As a result of these efforts, measures
were implemented resulting in a reduction of 7,585
tons, achieving our target.
Fiscal 2008 targets

Fiscal 2008 results

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

7,330 tons

7,519 tons

Afﬁliates

53 tons

66 tons

Total

7,383 tons

7,585 tons

① Reduce ② Reuse ③ Recycle ④ Buried and incinerated■Main countermeasure examplest 8BTUF SFEVDUJPO EVF UP QMVH QSJNBSZ NFUBM QBSU
design changes (see case example)t 8BTUF SFEVDUJPO EVF UP JOUSPEVDUJPO PG TMVEHF
treatment equipmentt 3FEVDUJPOPGXBTUFEVFUPMPXFSEFGFDUSBUFT

Waste Emissions Volume and Recovery rate
Emissions volumes in ﬁscal 2008 were reduced 25%
compared to the previous year as a result of implementationof reduction measures and lower production.
Additionally, the NGK Spark Plug Group is taking measures

towards zero emissions, completely removing waste thatwill go to landﬁll or be incinerated. With 98% or better
effective use as our goal, we continue promoting zero
emissions from 2005 forwards.

Definition of effective use

Transitions in Waste Emission Volume

Recovery rate ＝reuse + recycle
emission volume

15,00028,855

21,771

24,07996

19,50220,00021,28925,00098

26,052

27,04097.2

29,83730,000

99.4

94

90

10,000

88

5,000

86

0

2004

≧ 98%

Non-consolidated

2005

2006

Consolidated

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

84

Recovery rate (Consolidated)

Case Example
Waste Reduction due to Plug Primary Metal
Part Design Changes
The primary metal part of spark plugs uses carbon
steel as material, and after plasticity processing,detailed cutting processes are used to shape themetal. To reduce shavings, it is effective to ﬁnish theplasticity processing very near to the ﬁnal desired
shape.
For certain types of spark plugs with low production,
we cut in a hexagonal shape. However a 43%
reduction in waste was obtained by changing thedesign to shape this portion during plasticity
processing.

& Social Report 200927 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Previous Method

Plasticity
Processing

Cutting

68g

68g

Shavings 28g

40g

After Applying New Method

Plasticity
Processing

CuttingShavings 16g

43%
reduction!
56g

56g

40g

Recovery rate (%)

We deﬁne zero emissions as the state in which
the recovery rate of waste, including bothindustrial waste and general waste from ouroperations, is at least 98%.

100

99.3
99.5

98.3

18,840Definition of zero emissions

35,00016,071

Effective use is the ability to reuse and recycle thevaluable parts of the waste generated from ourfactories (including the thermal recycling). This
includes waste materials sold as valuable
resources.

Emissions Volume (tons)

web
Waste Emission
Volume Per Region

5
Fiscal 2008
TopicsWater Resources
Basic Philosophy

We achieved our reduction goal, implementing water use reduction measures fora reduction of 121,180 m3.
The used volume was 2,129 thousands ｍ3, a 5% reduction from the year before.

Results with Respect to the Fiscal 2008 Targets

At the NGK Spark Plug Group, we believe water is an
important resource and we are taking measures toreduce the amount of tap and well water used in ourbusiness activities.

Environmental Conservation
Factory/Office

Reduction Goal
Refer to thephilosophy on P16.

In ﬁscal 2008, we set a water reduction target of
95,831 m3 for NGK Spark Plug Group and implemented
measures to reach it. As a result of these activities wereduced group-wide water use by 121,180m3,
achieving our goals.
Fiscal 2008 Targets

Fiscal 2008 Results

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

87,738m3

110,606m3

Afﬁliates

8,093m3

10,574m3

Total

95,831m3

121,180m3

213
182

190

216
182

206
174

150

202

200

224

250

170

Quantity used (10,000m3)

Transitions in the Quantity of Tap Water and Well Water Used

100

■Main countermeasure examples

50
0

2004

Non-consolidated

2005

2006

Consolidated

2007

2008
(fiscal year)t Reduced water consumption by using waste water for toilets (see case example)t Reduced water consumption by reviewing iron removing device backwash methodt Reduced water consumption by changing the humidifying method of air conditioners

Case Example
Reduced Water Consumption by Using Waste Water for Toilets
Water used in manufacturing is released after being treated in aninternal facility.
At the Ise Factory and Nakatsugawa Ceramics, we have worked toreduce the amount of water used by using some of the treated waterin some toilets.
This technique enabled the Ise Factory to save 554 m3, and 180 m3 at
Nakatsugawa Ceramics.

C olumn

Nakatsugawa Ceramics Measure Diagram

Improved Water Flow

Water Pump
Waste Water
Emissions

Water
SupplyWater Tank

Factory Building Toilet
Treatment
Water
To Septic
Tank● Tokai Taima Kogu ISO14001 Accreditation
Tokai Taima Kogu Co., Ltd. was established in 1964 and performs the manufactureand sale of molds for a wide variety of ﬁelds including spark plug metal partprocessing molds, ceramic board processing molds, and molds for medical powder
molding.
In 2007 they received ISO9001 accreditation and in 2008 they established anenvironmental management system, gaining ISO14001 accreditation.

■Primary Activities after Beginning System Operation① Review of Waste Treatment Methods
In order to effectively use resources, review of outsourced disposal
methods and waste separation method, and reduce the amount ofwaste sent to landﬁll② Removing Environmentally Hazardous Substances
Taking measures to eliminate environmentally hazardous substancesused in our production processes, completely replaced inclusion oftrichloroethylene and lead
③ Energy Saving Activities
In order to reduce electricity used, coolingbuilding roofs with a sprinkler in the summer
to reduce the load on air conditioning■Achieving Certification
In environmental management system
activities, we came to understand thevarious burdens our company imposes on
the environment.
Looking to the future we will not only seek
to improve the qualityof our products, butalso endeavor to
manufacture in anenvironmentallyfriendly manner.
Kentaro Nagata
ISO Business Bureau Chief

Energy Saving Measures

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report28

5

Environmental
conservation

Factory/Office
Fiscal 2008
Topics

Hazardous Substancesweb

We completed replacement of HCFC-225. The total emissions volume of
PRTR substances was 152 tons, a reduction of 29% from the previous year.

