Environmental Report

2005

Contents
Editorial Policy

2

Business Bases Covered by this Report

Message

3

Environmental Performance5

Targets and Performance of Environmental Management

6

Environmental Management Activities

7

Impact on the Environment by Furukawa Electric8

Zero-Emission Activities

9

Prevention of Global Warming

10

Chemical Substance Management

11

Green Activities

12

Recycling Activities

13

Eco-Design Activities

14

Environmental Risk Management

15

Environmental Accounting

17

Environmental Preservation Performance Indicators

18

Social Performance

19

Social Contribution Activities

20

Human Resources, Safety, Health and Compliance

21

Environmental Education and Enlightenment Activities

23

Environmental Performance of the Works

24

Environmental Performance of Affiliated Companies

27

Progress in Environmental Management30

1Editorial Policy
This brochure reports on the environmental preservation activities of the Furukawa ElectricGroup in fiscal 2004. In addition to the articles covered last year, this report has included
compliance activities. The environmental impact data for Furukawa Electric alone, and also
the data of its group companies are provided, so that the situation of the entire Group can be
grasped. In addition, concrete examples of the activities of Furukawa Electric, and the scaleof the environmental impact of its non-production bases are provided, to make the activities
of Furukawa Electric and its Group easier to read and understand.
In compiling this report, we have made reference to the Environmental Reporting
Guidelines (Fiscal Year 2003 version) published by the Ministry of the Environment, as well as
the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines 2000 published by Global Reporting Initiative.

Business Bases Covered by this Report
1. All the business bases of Furukawa ElectricChiba works Nikko works Hiratsuka works Mie works Osaka works
Kambara works Shinagawa works Yokohama R&D Laboratories
Kambara works was closed in March 2005, but it continued its manufacturing operation until
December 2004. In this report, we have included its activities up to that time.
2. Affiliated companies
Access Cable Company
Asahi Electric Works Co., Ltd.
Furukawa Logistics Corporation and 35 other companies(Company names are described on page 7)*1) In this report, when “Furukawa Electric” is mentioned, it refers to the business bases of the item, 1. above
When “the Furukawa Electric Group” is mentioned, it refers to the business bases of the items 1 and 2 above(excluding pages 27 to 29).
*2) The business bases covered by this report are different to the previous report, due to the changes in thegroup companies. Therefore, the environmental impact data for Furukawa-Sky Aluminum Corp. is retroactively
extracted from the data of Furukawa Electric, and is included in the data of affiliated companies, as data for
Furukawa-Sky Aluminum Corp. For other companies, data is provided both for newly covered business bases
for fiscal 2004, and also for the business bases that had been traditionally covered.

Period Covered
From April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005
Information regarding past events and fiscal 2005 is partially included.

Enquiries and further information
Safety, Environment & Quality Promotion Department
The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.
TEL +81-3-3286-3090
FAX +81-3-3286-3540

Reorganization and alliance of electric power division during this period
The electric power division of The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. integrated with VISCAS
Corporation and Furukawa Industrial Cable Co., Ltd. on January 1, 2005 to create the new
VISCAS Corporation and Furukawa Electric Industrial Cable Co., Ltd. Considering the large
environmental impact of these divisions that significantly affects annual data counting, we
compiled the data for these divisions to be included in the conventional works to which eachdivision belonged to, carrying out the data counting on a full year basis up to the end of
March.
Also Shinagawa works has changed its nam e to the Head Office VISCAS due to thereorganization, but it is using the name as of April 2004 in this report and is covered by
Furukawa Electric solely.

2Message“The Furukawa Electric Group”
will thoroughly promote environmentally friendly
activities and achieve continuous growth.
Although Furukawa Electric faces harsh conditions,
we are working on reorganizing our businesses and making proper adjustments to our workforce, with the aim of
becoming a creative and outstanding global enterprise.
In April 2004, we reformed our management system byintroducing a company system that is responsible for thebusiness operations of individual divisions, and we introduced a chief officer system at our Head Office. We havealso strived to establish a scheme to continuously produce
a profit, by securely strengthening our manufacturing andhuman resources development, which are to be the foundation of our Group, paying attention to actual places andactual items. Furthermore, by having chief officers as a
responsible person, we will thoroughly promote activities
throughout the company that not only strengthen our sales
force, improve our productivity, promote research anddevelopment, and develop our human resources, but also
eliminate defects and accidents and give consideration to
the environment.
For environmental activities, Furukawa Electric, incooperation with its associated group companies, has continuously worked to reduce its environmental impact andincrease its resource capabilities, once it has clarified thelevels and timings that it seeks to achieve, aiming to realizea “recycling-oriented society.” In addition, we have actively
carried out environmental risk reducing activities, including
managing the chemical substances contained in our products and carrying out ground pollution investigation.
The relationship between corporations and society has
diversified, and in order to respond to the demands placedon us as a member of society, we need to carry out activities with due consideration for society, and so we started
by setting up a Compliance Committee and establishedsome Action Guidelines, to ensure employees practicecompliance and follow a code of conduct. We also gave
consideration to the safety and promotion of health of
our employees. Each works has continuously worked onstrengthening the trust of the local community, by contributing to it, checking that exhaust gases and wastewater
meet the laws and regulations and thoroughly managing
waste. For social contribution activities, in particular, we
carried out relief support activities in relation to the earthquake that occurred off Sumatra Island on December 26,
2004.
Furukawa Electric returned to profitability in fiscal 2004,
after an interval of three years, and we believe that a pathfor the revival of Furukawa Electric has come into sight.
We will work on further improvement with an indomitable
determination. We hope that our readers will understandthe environmental and social activities of Furukawa Electricand give us your continued support and cooperation.

