4. Environment Preservation Initiatives

Ozone Layer
Protection

Organic Chlorides
Control of ChemicalSubstances

Industrial Wasteand Recycling

Coexistence with
Global Environment

Energy Conservation andGlobal Warming Prevention

Education and Training
Acquisition of ISO
14001 Certificate

61) Industrial Waste and Recycling♦ Industrial Waste
In 1993, a target was set up "to reduce the industrial waste as of FY 1992 by 30% by FY 2000". The target was achieved inFY 1995 through energetic activities of every Works focusing on the recycling of plastic waste, so that it was upgraded"to reduce the industrial waste as of FY 1995 by 40%, which corresponds to a 60% as of FY 1992, by FY 2002".
In addition, during the two years starting from 1997, the reduction program has been promoted by company-wide promotion teams to achieve further reduction. Hereafter, the program will be promoted through a systematic activity within
the framework of the EMS (environmental management system) of each Works as well as through penetration of reduction technologies across the company to realize the 3Rs (reduce, re-use, recycle). The benchmarks for the realization
are elimination of landfill waste in the first stage, upgrading gradually to zero emission of industrial waste in the laststage.
Countermeasures that are identified as major contributors to industrial waste reduction include the recycling of plastic
waste, concentration and volume reduction of used oil, and the recycling of used acids and alkalis, sludge, used wood,and waste paper.

Changes in the amount of industrial waste
140
The first target set up

Industrial waste index

120

The second target set up
Promotion teams started

100
80

The first target

60

The second target

40
2001990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002♦ Recycling
Although the recycling rate of Furukawa Electric has been improving year by year, it stagnated below 60% in FY 1999,
thereby leaving ample room for further improvement. By category, used oil and sludge that account for a greater portion
show a very low level of recycling. Furukawa intends, therefore, to focus on the emission reduction of these items
together with the upgrading of their recycling rates hereafter.
When it comes to wire and cable, i.e., the company's mainstay products, Furukawa has long been successful in establishing a recycling system, in which Zaiko Inc., a 100% subsidiary of Furukawa Electric, has been engaged in disassembling used cables to recycle metals from cable conductors and plastics from cable insulators.

Changes in recycling rate

Recycling rate (%)

10080

Used oil
Used plastics
SludgeUsed acids and alkalis
Used paper and wood
Total

60
402001995

1997

1999

1998

Note
The rate of recycling takes into account valuables and in-house reuse (limited to the goods processed outside the company).

72) Energy Conservation and Global Warming Prevention♦ Progress, Structure, and Target of Energy Conservation
Furukawa Electric has been making every effort to save energy, since the company basically belongs, with its energy
cost accounting for a large portion of the total cost, to energy intensive industries.
In 1974, the year of an oil crisis, promotion teams were organized across the company, achieving an energy conservation of 20% within five years. The achievements were evaluated, on a manufacturing-section basis, using an energy conservation index which was derived by comparing the result of a standard formula with actual results.
The second term of energy conservation started in 1980 with new promotion teams of entirely replaced members, thusachieving an energy conservation of 17% during the seven years until 1987.
In 1997, Furukawa's proprietary management system using energy conservation index was modified into the energy
intensity per unit product system based on the Energy Conservation Law, whereby the target was set to be a 1% reduction over the previous year in terms of energy intensity per unit product.
♦ Achievements of Energy Conservation for FY 1999
Last year, energy conservation attained to more than 2% in terms of energy intensity per unit product thanks to theprogress in energy conservation measures together with a high operation volume. Concerning energy conservation
investment, a high-performance industrial furnace was introduced in FY 1999 succeeding FY 1998 under the subsidy
from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization(NEDO). Moreover, waste-heat boilers
were introduced to the existing diesel generators, and inverters were extensively installed on pumps and blowers.
Regarding global warming gas reduction, on the other hand, the CO2 impact increased by 3% over the previous year,
rendering the emission volume comparable to that of FY 1990.
Thus, although the energy conservation program has made good progress, the reduction of emission per se has notbeen accomplished due to the increase of energy intensive products and operation volume.
♦ Energy-Conservation Activities in Future
Furukawa intends to formulate a control criterion that conforms to the Energy Conservation Law, thereby making
efforts to achieve a reduction of 5% or more in energy intensity per unit product in five years.
Regarding the reduction of global warming gas impact, introduction of co-generation energy systems is being studied,since it is estimated that reduction efforts in terms of energy intensity per unit product only are insufficient to achieve
the reduction target.