Control of PRTR Substances

Per-region PRTR data

Law Concerning
Reporting, etc. of
Releases to theEnviroment ofSpeciﬁc Chemical
Substances andPromoting
Improvements in
Their Management.
System of tracking
volume of emissions
to the environmentof designatedchemical substances
and the reporting
thereof.

VOC(Volatile Organic
Compound)We are striving to reduce the release of PRTR
law-regulated substances to the atmosphere or waterby 80% of the ﬁgure for ﬁscal 2002, by ﬁscal 2010. We
are also setting annual goals and undertaking activities
to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOC).
We s u c c e e d e d i n ﬁ s c a l 2 008 to c ompl ete ourgoal that covered several years of replacing
dichloropentaﬂuoropropane (HCFC-225). Group emissions
volumes decreased from the previous year, but therelative portion of xylene has shown an increasing
trend. We will continue to research reduction measures
for toluene, which covers a large portion of the total
emissions.

INPUT-OUTPUT of PRTR law-regulated substances

Atmosphere: 151,620(unit: kg)

Public Water Area: 501
Soil: 0Quantity
Handled:800,432

Products: 289,247
Sold Parts: 16,087
On-site Incineration: 0
Decomposition
Reaction: 232,280
Buried/Incineration: 143

Public Sewer: 10

Quantity of PRTR Law-Regulated Substances Handled

The source ofphotochemical
oxidants andsuspended particulatethat pollute theatmosphere.

Non-consolidated

Quantity of PRTR Law-Regulated Substances Released

NGK Spark Plug Group

Non-consolidated

1200

800

Effective Use: 110,403

NGK Spark Plug Group

25

250

213
3

700
975

1000

650

20.1

20
132

560
800

510
127
124

Quantity handled (tons)

Quantity handled (tons)

500
162

400

81
37

300

200

47

45

32

29

62

67

150

781

400

162
33

157

57

81

82

42
82

190
193

183

177

16.6

48

600
36
37
55
44

15

2.4
2.0

10

13.2
5

10.4

123
0

2002

Toluene2007

2008
fiscal year

NickelWater-soluble copper salts(excluding complex salts)

Xylene

114

259

100
133

2002

2007
2008
fiscal year
Lead and other compounds

Dibutyl phthalate

45

208

Others

0

2002

2007

0.0
2008
fiscal year

Dichloropentafluoropropane
Toluene

182

50

70
0

152
1

150

8.8
244

71

9.1

13.3
0.5
0.5

1.7

200
100

179

0.4
800
161

208

200

1.8

177

Quantity Released (tons)

600

Quantity Released (tons)

PRTR(Pollutant Release
and Transfer Register)

0

9
10
2002

19
9
2007

18
0
2008
fiscal year

XyleneOthers* Substances concerning which notiﬁcation must be made by each ofﬁce or factory are indicated above.

Green Purchasingweb

Use of Eco-friendly Ofﬁce Supplies/Vehicles

Number of vehicles
ownedGreen Procurement
Guidelines (In-house Use)

& Social Report 200929 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

In order to increase theawareness of environmental
protection at each workplace
and promote activities thattake into account energy
saving, recycling, and so on
such as purchase of ofﬁce
equipment or vehicles, theGroup actively selects products
that
are
kind
to
the
environment when purchasingor using products. Version 2of our “Green Procurement
Guidelines (In-house Use),”published in March 2004, speciﬁes that eco products
should meet all or some of the following requirements,
promoting the purchase of eco products:① Have less environmental impact during use.
② Have a signiﬁcant effect on environmental
improvement during use.
③ Have less environmental impact during the disposal
stage after use.
④ Comply with relevant laws, standards, regulations,etc. in terms of quality and safety.
⑤ Be preferably priced the same or lower than similar
products (in consideration of longevity).

5

RegionCommunication

Fiscal 2008
TopicsIssuing an Environmental Report
In order for people to better understand the environmental
conservation activities of the NGK Spark Plug Group, each year
we publish site reports with our environmental activities in eachregion and our Environmental and Social Report containing
information about Group environmental and social activities.
These brochures divide information between that available on
the website and that contained in the physical publication inconsideration of ease of viewing and understanding. We willcontinue to work to disclose information that is both correctand easily understood.

Environmental Conservation
Factory/Office

At the Ise Factory, we participated in the local water quality survey.

webEnvironmental Meeting
We have implemented environmental meetings as aplace for exchange of views with the people of theregion. This is both an opportunity to improve, as well
as gain understanding of NGK Spark Plug Groupenvironmental conservation activities.
■Meetings
Fiscal 2008

9 Meetings, 31 Attendees

Local Citizens/Schools/Municipal Governments

8 Tours, 287 ParticipantsEnterprise/Organization

1 Tour, 23 Participants

Environmental andSocial Report
Site Report

Site Report
Published for each of
4 NGK Spark Plugfactories and eachafﬁliated company(excluding Nittoku
Alpha Service andNittoku Unyu).

Accepting Visitors at Environmental Factories
Through hosting factory tours at NGK Spark PlugGroup, we work to deepen exchange with the local
community while allowing the people of the region
connected with the Group to understand ourenvironmental activities.
We have also participated as a member of the overseas
exchange section committee of the Environmental
Partnership Organizing Club (EPOC). In September
2008, we accepted overseas trainees from the
Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship to tour
our factories and introduced our production process
and environmental measures.
In ﬁscal 2008 we hosted nine tours with a total of 310
participants.

Cooperation with Local Environmental Activities
The Miya River, chosen several times as the mostbeautiful river in Japan, ﬂows through Ise City, home to
our Ise Factory. The Ise Factory participated in the
Coordinated Miya Watershed River Check hosted by the
Miyariver Watershed Renaissance Assembly as part ofefforts to protect the beauty of Miya River. Along withlocal residents and other participants, each monthwater quality surveys are performed on the Miyatributaries to cooperate in the conservation of the Miya
River Watershed. We also participate as volunteers once
every three months in cleaning of the riverbanks.