Hiroshi Ishihara

President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer

Company Policy of Furukawa Electric Group
Basic Management Policy Our Vision• Have a high regard for our customers• Value our employees and bring out thebest in them
• Proactively adopt new technologies thatharness creativity

Pursuing technology innovation and aiming for a creative and highly profitable company with a stronger global presence3

Management Policy• Practice of responsive management• Orientation toward profit• Creation of new products and market
opportunities• Growing development of global management• Continuous promotion of structuralreform• Strengthening of consolidated management

Furukawa Electric Basic Environmental Policy[Basic Policy]
Furukawa Electric recognizes that preservation of the global environment is a critical issue for society,and shall incorporate consideration of environmental preservation issues into every phase of corporate
activity, to contribute to advancement of a sustainable, happy and prosperous society.

[Action Guidelines]● All activities shall be based on an awareness of its effect on the global environment, and environmental
preservation activities shall be pursued by all employees.
● We shall observe environmental laws and regulations and requirements from our customers, and set
up voluntary standards to upgrade control levels.
● We shall define environmental targets and objectives, and carry out activities according to this plan,
thereby continuously improving environmental preservation activities.
● Environmental concerns shall be taken into consideration in every phase of our work from the R&D anddesign stages to supply environmentally friendly products.
● In every phase of procurement, manufacturing, distribution and customer service we shall work to
reduce consumption of resources and energy, to promote recycling, and to reduce waste materials
and the impact on the environment.
● We shall carry out environmental audits, and review our environmental management system and environmental preservation activities for continuous improvement.
● We shall educate all employees to enhance their environmental awareness, and promote disclosure of
information and social communication, thereby actively contributing to community activities.

Furukawa Electric and its affiliated com-ket, including a porous pipe for irrigation

Here we present an environmental

panies have continuously promoted envi-that is made from recycled cross-linked

report summarizing the activities we con-ronmental preservation activities, aiming

polyethylene, a reflow oven that uses lead-ducted in fiscal 2004. We hope that ourto achieve a “recycling-oriented society.”

free solder, a mechanical sleeve that can be

stakeholders will have a deeper under-

Since these activities also relate to cor-easily removed from concrete and reused,

standing of the activities of Furukawa

porate activities such as production anda halogen-free electric wire for lighting

Electric and its associated group of compa-

sales, we have comprehensively worked on

equipment, and a copper alloy substituting

nies, with respect to environmental preser-

all our activities in conjunction with reduc-the use of beryllium copper. We have suc-vation, and we hope that they will pass on

ing costs, procuring materials, applying

cessfully conducted a 500 meter on-site

to us their frank opinions and suggestions.

technology in our plants, improving quality

electric power transmission test of a “high-and carrying out safety and health manage-

temperature superconducting power cable”

ment.

currently under development. This achieve-

Our main businesses cover a wide

ment is the highest-level in the world, andrange of areas including copper products,

when we put it to practical use, we expect

power and telecommunication cables,that it will contribute to solving the energy

electronics and automotive systems andproblem and preventing global warming.

industrial products. We carry out research

At manufacturing sites we have continu-

and development to increase the ratio of

ously carried out activities to reduce thenew products in each of these areas, andimpact on the environment and we have

aim to improve profitability and increase

worked on reducing waste disposal costs,

growth potential by creating, in particular,

which has yielded excellent results. This“creative new products that capture new

was brought about by the thorough sorting

markets.” Environmentally friendly prod-of waste and reusing it. We will continue

ucts called ECOLINK have become one

to work to reduce waste, the emission ofof our development pillars. This year wegreenhouse gases and the emission oflaunched a variety of products on the mar-chemical substances.

4

Michitoyo Kurokawa

Director in charge of environment
Director, Member of the Board
and Chief Production Officer

E nvironmental Performance
Environmental Performance
Furukawa Electric and its group have had a long lasting involvement in the proactive recycling of copper andaluminum, and the recovery and reuse of plastics, while
focusing on developing environmentally friendly products.
We are working hard to preserve the global environmentand conserve its resources.

5

Targets and Performance of Environmental Management
Furukawa Electric has set target standards to be reached by fiscal 2005 for each activity in the Medium-Term Planfor Environmental Preservation Activities 2005, and has promoted these activities since fiscal 2003. In addition,
Furukawa Electric and its group have set common activity targets for consolidated environmental management
to promote these activities. These targets are broken down into targets for each fiscal year, and linked to concrete action items. We plan to formulate the next medium-term targets for fiscal 2009 at the end of fiscal 2005.

Performance in Fiscal 2004
Furukawa Electric set the annual target of “Priority Environmental
Preservation Activity Targets for
Fiscal 2004”, and these targets were
deployed in the objective, targets andprograms under the environmental
management system for the individual business bases, to promotethese activities. Our affiliated companies also set their unique targets
with respect to the common activity
targets of the consolidated environmental management and promoted
their activities.