Changes in energy intensity per unit product
Energy intensity per unit product(arbitrary scale)

1.05
1.00

1

0.99

0.99
0.98
0.96

0.95

0.95

0.94

0.93

0.90
0.85
0.80
1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

Track records of global warming CO2 gas emission
Relative value over FY 1990

1.1
1.0

1.04
10.98

0.99

1990

1995

1996

0.97

1.00

1998

1999

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5819973) Organic Chlorides
A voluntary plan for reduction activity has been set up to reduce the atmospheric emission of three organic chloridesdichloromethane, trichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene-by 50% by FY 1999 over FY 1995, taking into account theimpact of the use on the labor and social environments as well as the growing importance of the impact. As a result,however, the activity ended unsuccessfully achieving a 30% reduction.
For FY 2000, the target was revised anew as shown below to make further reduction.
1) To reduce the atmospheric emission by 50% by FY 2000 over FY 1995
2) To eliminate the three substances by FY 2002

Changes in the atmospheric emission of organic chlorides
Atmospheric emission index

140

Dichloromethane
Trichloroethylene
Tetrachloroethylene
Total

120
10080

The index means a relativevalue as against theemission volume of FY
1995 taken as 100.
The index for FY 2000 is aplanned value.

60402001995

1996

1997

1998

1999

20004) Ozone Layer Protection
Furukawa Electric has been engaged in the reduction of ozone layer depletion substances based on the strenuous
efforts of project teams that started in 1989. As a result, specified CFCs and trichloroethane used in manufacturing
processes were completely eliminated by the end of FY 1995.

5) Control of Chemical Substances
In April 2000, the PRTR (pollutant release and transfer register) law came into force thus tightening the control of chemical substances. Prior to this enforcement, Furukawa Electric was already promoting reduction programs against chemical substances, focusing on organic chlorides, through an active participation to the PRTR research program sponsoredby the Federation of Economic Organizations, thereby announcing to the public the emission and transfer volumes ofchemical substances at every Works.
As of FY 1998, the chemical substances that Furukawa is using amount to 23 in species, 2490 tons/year in handling volume, and 641 tons/year in the emission and transfer volume, including major substances as shown in the table below.
Furukawa intends to actively promote the reduction program of not only the emission and transfer volume, but also thehandling volume of these substances without limiting to organic chlorides.

Chemical substance

Emission & transfer volume(tons/year)

Handling volume (tons/year)

Toluene374609Dichloromethane101122

Trichloroethylene

8080

Xylenes

22603

Chlorine

12167

Others52909

6412490

Total96) Acquisition of ISO 14001 Certificate
Recognizing early the importance of an environmental management system, Furukawa Electric has been constructing
such a system of its proprietary design, so that when an international standard for environmental management system
was established, the company began to tackle the certificate acquisition for ISO 14001.
In 1998, the Chiba and Mie Works acquired the certificate. These Works are the composite production basis comprisedof a variety of plants for such products as electric wire and cable needless to say, optical components, automobile components, aluminum products, and copper products. Thus, based on this acquisition experience, Furukawa plans toextend the acquisition program across the company, in which three Works are due for acquisition in FY 2000, followedby the rest of all the 11 Works including laboratories by FY 2002.
Acquisition year

Works / Laboratories

Certification Agency

Certificate No.

1998

Chiba Works

DNV

EMCS-1208

1998

Mie Works

JACO

EC98J1097

2000

Hiratsuka, Kambara, Osaka

2001

Shinagawa, Nikko, Fukui

2002

Shiga, Oyama, Yokohama

7) Education and Training
Commitment of individual employees is essential for environment preservation activities to be successful, in addition toorganized corporate activities. To this end, Furukawa is carrying out employee education by preparing a lot of educational materials including those on the Intranet so as to enhance the awareness of individual employees.
Lecturer

Frequency

New employee

In-house lecturer

At entrance to the company

General employee

In-house lecturer

Whenever necessary

Managerial class

In-house lecturer

Whenever necessary

In-house inspector

In-house lecturer/Outside lecturer

Whenever necessary

In-house lecturer

Twice a year

Subject of education

Personnel in charge of safety and health10