■Tours

Factory Tour (Komaki Factory) Factory Tour (Miyanojo Factory)

Product Advertisement
Spark plugs, one of our major products, ignite the fuelmixture when the engine of an automobile is at work,and after a long period use
they
becomedepleted,
lowering fuel efﬁciency. In
order to communicate theimportance of changing spark
plugs we promote doing so to
improve the environment andfuel consumption with ourcatch phrase, “Change to an
Eco Plug.”
Change to an Eco Plug!

Local Cleaning Activities
The NGK Spark Plug Group regularly implements
cleaning activities in areas around our places ofbusiness, working to conserve the local environment.
We continue to participate in locally hosted cleaning
and beautiﬁcation efforts. In ﬁscal 2008 we participatedin cleaning activities hosted by cities and localorganizations in 6 regions.

web
Times/Events

Participants

Cleaning Activities around Our Business Sites

45 times

Total 944 Participants

Cleaning Activities Hosted by the Region

5 events*

103 Participants

Cleaning activities ineach region
Participation status* One event was participated in by two regions.

Cleaning Activities around Our
Business Location (Ise Factory)

Locally Hosted Cleaning Activity
Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report30

6. Social contribution
As a good corporate citizen, we shall actively engage in philanthropic
activities and other activities of benefit to society.
●We are always keen to join social contribution initiatives such as fund raising by the general business
community for the urgent support of victims of large-scale natural disasters.
●In areas where our production sites are located, we are committed to various types of social contribution
activities whose aim is to enhance communication with the local communities and establish a more
comfortable society.
●We will maintain an environment for encouraging employees to get voluntarily involved in social contribution.

Traffic Safety
As a corporation that is involved with the automobile
industry, trafﬁc safety is fundamental. In addition toraising the awareness of safe operation among our
employees, we also urge persons travelling in thevicinity of our ofﬁce or factory to observe trafﬁc safety.
We also participate in road safety campaigns with local
police departments.
Street Observation

Trafﬁc Safety Campaign■Traffic Safety Education
We implement trafﬁc safety education to prevent
accidents during commuting.
At the Komaki Factory in ﬁscal 2008, we implemented
special education to raise awareness and caution for
employees commuting by motorbikes which have ahigher likelihood of being involved in major accidents.
Trafﬁc Safety Education■Komaki Factory Area Upkeep
The large number of employees commuting to the
Komaki Factory caused trafﬁc jams and resulted in a
local trafﬁc safety issue. In 2007, we relieved the trafﬁcby creating a right-hand turn lane in the T-junction bycontributing land to add to the prefectural andmunicipal roads beside the factory property. To keep
our employees safe as they come and go between two
facilities separated by a busy prefectural road, we
installed a pedestrian bridge, contributing to theconvenience of Komaki citizens as well.

Right-turn Lane

■Miyanojo Factory Area Upkeep
Nittoku Bridge spans the river between the East gate of
the Miyanojo Factory and the national route. By
opening Nittoku Bridge in 2003, we contributed toconvenience of our employees and local citizens alikeand enabled a great improvement in trafﬁc safety.
Nittoku Bridge& Social Report 200931 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Pedestrian Bridge

6

Social contribution

Contribution to Local Communities■Large-scale Natural Disaster Local Support Cooperation
In the event of a large scale disaster, a uniﬁed responseis required of local citizens, businesses and government.
As part of disaster assurance city planning activities,
Nagoya City is advancing its plans in cooperation withlocal businesses to build a disaster resistant city. Alongwith our neighborhood school zone in Mizuho Ward,
Nagoya City, where our head ofﬁce is located, we wrote
up a memorandum of the resources and equipmentthat we can supply in case of a large-scale disaster.
Writing up the Memorandum

Participation in Regional Events■Mizuho Ward Citizen's Festival
In August 2008 Mizuho Ward, Nagoya City, home toour head ofﬁce, hosted the 19th Mizuho Ward Citizens
Festival, in which we participated as a local supporting
business. The event included various environmental
events, implementing an Uchimizu Plan.

Uchimizu
Spreading water ongardens and road, or
the water used to do
so. A Japanesecustom to cool thetemperature in thesummer.

Uchimizu Plan

■Satsuma Town Summer Festival
Satsuma Town, home of our Miyanojo Factory, hosted
the Satsuma Town Summer Festival in August 2008.
The festival featured around 1,000 people dancing intime with the booming beat of Miyanojo Itsutsu Taiko(traditional Miyanojo ﬁve drums). A row ofapproximately 130 people from the Miyanojo Factory
participated, dancing and livening up the festival.

Nittoku Odori Ren■Nenrin-pic Kagoshima 2008
In October 2008, various areas of Kagoshima
Prefectures hosted the National Health and Welfare
Festival Competition in Kagoshima (Nenrin-pic
Kagoshima 2008). The Miyanojo Factory ground wasused as a rugby pitch for an energetic match between
seniors.

National Healthand Welfare
Festival
Nicknamed the“Nenrin-pics.”
Various sports andcultural events forseniors over 60 yearsof age are held at thisfestival.

Nenrin-pic Kagoshima 2008

Support for Foreign Students■Nittoku Asia Student Scholarship Public TrustNGK Spark Plugs is developing business in production
and sales hubs around the world and especially in Asia,
including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea,
Singapore, China, India and the Philippines.
We established a scholarship fund for students from
Asian countries attending universities and graduate
schools in Aichi prefecture celebrate the 70th
anniversary of the foundation of the company inNovember of 2006. In
ﬁscal 2008, the second
year of the program, we
supported nine students.

Investiture

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report32

7. Employees
We shall strive to respect the diversity and individuality of our employees
and foster a safe and excellent working environment where they can realize
their full potential.
●Based on our corporate philosophy (Management policy) that “We offer a working environment in which eachone of us is encouraged to make full use of his or her personality and capability”, we will place emphasis on
the cultivation of unique and cooperative human resources.
●We acknowledge that employees are the most important management resource, and will secure
nondiscrimination and equal opportunities in employment, provide fair working conditions and establish apersonnel system to ensure that people with different qualities can fully realize their own capabilities.
●We will consider the safety and health of employees and provide a comfortable working environment. We will
never get involved in the use of forced labor or child labor in any way.