■ Priority Environmental Preservation Activity Performance in Fiscal 2004
Item

TargetPerformance

40% reduction compared to ﬁscal
Reduction of industrial waste
58% reduction
2000
50% reduction compared to ﬁscal
Zero-emission activities
83% reduction
2000
Achieving the same emissions as the
Reduction of greenhouse gases
222,000 tons or a reduction of 2%previous ﬁscal year (227,000 tons)
Energy intensity per unit product: 1% 9% reduction compared to ﬁscal 1999
Energy-conservation activities reduction compared to the previous A 3 percentage point increase comparedﬁscal year
to the previous ﬁscal year
Reduction of chemical efﬂuents 52% reduction over ﬁscal 2000
46% reduction
Promotion of procurement of 23
Grasping the procurement ratio for applicable supplies
Promotion of procuring green general commodity items
products and supplies
Investigating 100% of the products
Investigated 79% of the vendors
purchased from major vendors
Information exchange including meetings
Reinforcement of consolidated Policy formulation and invigoration of and visits
environmental management
group activities
Holding of environmental seminars
Eco-design activities
Modeling toward introduction of LCA Collection of basic data

Evaluation










: Comfortably achieved, : Achieved, : Slightly underachieved, ×: Underachieved

Targets in Fiscal 2005
Fiscal 2005 is the final year of the Medium-Term Plan forEnvironmental Preservation Activities 2005 and the common
targets of Consolidated Environmental Management, andtherefore the items and targets have been made consistent

with those of the medium-term targets. Individual businessbases and individual companies will adopt these targets intheir respective environmental management activities andplan to promote their own activities.

Targets of Furukawa Electric

Targets of Consolidated Environmental Management■ Reduction of industrial waste■ Zero-emission activities

50% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000
60% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000

■ ISO14001 certiﬁcationacquisition■ Reduction of greenhouse gases

Reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions:
Achieving the performance of the previous ﬁscal year
Energy intensity per unit product:
1% reduction compared to the previous
ﬁscal year

■ Reduction of industrial
waste
Reduction of industrial waste
Zero-emission activities(direct landﬁll quantity)■ Energy-conservation activities■ Reduction of greenhousegases
CO2 emission
Use of HFC and PFC
Emission of SF6 into theatmosphere■ Reduction of chemical efﬂuents 54% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000
(targeted substances: Toluene, Xylene, Ethyl benzene)■ Promotion of procuring green
products

Procurement ratio for 23 general supplies including ofﬁce supplies / 100%

■ Eco-design activities

Modeling toward introduction of LCA■ Promotion of consolidated environmental management

Policy formulation and invigoration ofgroup activities

Certiﬁcation acquisition by all thecompanies

30% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000
50% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000

5% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000
Complete elimination
50% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000

50% reduction compared to ﬁscal 2000
■ Reduction of chemical efﬂuents(targeted substances: hazardous organic chlorine compounds)

6

E

nvironmental Performance

Environmental Management Activities
At Furukawa Electric, the Director in charge ■ Organization Chart for Company-Wide Environmental Managementof the environment acts as the Chairman ofPresident
the Central Committee for Environmental
Committee for Company-Wide Promotion ofManagement, which has been set up to promote
Energy Conservation
environmental preservation activities for the entire
Central Committee forcompany. In addition, Furukawa Electric is proEnvironmental Management
Committee for Development ofmoting the Group’s environmental preservation
Environmentally-Friendly Products
activities in conjunction with its affiliated comSafety, Environment and Quality Promotion Dept.
panies at the Liaison Meeting for Consolidated
Environmental Management. We have been trying to acquire certification, since schemes basedon ISO14001 would be very
Committee for Greeneffective for carrying out enviProduct Management
Environment Committee of Works
Divisional Environment Committeeronmental preservation activities at the individual business
Environmental Personnel Meetingbases of Furukawa Electric andExpert Committee
its affiliated companies.
Liaison Meeting for Consolidated
Energy Conservation Committee,
Environmental Management

Industrial Waste Committee■ ISO14001 Certification at Furukawa Electric
Works

Date of Acquisition Certifying Organization

Certiﬁcation Number

Chiba

June 18, 1998

DNV

1208-1998-AE-KOB-RvA

Mie

November 24, 1998

JACO

EC98J1097

Hiratsuka

September 1, 2000

DNV

1699-2000-AE-KOB-RvA

Osaka

December 19, 2000

DNV

1114-2000-AE-KOB-RvA

Nikko

March 14, 2002

DNV

1851-2002-AE-KOB-RvA/JAB

Yokohama

June 14, 2002

DNV

1849-2002-AE-KOB-RvA

Furukawa Electric has acquired ISO14001 certification at all its works.
In the affiliated companies, NTEC and Miharu
Communications newly acquired the certification in
fiscal 2004, meaning that 95% of the affiliated companies have acquired the certification. The remaining
two companies of Sunsunny Industry and Furukawa
Precision Engineering plan to acquire the certification during fiscal 2005.

■ List of Companies Participating in the Liaison Meeting for Consolidated Environmental Management
Company Name

ISO14001

Environmental
Accounting

Company Name

ISO14001

Environmental
Accounting

Access Cable Company



Furukawa Infonet Products Co., Ltd.



Asahi Electric Works Co., Ltd.

FITEC CorporationInoue Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

The Furukawa Electric Engineering Service Co., Ltd.

NTEC Ltd.

Furukawa Automotive Parts Inc.



F-CO Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Circuit Foil Co., Ltd.

FCM Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Sangyo Kaisha, Ltd.

Okano Electric Wire Co., Ltd.

Broad Wireless Corporation



Okumura Metals Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Industrial Plastics Co., Ltd.

The Kyushu Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Precision Engineering Co., Ltd.



Kyowa Electric Wire Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Engineering & Construction Inc.



Sunsunny Industry Co., Ltd.

The Furukawa Battery Co., Ltd.



Shodensha Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Logistics Corporation



Seiwa Giken Inc.



Furukawa Techno Material Co., Ltd.



Totoku Electric Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Life Service Inc.

T. H. Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.



Miharu Communications Inc.



Nikkei Kakoh Co., Ltd.



Yamada Keikinzoku Co., Ltd.

Nippon Foil Mfg. Co., Ltd.



Riken Electric Wire Co., Ltd.



Higashi Nihon Tanzou Co., Ltd.

Furukawa-Sky Aluminum Corporation



Furukawa Electric Industrial Cable Co., Ltd.



Zaikoo Co., Ltd.









ISO14001……: Already acquired certification, :Planning to acquire certification during fiscal 2005
Environmental accounting……: Implements environmental accounting described in this paper7Impact on the Environment by Furukawa Electric
Furukawa Electric provides products by producing a variety of parts and raw materials, and by using energy,
including water and electric power, and chemical substances. We are working on reducing the adverse impact
on the environment produced by these activities.

Impact on the environment by the six production base works

INPUT

OUTPUT

Raw materials

Emissions into the atmosphere

Copper188,000 t

Energy (*1)

140,000 k

Water

16.7 million t

Chemical substances (*2)

5,976 tCO2

222,000 t — CO2

NOx

159 t

SOx

12 t

Soot

10 t

Wastewater(*1) Amount of electric power, fuel oil and fuel gas used(*2) PRTR targeted substances(*3) Outsourced industrial waste disposal, excluding recycled materials

16.4 million t

Waste
Industrial waste (*3)

3,816 tRecycled materials

16,894 t

Chemical substances (*2)
Emitted volume

202 tTransferred volume

328 t

Impact on the environment by non-production bases
Furukawa Electric has grasped the impact on the environment caused by the non-production bases of its Head Office and three
Branch Offices.
The non-production bases of our Head Office and Branch
Amount of electric power
1,150,602 kWh
Offices are promoting power savings and resources savings.
As power saving measures, lights in rooms such as unused
Amount of water used
382 m3conference rooms are turned off and air conditioning units are
set at an appropriate temperature.
Amount of paper used
As resources saving measures, we promote the sorting ofwaste and the reuse of photocopier paper and files.

Photocopier paper

20,947 kg

Newspaper

3,740 kg8

Environmental PerformanceZero-Emission Activities
The Furukawa Electric Group began activities to reduce outsourced industrial waste disposal in 1993, and has
promoted zero-emission activities of waste since fiscal 2001. At the Furukawa Electric Group zero-emission
activities are defined as “activities to reduce the industrial waste commissioned to outsourced disposal that istransported from plants directly to landfill spots for final disposal.”

Performance in Fiscal 2004
Furukawa Electric

Affiliated companies

We reduced outsourced industrial waste
disposal by 58% compared to fiscal 2000,
attaining the fiscal target of a 40% reduction.
In addition, we reduced the volume of direct
land disposal by 83% compared to fiscal
2000, substantially exceeding the fiscal
target of a 50% reduction.

Our affiliated companies reduced theiroutsourced industrial waste disposal by
37% compared to fiscal 2000, and thevolume of direct landfill disposal by 11%
compared to fiscal 2000. They are further
promoting reduction activities towardachieving the target for fiscal 2005.

Companies that have attained
zero emissions
One more company has attained zero
emission in the Group, bringing the total to10.

Recycling of Waste Salt Byproduct Produced in the Optical Fiber Manufacturing Process
Chlorine contained in the feed gas isemitted as exhaust gas in the manufacturing process of optical fibers. When
this chlorine is removed by reacting itwith caustic soda water, and the resultant
wastewater is treated, a salt is formed asa byproduct. Conventionally, this salt wasdisposed of in landfill spots, but we have

Recycling of Plastic Waste
Until now, various kinds of plastics
were mixed in with the miscellaneous
goods that were discarded, and they were
not recycled.
We made rules for the sorting of thesegoods and we held study meetings andpatrolled garbage dumps to promotethorough sorting activities. For example,
we made it a rule to put items ranging
from safety shoes and hard hats to safety
goggles in transparent bags, so that theconstituent material of the contents canbe easily identified. As a result, it waspossible to protect this practice of sorting,which has enabled the recycling of waste.

managed to recycle it, by selling it tocompanies that use industrial-use salt asa raw material. Prior to this, we provided
samples to these companies, confirmed
its non-toxicity by testing it on animals
and checked that the aqueous solution
conforms to the effluent standard.

SiO2

HCl

Exhaust gas
Product(optical fibers) NaOH
Salt

Reduction of Waste Disposal Costs
Considering that environmental preservation activities directly contribute to
management, as a part of the Furukawa
Survival Plan, we adopted reduction ofwaste disposal costs as our activity target.
As a result of the conversion of waste,
which conventionally incurred disposal
costs for landfills, etc., into valuables forrecycling, we reduced disposal costs
by about 100 million yen, substantiallyexceeding our target of 50 million yen.

■ Waste Disposal Costs■ Outsourced Disposal of Industrial Waste■ Direct Landfill Disposal(tons)
30000(tons)
8000

Other affiliated companies
Furukawa-Sky
Furukawa Electric

25000
20000

9223

8316
10000
5000

0

7794
6763
5421

9131

2000

8274

2001

(million yen)
400

350

353

300
250

252

5496

187

150
100

75

50
0

2000

7000

4867

5282

5974

6018

3816

2002

2003

2004 (Fiscal year)

9

2001

2004 (Fiscal year)

1865
2944

2346

1997
1889

2492

3000

1560
3022

1000
0

2003

Other affiliated companies
Furukawa-Sky
Furukawa Electric

1587

6000

2000

2002

1394

4000
5777

238

200

5000

7442
15000

Patrol to monitor sorting

Feed gas of
SiCl4, H2 and O2

2000

2974

2001

1968
1812

1634

2002

2003

504
2004 (Fiscal year)

Prevention of Global Warming
The Kyoto Protocol took effect on February 16, 2005, and the reduction of targeted gases has become mandatory for the prevention of global warming. The Furukawa Electric Group has worked on energy conservation
activities since before the ratification by the Japanese Government, aiming at the prevention of global warming.