Personnel System

Act on Employment
Promotion etc. of
Persons with
Disabilities requires
employment of aregulated ratio ofpeople with physicalor mental disabilities
for business
operators. The
regulated
employment ratio for
private industry is
1.8%.

Equal Opportunity
We are working to thoroughly eliminate discrimination
based on race, sex, beliefs, disability and so on in our
recruiting and employment.
As of March 2009 women accounted for 16% of ourpermanent employees. Our employment of disabled
persons is 1.53%, which is below the regulated 1.8%,
so we are striving to improve our employment practices.

Male-female Ratio

Percentage of Employees who are disabled

New Employees(Fiscal 2008)

Permanent Employees
Female16%

Female
20%

Male
84%

Male
80%

2.0
1.81

Employment Rate (%)

Regulated
Employment
Ratio

1.8

1.70

1.71

1.69

1.57

1.6

1.50

1.53

1.41

1.4
1.2
0

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)(As of March 2009)

Work / Life Balance
In order to have employees work healthily and happily, it isimportant to work with a balance between work and homelife. We have distributed a Working Hour Management
Handbook to all our employees to promote taking vacation
and working shorter work hours to reduce the total work
hours per-year.
We have also put in place systems in order to support
employees involved in childcare, nursing, or volunteer

activities and madeefforts to create aworkplace that allows
support of simultaneous
pursuits in addition towork.
Working Hour
Management
Handbook■Schemes to support childcare

Special leave
schemeShort-time work
schemeIt is possible to extend the leave
period when no nursery school
is available, for example.
It is possible to acquirenursing leave for up to 5
Until
entering days a year when nursing
elementary school of a child is required due
to injury or sickness.

To 2 years of age.

Until the end of the It is possible to shorten themonth after entering working hours per day byelementary school
2 hours.

Number of People Using the Leave Schemes
Number of People Using the Leave
Schemes (people)

Childcare leave
scheme

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

2001

2002

2003

Number of employees
taking childcare leave& Social Report 200933 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

No-overtime Day

2004

2005

2006

2007

Number of employees
taking nursing leave

2008(fiscal year)

7
Appropriate Distribution
Our company does not have a regular rotation(distribution rotation) system. This is due to the fact that
we use our accumulated specialized knowledge andexperience to maximize our ability to respond tobusiness opportunities which change daily. We also
implement bi-annual personnel evaluation interviews toseek the opinions of our employees. We have alsoestablished such systems as the job family rotation
system, internal open hiring system and a system toenable female employees to work late at night, towiden the ﬁeld for employees with a desire forchallenge.

Employees

Re-employment System for Ex-employees
In 2001, we are introduced a system of re-employing
employees who retired at the statutory retirement age
in order to effectively utilize the knowledge and skills
they cultivated throughout their careers. In ﬁscal 2008,55 people used this system for a total of 331
re-employed employees.
Along with the enforcement of the revised Act on
Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons in April
2006, we extended the period of re-employment inphases to age 65.
(people)Fiscal 2008
Re-employed employees

55

Total
331

Act onStabilization of
Employment ofElderly Persons
In order to respond to
the progress of therapidly aging society
business operators
must implement oneof the following
measures:(1) raise the age ofcompulsory
retirement(2) introduce a
re-employment
system(3) abolish set
compulsory
retirement age.

Club Activities
We have many different clubs for employees to allow
employees to develop relationships through hobbies
and sports including baseball, soccer, rugby, karate, andthe tea ceremony.
Our rugby club, which is based at the Miyanojo Factory,competed in the All Kyushu Club/Business Rugby
Tournament in November 2008 as the Kagoshima
Prefecture representative and took second place which
was a good reward for the long days of gruelingtraining.

Rugby ClubLife Education
We host seminars to enrich lives and lifestyles.
■Happy Life Seminars
Hosted in coordination with the labor union, theseminars are hosted for employees over 50 years of age.
This is an opportunity to consider their lifestyle healthand ﬁnances after retirement through lectures andgroup discussions. In ﬁscal 2008, 37 people participatedmaking the total participants 1,130 people to date.
Happy Life Seminar■Good Life Seminar
Hosted by the labor union, these seminars are targetedat employees from 38 to 42 years of age. This is an
opportunity to consider the design of their future
lifestyle through presentations. In ﬁscal 2008, 52
people participated for a total participate of 95 people
to date.
Good Life Seminar■New Family Life Seminar
Hosted by the labor union, these seminars are targetedat employees married within the last three years
looking at their future life plan. In ﬁscal 2008, 27
people participated for a total participation of 144
people to date.
Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report34

7

Employees

Labor and Management Relations
Labor andManagement
In this case refers to
the labor union andcorporate
management

Harassment
Includes issues suchas sexual harassment
and power
harassment.

An important mission of labor and management is tocontribute to society at large by offering superior
products and services. We endeavor to ensure that bothlabor and management discharge their responsibilities

in an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation, andcreate a better workplace where employees are moreeager and active.

■Responding to Harassment
In order to protect the rights of employees we aretaking action to prevent harassment with coordination
between labor and management. Sexual harassment
has been banned by the work rules and we areendeavoring to establish a Sexual Harassment

Committee to suppress and prohibit sexual harassment.
Furthermore we have established sexual harassment
advisory centers in each factory to create anenvironment which encourages discussion.

■Labor and Management Conferences
In order to have open communication between labor andmanagement we host regular labor and management
conferences. Sharing corporate information, labor time
reductions, and other issues are discussed and responded
to.

■Greeting Action
In order to begin the day with a good hearty welcome
and return home with a smile, the labor union has
engaged in a Greeting Action. Management andexecutives also participate, speaking with employees aspart of this Greeting Action.

Labor and Management Conferences

Greeting Action

Skill Development
Based on the concept of professional development, wework to develop the skills of our employees. We have
prepared various kinds of training and research with thegoal of gaining knowledge and techniques based onlevels, functions, and business environment.