Performance in Fiscal 2004

Energy intensity per unit product(EIPUP) at Furukawa Electric

Furukawa Electric

Affiliated companies

Emissions of greenhouse gases (on a CO2
basis) were 222,000 tons, attaining thetarget of fiscal 2004 which was the sameas the result of the previous fiscal year
(227,000 tons). Emissions in fiscal 2004
were reduced by 21% compared to fiscal
2000.

Emissions of greenhouse gases increased
by 1% compared to fiscal 2000. Our
affiliated companies are further promoting
activities to reduce these emissions, aiming
for the fiscal 2005 target of a 5% reduction.

The energy consumption at the five
works* designated as “Class 1 Energy
Management Factories” was 127,000 k , areduction of 3,115 k . EIPUP was reduced
by 9% compared to fiscal 1999, attaining
the long-term target of a 5% reduction, but
it represented an increase of 3 percentage
points from the previous fiscal year.
* The five works are Chiba, Nikko, Hiratsuka,
Mie and Osaka

Energy Conservation Activities

Provision of LCA Data to Customers
The automotive manufacturers, which
are customers of Furukawa Electric, grasp
the impact on the environment of things
like CO2 emitted from vehicles, and utilize LCA (Life Cycle Assessment). At therequest of these automotive manufacturers, we calculate and provide the data on
the impact on the environment that occurs
during our manufacture of the parts which
are supplied to them. The automotive
manufacturers make an environmental
impact assessment of the entire life cycleof vehicles from this data, including ourdata, on the impact on the environment at
each stage of the manufacturing process,in order to develop vehicles that have a
reduced impact on the environment. In fiscal 2004, we calculated and provided dataon seven items, including wire harnesses
and aluminum bus bars. In future, we willcontinue to contribute to the preventionof global warming and the preservationof the global environment, in cooperation
with our customers.

■ Emission of Greenhouse Gases■ Energy Consumption and EIPUP (at five works)(1,000 tons - CO2)
1200

Improvement in facilities

200

Other affiliated companies

Improvement in lighting

Furukawa-Sky

Furukawa Electric

800
600

100

99
86

160

1000
204

550

194

517

220

539

400

Installation ofreflectors

facilities.
 Improvement in lighting
As for light sources, two low power
lamp-type lighting fixtures were replaced
by a single lamp type lighting fixture (32W
x one lamp) and reflectors were installed.

228

543

236

522

151

156

120

98

79

143

97

96

86

88

132

129

95
91

EIPUP index
Long-term target
127

100
80

EIPUP index*

Timer selector
switchor more jobs at the same time, and fan
motors were kept running while the facilities were shut down to change tools.
Timers were installed on these composite
stranding machines so that the fan motors
stopped during the shutdown of these

Energy consumption (1,000 k )Major factors for energy conservation
included: controlling of the number ofcompressors and their integration, controlling cooling water pumps by inverters,
using air conditioners sparingly, using
energy saving lighting, automatically
recovering the waste heat of scrubbers,
suspending or sealing the use of our facilities and improving the yield.
Access Cable Company has improved
its facilities and lighting.
 Improvement in facilities
During the operation of composite
stranding machines, operators do two

60

80

40

40

20

200
0

282

252

233

227

222

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004 (Fiscal year)

10

0

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004 (Fiscal year)

0* EIPUP index: Representation of EIPUP for each fiscal
year with the EIPUP in fiscal 1999 set as 100

Environmental Performance

Chemical Substance Management
The Furukawa Electric Group has been working on the reduction of tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, anddichloromethane among organic chlorine compounds. In addition, because Furukawa Electric has achieved
excellent results in reducing the use and emission of ozone-layer depleting substances and organic chlorinecompounds, the Company has worked on the reduction of toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene, which are volatileorganic compounds since fiscal 2003.

Organic Chlorine Compounds
30 companies including Furukawa Electric have eliminatedthe use of tetrachloroethylene, while 26 companies including
Furukawa Electric have eliminated the use of trichloroethylene.
Dichloromethane was used at one of Furukawa Electric’s works
during the manufacturing process of a specific product. The affiliated companies reduced the emission by 54% compared to fiscal
2000, and 28 companies did not use this compound. The companies using the targeted substances are promoting reduction
activities aiming at their complete elimination in fiscal 2008, while

reviewing the manufacturing process and materials. For example,
Asahi Electric Works used a surface treatment agent containing
trichloroethylene to prevent oxidation on connection sleeves for
distribution lines. In fiscal 2004, however, they stopped using
this agent and replaced it with a substitute. Furukawa ElectricIndustrial Cable conventionally used dichloromethane for theircleansing processes, but they stopped using it and replaced itwith a substitute.

Specific Chemical Substances
Furukawa Electric has promoted activities to reduce the threetargeted substances (specific chemical substances) since fiscal
2003. Toluene accounts for about 96% of these three substances,and is used as a product cleanser and in floor paints. As reduction measures, we have implemented a review of the content ofcleaning agents, improved our washing tanks, and switched tousing water-soluble paints. In addition, improvements in quality
have reduced the number of times that repeated cleansing has
been needed. Emission of the three targeted substances was
reduced by 46% compared to fiscal 2000, slightly short of thetarget of a 52% reduction.

■ Release and Transfer Volume of PRTR Substances
Substance
No.

Name of substance(Unit: tons)■ Emission of Organochlorine Compounds

Handling
volumeEmittedvolume111.7

0.1

Transferred Neutralized
volumevolume25

Antimony and its compounds

40

Ethylbenzene

8.7

0.0

0.0

8.7

63

Xylene

53.2

16.4

16.5

20.2

64

Silver and its water-solublecompounds

1.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

67

Cresol

339.5

0.1

0.1

338.8

108

Inorganic cyanide compounds

3.3

0.0

2.9

1.1

N, N-dimethylformamide

85.8

Decabromo-diphenylether

170.9

4.2

0.0

0.0

Dichloromethane

1.7

0.0

172
197

0.7

0.2

84.8

0.0

12.2

0.0

207

Copper salts (water-soluble)

14.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

227

Toluene

550.7

183.1

290.0

73.8

230

Lead and its compounds

4,381.7

0.0

0.2

0.2

231

Nickel

2.1

0.0

0.0

0.0

232

Nickel compounds

6.5

0.0

0.0

0.0

253

Hydrazine

5.9

0.0

0.0

5.9

266

Phenol

217.7

0.0

0.2

217.1

272

Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate

13.5

0.0

1.0

0.0

312

Phthalic anhydride

2.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

* Targeting substances of handling volume of 1 ton or more at works (0.5 tons or more for specific substances)

Other affiliated companies
Furukawa-Sky
Furukawa Electric

300
231
201

200

114
100

3.3

145

11

(tons)
400

0

94
73

62

67

48

44

34

2000

2001

2002

91

63
3
2003

48
2004

1

(Fiscal year)■ Emission of Specific Chemical Substances(tons)
400(Furukawa Electric only)
366

300
296
228

200

206

198

2003

2004 (Fiscal year)

100

0

2000

2001

2002

Green Activities
Furukawa Electric has promoted green procurement. While we were requested by our customers to cooperate
on green procurement and we responded to their demands on product investigation and audit, the customers’
demands on thorough source control from the viewpoint of the entire green supply chain increased recently,
and we responded to these demands.

Green Procurement

Performance in Fiscal 2004
Green procurement ratio forgeneral commodities

Investigation ratio of products purchasedfrom major vendors

No. of commodities

50.0%

Investigation ratio for vendors

79.0%

Amount44.2%

Investigation ratio for purchased products 63.0%

Green Product Management Activities
The worldwide major trend of green activities is changing, from controlling at business bases the emission of substancesthat impact the environment, to controlling
generally the environmental impact thatthe products may generate. Customers arerequesting that we guarantee we will notuse products designated as harmful to theenvironment, or use other products that contain such harmful substances. Furukawa
Electric conventionally established the Green
Procurement Executive Committee under
the Central Committee for Environmental
Management to respond to our customers,
and in fiscal 2004 we worked on the establishing a green product management system
under the slogan of “Products bearing the
Furukawa Electric brand will be made all
green.”The Green Procurement Executive Commit-

tee, which has been operating for two years,
dissolved at the 19th meeting, and insteada “Green Product Management Committee”
was formed. At the same time, there was areview of the members of the committee,
and representatives from the plants and thefacility sections were added, in addition to
those from the marketing and engineering
sections. This committee aims to promote
the introduction of a product certification
system and practice global law observance
management.
Targets of Green Product Management Activities
To establish a green product management system
by December 2006 with the aim of making productsof the Furukawa Electric brand all green——Achieving products free of RoHS and RoHSfree plants——

Screen of green procurement support system

Green Logistics

Activities at Automotive Products Division
The Automotive Products Division of theElectronics & Automotive Systems Company
worked on establishing an environmental
impact substance management system in
response to requests from automotive manufacturers.
In addition to the EMS System which
includes reducing industrial waste, undertaking zero-emission and energy conservation activities, which plants have worked
under in the past, we have made it our policy
to establish a scheme in which prohibited
environmental impact substances cannot
be mixed with the products at each stageof our research, development, design, purchase, manufacture and distribution. The
Automotive Products Divisional Environment
Committee was set up in the Division andan environmental session was organized ineach plant. This respective environmental
session mainly clarified the supply chain of
our products, the instruction not to use environmental impact substances with drawings

For general commodities such as officesupplies, we have designated products
recommended by the Green Purchasing
Network and products attached with ecolabels as products that meet our green procurement requirements. These products are
displayed in green on the selection screenof our purchasing system so that purchasers
can positively select products that conformto this network’s recommendations.
For manufacturing parts and materials
relating to our products and manufacturing processes (purchased products), we
have proceeded with an investigation in theenvironmental management situation of ourvendors and the content of hazardous substances in our products. The investigation
results are organized using the green procurement support system to promote information sharing.

and specifications to vendors, and developed our receiving system to ensure themanagement of purchased products, theformulation of a scheme to prevent environmental impact substances from being usedin our processes, and so forth.
We prepared a green procurement guideline for Automotive Products Division andheld a briefing for our vendors. We also
requested their cooperation in investigatingpurchased parts and materials using an environmental impact substance investigation
sheet, disclosing constituent substance, presenting certificates confirming the non-use of
specific environmental impact substances,
etc., and our vendors fulfilled this request.
Analytical instruments were introduced ineach plant, to verify that no prohibited substances were contained in our products, andwe strengthened our management to ensure
the carrying out investigation of purchased
products and products to be shipped.