Ability Training System Diagram
Required education
Level speciﬁctraining

Selective training
Ofﬁce and Technology
sales and research

SkillsApplicantsElective

All roles

Continuing
education

TOEIC (biannually)

All certiﬁcations/functions

International project personnel cultivation scheme
Various language training

Training Experience Center& Social Report 200935 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social ReportIntellectual property education(beginner/basic)

IE training
Understanding drafting diagrams /various equipment training

Happy Life Seminar

Self initiated - English conversation

Correspondence learning support scheme

Each department - product knowledge training

Production
Engineering
centerspecialist
education

Quality assurance department specialist training

Contract /trademark training

New employee
training

Intellectual property education(intermediate)

Health and safety department specialist training

General

Evaluation training

New staff
training

Sectionchief

Fifth year
training

Deputysectionmanager

New section
chief training

SectionmanagerManagerial Staff New
Employee Follow Up Training■Training Experience Center
As a place to learn the manufacturing process, in April
2008 we opened our Training Experience Center.
Employees can experience the joy of making, thedifﬁculty of creating things with precise measurement,
make paperweights while learning how to safely use
tools from veteran employees.

Department
manager /assistant manager

Management
simulation training

OA education, e-learning

Professional Development Concept
Creating employees that advance their work withindependent desire to grow, to state their own
opinion, and positive awareness of being a memberof the Nittoku family.

7

Employees

Occupational Safety and HealthOccupational safety and health is an important issue, close to the corporate life of
employees.
After establishing our Occupational Safety and Health Management System in 2006 wehave taken steps to set goals each year and engage in safety and health activities. Up to thispoint we have not seen a drastic reduction in accidents in our operations but we willcontinue steady efforts in the future.
Our goal is a healthy company as a result of being a safe workplace with a workforce thatis healthy in both body and soul.
Kazuo Kawahara
Executive Vice President,
Chief Safety and Health Administrator

Principle and Basic Policy■Principle
To position occupational safety and health as thestarting point of business activities with respect forpeople as a foundation in our activities.
■Action Guideline
Come to work in good physical and mental health, andgo home at the end of the day with a smile on your(Set in April 2008)
face!
■Slogan for Fiscal 2009
Raise risk awareness and promote accident prevention!

■Occupational safety and health policy● Observe laws and self-standards relating to
occupational safety and health.
● Reduce risks and eliminate work-related accidents bysustained improvement of our occupational safety
and health management and performance.
● Promote employee understanding of policy, andawareness through training and enlightenment, andwidely expand overall participation in occupationalsafety and health activities.
(Set in April 2005)(Set in April 2008)

Occupational Safety and Health Management System
To eliminate occupational hazards and create acomfortable working environment, we haveconstructed an occupational safety and healthmanagement system (OSHMS).
Our system was veriﬁed and certiﬁed of meeting JISHA
OSHMS Standards in December 2006. We promote theappropriate operation of the Occupational Safety and
Health Management System with the goal of improving
our safety and health standards step-by-step.

JISHA OSHMS
Standards

Plan
Survey of danger and toxicity
Drawing up a plan

ActionImproving
the plan

StepwiseDo
improvementof safety and Implementing
the planhealth standards

Check■JISHA OSHMS Standards Certification
Factory nameDate of approval

Head Ofﬁce and Head Ofﬁce Factory

December 11, 2006

Komaki Factory

December 11, 2006

Miyanojo Factory

December 25, 2006

Ise Factory

December 11, 2006

Evaluation of theplan situation

Established andPublished by JISHA(Japan Industrial
Safety and Health
Association). This
standard determines
whether OSHMS isappropriately
introduced based on
the Occupational
Safety and HealthManagement Systemof the Ministry of
Health, Labor andWelfare , andwhether theoccupational safety
and health standards
are beingappropriately
implemented to
improve gradually.

Safety and Health Promotion Organization
President
Chief Safety and Health Adminstrator(Central safety and health committee chairman)

Central safety and healthcommittee

Safety and HealthAdministrator

Factory safety and healthcommittee

Internal Safety and
Health Auditor

OSHMS
Secretariat

Department/section safety
and health subcommittee
Ofﬁce meeting on
safety and healthInternal Auditor Training

Expert committees
・Ad hoc assessment committee
・Trafﬁc safety measures committee
etc.
Organized as necessary

Each factory* Each factory refers to the Head Ofﬁce Factory, Komaki Factory, Miyanojo
Factory, Ise Factory

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report36

7

Employees

Targets and Results
We set the following Goals for ﬁscal 2008. As a result
we slightly reduced occurrences of work-related
accidents, however there was no remarkable effect on
accidents from pinching, impact, or chemical handling.
Additionally some workplaces have not taken sufﬁcientmeasures to improve.
In setting goals for ﬁscal 2009 based on the results ofmeasures and the content of accidents in ﬁscal 2008 we
decided to take action using the goals from ﬁscal 2008.
In order to clarify the reduction to zero of third
management category workplaces by improving thework environment, we revised “reduction” to“elimination.”

Fiscal 2008
Results

Fiscal 2009 Targets

1. Elimination of occupational
accidents

1) Elimination of crushing and striking accidents

×1) Elimination of crushing and striking accidents2) Elimination of accidents caused by chemical handling×2) Elimination of accidents caused by chemical handling

2. Improvement of working
environment1) Reduction of workplaces in the third andsecond management categories

×1) Elimination of workplaces in the third management category andreduction of workplaces in the second management category1) Improved health management awareness○1) Improved health management awareness2) Enhanced mental health care○2) Enhanced mental health care

1) Promotion of safety and health education○

1) Promotion of safety and health education

2) Reinforcing safety and health patrol○

2) Reinforcing safety and health patrol

3) Promoting voluntary activities at the workplace○

3) Promoting voluntary activities at the workplace

Fiscal 2008 Target Results

3. Health promotion
4. Enhanced education andenlightenment○ : Accomplished× : Not accomplished

1. Elimination of Occupational Accidents
Accidents not
requiring a breakfrom work, such as asmall cut requiring
only disinfectant.

Frequency Rate
The frequency of
accidents. Calculatedwith the following
formula.
Frequency Rate
= Number of Accidents ×1 million
Actual Hours of Extended Labor

1) Elimination of Crushing and Striking Accidents
The total number of accidents including“disinfectant accidents” was 13, of which 2 werepinching, and 4 were crushing.
2) Elimination of Accidents Caused by Chemical
Handling
There were 3 accidents related to handling ofchemicals.
In ﬁscal 2008 there were many accidents related tooperations including crushing and slipping, so weare advancing measures to remove dangerous
operations, thoroughly implementing OSHMS risk
evaluation. To reduce accidents caused by lack ofattention, we are working to improve individual
awareness.

■Number of Accidents Resulting In Absence from Work
(Number of Accidents)
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
1

5

2

3

2

1

0.7

8

4

0.64

0.6
0.51

0.5
0.4

0.34

0.38

0.36

0.34

0.39

0.40

0.35

0.37

0.39

0.35

0.3
0.30

0.2

0.20

0.20

0.1
0.10

0.10

0.09

0
2000

2001

2002

NGK Spark Plug. Co, Ltd.

In order to preserve
the health of laborers
and conserve anappropriate
workplace, wemeasure the level ofharmful factors in thework environment
and what level ofharm is caused toworkers. The results
are evaluated into
first, second, or third
categories.

4

Frequency Rate of Absence from Work

1999

Working
Environment
Assessment

1

0.8Frequency Rate of Absence from Work

Disinfectant
Accident

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007 2008(fiscal year)

Electrical Machinery and Appliance
Manufacturing Business

2. Improvement of Working Environment1) Reduction of Workplaces in the Third andSecond Management Categories
Workplaces that handle organic solvents andspeciﬁed chemical substances or generate dust or
signiﬁcant noise implement working environment
assessment based on the Indusrial Safety and HealthAct.
In ﬁscal 2008, all second category and third category
workplaces were categorized on the basis of noise,
and we are taking measures to reduce noise.

& Social Report 200937 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Noise Assessment

Management
category

Working environment
management

Third

Inadequate
workplace

SecondRoom forimprovement

First

Adequate
workplace7

Employees

3. Health Promotion

2) Enhanced Mental Health Care
We are working to have sufﬁcient measures as part of a mental
health specialist committee, establishing a Health Management
Ofﬁce. We expanded the number of people to receive lectures
regarding mental health training. We also installed a phone line
for employees feeling unwell to receive counseling.

Ratio of Employees with Abnormal Findings as a Result of a General Health Check
Ratio of employees with abnormal findings
as a result of a general health check (%)1) Improved Health Management AwarenessSo that all our employees can work with healthy bodies we have set
goals to reduce the number of employees with abnormal ﬁndings
in general health checkups. From ﬁscal 2006, the number ofpeople receiving a blood test increased thereby increasing the ratioof persons with abnormal ﬁndings. On the other hand increased
employee interest and consciousness of health issues saw a reduced
ratio of employees with abnormal ﬁndings in ﬁscal 2008.

40
35.0
32.9

31.7

30

28.5

29.3

2004

2005

20

10

0
2006

2007

2008
(fiscal year)

Mental Health Training

Establishment of a Health Care Division
In order to promote and advance the health of ouremployees we opened a Health Care Division in our
Personnel Department in August 2008. This division is incharge of various kinds of health checkups, managing thehealth of overseas employees, mental health measures,
measures to prevent the spread of new contagions, and soon. They also implement provision of information related
to health and other informing activities for employees.

Health Care Division
Members

Provision of Information in
the Company Newsletter

4. Enhanced Education and Enlightenment1) Promotion of Safety and Health Education
We educate employees in line with their experience andposition such as new employees, third-year employees,
foremen, assistant managers or executives, and also
give education depending on their job descriptions. In
ﬁscal 2008 we introduced new education where people
can experience the danger of workplace accidents.
Focusing on younger employees or those with lessexperience, this is helping to prevent accidents.
We also implement safety training for clients who work
on-site.
2) Reinforcing Safety and Health Patrol
We regularly implement a patrol involving the safety
and health committee, industrial physician and thehealth supervisor. We rapidly improve situations
revealed to have problems with their safety or healthaspects.
3) Promoting Voluntary Activities at the Workplace
We also promote KYT (Kiken Yochi Training, or hazard
protection training) by distributing KYT tools in theworkplace as a fundamental safety and healthy activity.
New employees wear a special hat for one year so that
more experienced employees can be active in supportingthem to prevent injury of the new employees.

Health and Safety Promotion
Committee Training

Training with Safety Sensory
MachineIndustrial
PhysicianA doctor who is
involved in managing
the health of laborers
in workplaces. The
Industrial Safety and
Health Act mandates
companies over acertain threshold hire
an industrial
physician for the
workplace.

PatrolKYT

Safety Inspection

Black Hat Graduation
Ceremony (Miyanojo Factory)

Stands for Kiken
Yochi Training, or
hazard prevention
training. In order toprevent accidents or
injury employees aretrained to predict andindicate dangers
involved in theirlabor.

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report388. Civil Society
We shall reject all contacts with organizations involved in activities inviolation of the law or accepted standards of responsible social behavior.
●We will take a strict stance on pressure from violent civil intervention, and decisive steps in cooperation withlaw enforcement agencies.

Smooth Operation of Corporate Activities
In order to smoothly operate our corporate activities,
preventing illegal activities or undue claims fromantisocial forces, we set a Corporate Protection Manual.
In response to sophisticated methods, we strengthen

corporate protection by increasing the problem-solving
ability and knowledge of each individual employee.

9. Cultural Respect
We shall respect the cultures and the customs of local communities where we
do business and strive to manage our activities throughout the world in sucha way as to promote and contribute to the development of local communities.
●We will perform our overseas business activities based on mutual trust with our customers, suppliers,
employees, etc., and not only comply with the laws of each country but also respect its culture, customs andhistory.
●We will train to utilize local employees and suppliers in order to be a trustworthy company and a part of local
society.

Respect for Culture and Customs
PolandOccupational
Health and
Safety Contest
The labor bureau in
Poland hosts thiscontest. Many factors
are inspected andmeasured against
occupational safety
standards and labor
law including
corporate operation,
hiring standards,
employment andlabor contracts, andsafe and proper
operation ofmachinery andfacilities.