12

The Furukawa Electric Group has endeavored to reduce the environmental impact
in the logistics area by reducing packaging
materials, reusing and recycling cable drums
and sharing transportation and delivery.
Measures to prevent global warming
include:(1)the transportation and delivery of aluminum products from Furukawa-Sky’s Fukui
Works was changed from truck transportation to container transportation whichuses a railroad; and(2)The NOx emission was previously known,
but from fiscal 2004 the CO 2 emission
began to be grasped.
We have promoted the reduction of CO2
and NOx emitted from vehicles, and reduced
the number of delivery vehicles, by increasing the practice of mixed loading and theuse of large-sized vehicles, to contribute to
the prevention of global warming.
(For details, please refer to the introduction of
Furukawa Logistics, on page 29.)E

nvironmental Performance

Recycling Activities
The Furukawa Electric Group is positively working on material recycling and is promoting waste recycling by
establishing a collection network and recycling system. We are also promoting the development of technologies
to optimize the recycling of various materials, including copper, aluminum and plastics, with the aim of constructing a recycling-oriented society by reducing industrial waste and recycling other waste.

Recycling Technology
Furukawa Electric uses nine collection networks nationwide to collect wires
and cables that have been removed, andalmost 100% of the copper and aluminum, the raw materials for conductors,
that are used in these cables is recycled.
Insulation materials are also recycled foruse in recycled plastics or as fuel. Crosslinked polyethylene, which was conventionally incinerated or disposed of in landfills, is recycled to make porous pipes
for irrigation purposes, thus utilizing theproperty of this material.
At Zaikoo the automated processes ofcable stripping, cutting, shredding andgrinding are performed by using dismantling facilities to materially separate collected wires and cables (including opticalcables). These materials are then sorted into polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride,
iron, copper, etc. by the material sorter.
Polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride aremolded into recycled pellets, which arereused in various resin products of theGroup. Metals such as copper, aluminum,iron and lead scrap are 100% recycled.
Thus, Zaikoo has developed a recycling
technology, aiming at a recycling society,and continues their challenge to totallyeliminate waste by completely recycling
disposed electric wires, from their collection to their dismantling to recycling.
(Web site of Zaikoo http://www.zaikoo.com)

Automated dismantling facilities■ Recycled products

Recycled electric wires(Communication cables)

Recycled electric wires(Electric power cables)

Cable duct for underground laying(KOHTA KUN)

Synthetic resin trough (Green Trough)Weed barrier sheet

Details of our recycling technology are accessible at the following Web site of Furukawa Electric.

http://www.furukawa.co.jp/enviro/tech/index.htm
Furukawa Electric has established a
Recycle Center to perform various kindsof plastic recycling, such as reusing the
discarded materials of various used plastic products and to recycle materials lostin the production process. Among others,
we have a grinding line which shreds andgrinds large-sized discarded plastic material, a volume reduction line that uses heatto shrink large-volume discarded foamed
materials, a pellet extruding line that produces pellets from reduced-volume discarded materials by using an extruder.
The pellet extruding line is capableof cutting cross-linking of cross-linked
polyethylene by using unique equipment
and a unique process, and recycles pellets which have physical properties similar
to those of virgin pellets. These recycledpellets are not only recycled into other13

products, but they are also widely used asmaterials for injection molding and extrusion molding.

Pellet extruding line

Eco-Design Activities
Development of Environmentally Friendly Products
Eco-design has manifold aspects
including designing products that consume small amount of energy in termsof LCA, material and structure selections
that enable 3R, and designing productsthat do not contain toxic or hazardous
substances. Therefore, Ecology & Energy
Laboratory is promoting the developmentof environmentally friendly products fromthe following viewpoints.
● The laboratory performs research anddevelopment in products with a longlife span, such as wires and cables andmaterials and structures that do notcontain toxic or hazardous substancesand can be recycled and reused.
● Conductors for electric power cables
and communication cables are recycled, thanks to the establishment of acollection method for copper wires andaluminum wires. The laboratory performs product development of resins,
which are collected simultaneously with
conductors, putting priority on recycling
them into electric wires and cables, andif this is not feasible, it aims to deploy
resins for other plastic products.
● The laboratory applies processing technology honed over a long time, to newmaterials such as material derived fromplants and vegetables, to develop distinctive products.
Voices of the development staff

Shigeru Tokuda
Eco-Products Department,
Ecology & Energy Laboratory,
R&D Division

Environmentally friendly products are
not adopted without the application oflaws and regulations. Even if we ask
whether this situation is really acceptable, the reason for not adopting suchproducts lies in high material costs, andhalf of our work is devoted to cost reduction activities.
When I am involved in developing
recycling technology for plastic waste, I
find that just by using a simple process,waste can be turned into an excellent
product. One example of such a productis Green Trough. Considering that plastic
waste is a resource, I wonder if it is allright to take plastic waste to China soquickly. Has Japan become a resource
exporting country? This may be something that will not bring any joy.

sheath is unlikely to crack under the presDevelopment of Non-halogen,sure applied by a welding blade, by comPVC-substitute Equipment Wire for
Pressure Welding (ECO-BEAMEX 105R) bining special base resin composition techPressure welding wires are simultaneously pressure welded to connectors in alarge number of wires.
Normal non-halogen wires are easily
crushed and have small repulsion elasticity,and consequently they deform at the strain
relief point, or sheathes peel off. In addition, it was not possible to use a normal
non-halogen wire, because the sheath was
cracked at the pressure welding blade.
We have developed pressure welding
non-halogen wires that deform very little
even at the strain relief point and whose

Green TroughThis product is a recycled product madefrom plastic waste such as wire sheath
waste, and replaces a conventional concrete trough. While utilizing the characteristics of a plastic that is lightweight andsuperior in durability, we have combined
plastic with an inorganic filler to achieve thenecessary rigidity and strength. Generally,
the properties of waste plastic materials
are inferior to those of virgin materials, andthere are large variations in their performance. Therefore, we have optimized thetype and quantity of the inorganic filler andused various additives to ensure a stableperformance.

nology, fire retardant surface treatments
and cross-linking technology.
The developed wires are sold as ECOBEAMEX 105R and have been well received
among our customers for use in officemachinery.