Our company strives to be a company which respects local society and culture and is respected as a member ofregional society.
■NTK Technical Ceramics Polska Sp.zo.o.
■Siam NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.
Siam NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. was established in 1976
NTK Technical Ceramics Polska was established whenand is involved in the production and sales of spark
Poland entered the EU in 2004 to produce ceramicplugs, glow plugs, and plug caps, as well as sales oftools.
oxygen sensors.
In the Poland Occupational Health and Safety Contest
Situated in a strongly Buddhist region, Siam NGK Sparkin November 2008 it was the ﬁrst time for a Japanese
Plug Co., Ltd. follows local customs by worshiping atcompany to win an award (the top three receive anshrines. At New Years and other special days we bringaward) in the medium-sized company category (51 to
an offering and pay respects to the shrine all together.
250 employees), and we were included in a book about
great companies of Poland. We will continue to work tocontribute to Polish society.

Award Ceremony& Social Report 200939 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Visiting the Shrine

10. Ethics
Management shall exercise leadership in making the letter and spirit of the Code of Conduct
integral to everyday business practice, thoroughly implementing the Code of Conduct
throughout the Company and inculcating it throughout the Group and its supply chain. To thisend, management shall continually improve internal systems while striving to cultivate ethics.

8910

Civil Society
Cultural Respect
Ethics●Our top management will lead by example in the group's code of conduct, and take the initiative in cultivating,establishing and spreading a corporate culture of encouragement for ethical actions.
●Through the enrichment of opportunities for direct communication with employees, etc. and the expansion of
in-house education, our top management will strongly encourage each member of NGK Spark Plug Group to
be aware of and practice the code of conduct.
●Our ultimate target is the creation and establishment of a united organization with an ethical corporate culture
based on the participation of all employees.

CSR Activities
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd. desires to be a company thathas the trust of all stakeholders, as in our catch phrase,“a corporation liked and loved by the people of theworld.”To realize this goal, we must having all directors andemployees understand and correctly practice thecomponents of our corporate philosophy, namely“Commitment”, “Management Policy” and “Action
Guideline.”

In order to accomplish this we set our Corporate Codeof Conduct to indicate our basic stance. In November
2004 we published the Code of Conduct Guidebook,clarifying our standards of appropriate action anddecision-making. We also work to increase knowledgeof ethics through internal training for executives andemployees. We will endeavor to cultivate ethics throughimplementation and permeation of the code of
conduct.

CSR
Corporate Social
Responsibility■Steps towards CSR
Nov. 1996

Adopted “Corporate Philosophy”

Feb. 1998

Adopted “Corporate Code of Conduct”

Apr. 1998

Established Ethical Committee

Feb. 2003

Adopted “Corporate Ethics Helpline System Operation Guidelines”

Nov. 2004
Apr. 2005
Aug. 2005

Revised “Corporate Code of Conduct”
Published “Code of Conduct Guidebook”
Published “Guidelines on the Handling of Personal Information”
Established Export Control Committee
Adopted “Export Management Regulations”

Jan. 2007

Published “Conﬁdentiality Management Guidelines”

Feb. 2007

Adopted “Conﬁdentiality Management Regulations”

Sep. 2008

Established Internal Audit Ofﬁce

Apr. 2009

Determined our “Corporate Protection Manual”

Code of Conduct Guidebook

You can view the following reports on our website.
・Environmental & Social Report 2009 and the 2000 to 2008 editions
・Each regional Site Report 2009 and the 2006 to 2008 editions (Japanese Only)

ECOrepor t2000

ECOrepor t2001

ECOrepor t2002

ECOrepor t2003

ECOrepor t2004

ECOrepor t2005

http://www.ngkntk.co.jp/english/environment/

Envir onment al &Social R epor t 2006

Envir onment al &Social R epor t 2007

Envir onment al &Social R epor t 2008

Envir onment al &Social R epor t 2009

Detailed information that did not make it into
this document can be found on the website.

Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report40

Stakeholder Message
First appearing among the country ﬁelds in 1962, theKomaki Factory has grown to its present state without
falter. The turning of the seasons has seen thedisappearance of the ﬁelds that once surrounded it and achanging environment I’ve experienced as one living
nearby. With the focus turning to the environment in the
1980s and the establishment of international
environmental ISO standards in 1996 to the degree that it
is said that it is impossible to develop a business without
overcoming environmental problems, NGK Spark PlugCo., Ltd. has taken action, early establishing anenvironmental management system.

By continuing to standwith the Environmental
Declaration, and theongoing developmentof the PDCA cycle, I
believe the company
will put great efforts
towards contributing
to local society.
Osamu Nagai
Komakihara Genkawa Block Leader

Third Party Examination
The NGK Spark Plug Group prepares this Environmental
and Social Report based on our policy of conducting
information disclosure in a correct and simple manner.
This Environmental & Social Report 2009, based on thatpolicy, underwent third party examination by TÜV
Rheinland Japan Ltd. to verify that it expresses

information correctly and inclusively. This inspection
veriﬁed the following: important environmental
information is reported without omission, the data iscorrectly measured and calculated and the included
information agrees with the source materials.

Undergoing a Third Party Examination
With the goal of sufﬁcient disclosure of information
using our website, the Environmental and Social Report
2009 was evaluated taking into account the ease ofreading for the reader, from adding explanation
sidebars to a fresh design down to the letters. We also
received rigorous feedback, such as questioning
whether we were sufﬁciently meeting stakeholder
expectations with weaker expression of value as anenvironmental brand, or requests to disclose ourmeasures and their results as a global enterprise.
Areas where we received advice regarding omission and& Social Report 200941 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Reportinsufﬁcient expression have already been edited. For
items that take a longer period of time to accommodate
we are working toaddress those issues
and improve the report.

Editorial MeetingResults of questionnaire concerning Environmental and Social Report 2008
Thank you for sending us all your answers to the questionnaire in “Environmental and Social Report 2008” published inﬁscal 2008. We take your opinions seriously and are working to implement even more thorough information disclosure.
reading our Environmental and Social Report
Q1 Before
2008, how much did you know about NGK Spark Plugeasy did you ﬁnd our Environmental and Social
Q2 How
Report 2008 to understand?

Group's environmental policy or activities?
Nothing5%

Difficult0%Insufficient0%

Reasonably easy
18%

A lot 37%

Poor 0%
Too much17%

Normal28%

Easy 82%

Satisfied 83%

Good 72%[Overall][Amount of Information][Design]

A little
58%

Corporate Profile
Corporate Name NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.
Head Ofﬁce

14-18 Takatsuji-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya

Foundation

October 26, 1936

Capital47,869,270,000 yen

Business

Group Companies

did you ﬁnd particularly interesting?
Q3 What(Top four)

10%(1) Manufacturing and selling spark
plugs and related products for internalcombustion engines.

● Message from President: Seeking a sustainable society(2) Manufacturing and selling new
ceramics and applicable products.

● 6. Social contribution

37 subsidiaries (11 in Japan, 26 overseas),
7 afﬁliates

check the box or boxes that best describe yourQ4 Pleasesituation and position.

● 5. Environmental conservation - Factory/Ofﬁce

5%● 5. Environmental conservation - Products

5%

Q5 Have you read any of our previously issued reports?

& Social Report 2009
1 Environmental
NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report

Stock holder/investor
70%

Business/organization, or Working in CSR/
environmental affairs

have any other comments or requests regarding
Q6 Ifouryouenvironmental
activities, please write them here.
● I would like to see more information disclosure about
management and social activities.
(Response) We reviewed and sought to fill out ourgovernance and compliance related content.

Yes, every year
21%

No, this was my first time42%

● I would like to see more information related to therelationship between products and the environment.
I expect environmental technologies such as products
supporting green energy.
(Response) We included development status offuel cell technology on page 22.

Yes, occasionally37%

Request to answer the questionnaire
Thank you for reading through our Environmental and Social Report 2009. For the further improvement of this report, we
kindly ask you to fill in the foldout questionnaire.

F A X : +81 52-872-5942
e-mail : eco@mg.ngkntk.co.jp
Personal information
protection policy

We will only use your personal information to delivery next year's report to you. Even when we publish the results of thisquestionnaire, we will not show it in a form in which the respondents can be identiﬁed.

■Contact
Ofﬁce or factory

Contact (Department/Phone number)Ofﬁce or factory

Contact (Department/Phone number)

General Administration Dept.

+81 52-872-5915

Iijima Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 265-86-5211

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 52-872-5980

Nakatsugawa Ceramic Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 573-68-5300

Komaki Factory

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 568-76-1544

Kani Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 574-63-2511

Miyanojo Factory

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 996-53-2211

Nansei Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 599-65-3366

Ise Factory

Environment and Safety Management Dept.

+81 596-39-1534

Kamioka Ceramic Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 578-82-1112

Nittoku Seisakusho Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 52-811-3921

Nichiwa Kiki Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 52-382-0511

Tono Ceramic Co., Ltd.

General Administration Dept.

+81 574-63-1031

Ceramic Sensor Co., Ltd. General Administration Dept.

+81 568-76-5400

Tokai Taima Kogu Co., Ltd. Operation Dept.

+81 52-794-6321

Head ofﬁce / Factory* In October 2009 Iijima Ceramic Co., Ltd., Nakatsugawa Ceramic Co., Ltd., and Kani
Ceramic Co., Ltd. are scheduled to merge and become NTK Ceramic Co., Ltd.

Affiliates[Publishing Director] Norio Kato,
Chief Environment Administrator[Editor in Chief]
Yoshihide Kami,
General Manager of theEnvironment & Safety Management
Department[Published]
October 2009
[Next Publication Schedule] October 2010

Business associate

Other

NGK Spark PlugCo., Ltd.

http://www.ngkntk.co.jp/english/environment/ecoreport.html

Customer

NGK Spark Plug Group employee,family member, or ex-employee

Editorial Policy
Easily Understood
This report has been prepared based on our corporate
code of conduct (page 6) with the aim of clearly
describing the concepts, mechanisms, and results of
our activities.
Importance and CompletenessWe have given consideration to the importance andcompleteness of the content of this document giving
reference to the“Environmental Reporting guidelines(2007 version)” issued by the Ministry of theEnvironment of Japan.
Trustworthy
We have worked to improve the trustworthiness of the
document by undergoing third party examination, andverifying items including the correctness, neutrality, andveriﬁability of the content.
Application of Website
We placed detailed information on our website. Places
where you can look up detailed information on thewebsite are marked with this mark:. Please view thewebsite data as well. Information not marked with a
URL within this document can be viewed in theEnvironmental and Social Report at our download
corner.

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Environmental & Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group Environmental and Social Report42

Environmental &Social Report 2009

Environmental &Social Report 2009NGK Spark Plug Group

14-18 Takatsuji-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8525, Japan
http://www.ngkntk.co.jp■Inquiries about this report:■
Environment & Safety Management Department,
Production Engineering Center,
Engineering Research and Development GroupTEL:+81 52-872-5980 FAX:+81 52-872-5942
e-mail:eco@mg.ngkntk.co.jp

VOC Free【During the preparation of this report】
The purchase of the materials (paper, ink, etc.) comprising this report, and also editing and printing related to thisreport, were carried out by an ISO14001-certiﬁed company. Also, the materials (paper, ink, etc.) used do not containcadmium, lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), or polybrominated diphenyl ether(PBDE).

We promote green purchasing for printing services.

Plate making: A CTP (Computer To Plate) method was used. As a result, ﬁlm and also developing ﬂuid and ﬁxing ﬂuid accompanying
the manufacture of the ﬁlm were rendered unnecessary, thus reducing the consumption of resources and also waste.
Ink:

Ink that does not contain VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) was used to minimize the generation of VOC. This ink also
conforms to the “voluntary regulations (NL regulations) concerning ink”, which are voluntary regulations of the printing
ink industry joint association.

Paper:We used paper approced by FSC (Forest Stewardship Counsel). This contributes to the conservation of the world's
ongoing forestation.

Printing:

We incorporated a printing method that does not use dampening solutions. No volatile organic compounds (isopropyl
alcohol) were used.