ECO-BEAMEX 105R pressure welded to connector (hasthe same pressure welding workability as PVC wire)

In terms of the shape, it has a connectedstructure that allows it to absorb the expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes, and at the same time a lid
is used to secure it, so that it can be usedsafely under various settings and in strong
winds.
There is a high demand for a concretecolored one, and the commercial production of this is within sight.

Green troughExamples of Environmentally Friendly Products
Furukawa Electric designates products that are safe and havea low environmental impact at each stage of their manufacture,use, distribution and disposal as “Environmentally Friendly
Products”, and these products have this environmental logo.

Porous pipe for irrigation, recycled fromcross-linked polyethylene

Copper alloy substituting beryllium copper■ Ratio of Environmentally
Friendly Products

67%
Reflow oven for use with lead-free solder

Mechanical sleeve thatcan be easily removed
from concrete and reused

The ratio of environmentallyfriendly product sales to new
product sales is called the ratio ofenvironmentally friendly products.
Details of environmentally friendly products
are accessible at the following Web site of
Furukawa Electric.

Halogen-free electric wire for lighting equipment14

http://www.furukawa.co.jp/enviro/
pro/index.htm

Environmental Performance

Environmental Risk Management
Countermeasures Regarding Pollution of Soil and Groundwater
We have been conducting soil andgroundwater pollution investigations at
facilities that have a history of using toxic
substances. If the soil and groundwater is found to be polluted during theseinvestigations, we promptly take action tosecure the health and safety of the local
community.
We also report to the government bodyabout these environmental conditions andmeasures to be adopted to clean the environment, and disclose this information to
the local residents, related institutions andmedia according to its content.
In fiscal 2003, we formulated “SoilEnvironmental Risk Management Guidelines”, and in fiscal 2004 we deployed theabove guidelines across the Furukawa
Electric Group, which is carrying out activities according to these guidelines.
Especially, investigations into the history of use of specific toxic substances wereconducted at each facility of Furukawa
Electric and its affiliated companies. This
work required a considerable amount oftime and labor. It has been found, however, that toxic substances are or wereused at various divisions, and that thisinvestigation is effective in the risk assessment of soil and groundwater pollution.
We will take measures according to theassessed risk.
The standard that “Underground construction of storage facilities and piping
for hazardous substances shall be prohibited when they are newly installed”
was established by the division which

designs and installs manufacturing facilities of Furukawa Electric in December
2004. In the future, we will standardize andimplement this design policy in the facility design sections of the entire Furukawa
Electric Group.

Outline of “Soil Environment Risk Management Guidelines*” (*formulated in 2003)
1) We shall restrict the handling of specific toxic substances specified in the Soil
Contamination Countermeasures Law.
In principle, the construction of new storage facilities and piping shall bepositioned above ground when they are newly installed. Undergroundconstruction shall be prohibited.
2) We shall thoroughly manage the use, storage and disposal of hazardous
substances and seek to switch to substitute substances.
 For specific hazardous substances which are currently being used, areas where there isa possible risk of leakage of these hazardous substances into the soil and groundwatershall be checked and recorded.
 We shall review processes where hazardous substances are used and seek to reduce
the usage volume of such substances. We shall switch to substitute substances.

3) We shall implement an investigation into the usage record of specific hazardous
substances at all plants and facilities.
 We shall investigate the record of usage of specific hazardous substances, tracking
back to around 30 years ago, and shall continue to monitor the usage of hazardous
substances.
 The record of usage of specific hazardous substances shall be investigated, according
to the written materials and we shall record the periods and volume of purchases, use,
storage, and disposal. The locations where each of these processes is carried out shallbe recorded as a diagram, or in other ways, and these records shall be stored.

Situation and Countermeasures Regarding Pollution of Soil and Groundwater Situation and Countermeasures at
Furukawa Electric
The countermeasures taken in fiscal
2004 are as follows.
 Nikko Works
Announcement April, September andNovember 2004
Contaminant Selenium, arsenic, lead,
cadmium
Location Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture
Company-owned areas in Arasawa Uodome,
Tanze and Kiyotaki 4-chome districts

Cleansing method Cleansing andrecycling into cement materials, after the
drilling and removal of contaminated soil
 NF Park Building (site where former Central
Research Laboratory was located)

Announcement July 2004
Contaminant Lead, arsenic, mercury,trichloroethylene
Location 2-9-15 Futaba, Shinagawa-ku,
Tokyo
Situation Soil pollution on the premises

Cleansing method Drilling and removal ofcontaminated soil, replacing with clean soil

Location 1750, Kiyotaki Arasawa-cho,
Nikko-shi, Tochigi* With regard to the Nikko District, cleansing workfor two locations was completed in fiscal 2003.
From fiscal 2005 onward, pollution investigations
and cleansing work are scheduled to be implemented at six locations in the company-owned
peripheral areas and scheduled to be completed
by 2006.

Situation Soil pollution on the premises of
the company
Cleansing method Drilling and removal ofcontaminated soil, replacing with clean soil,
vapor extraction, and cleaning of original sitewith a chemical treatment

 Situation and Countermeasures ofAffiliated Companies
Furukawa Electric advises its affiliatedcompanies to respond appropriately to
local residents, government bodies andother parties involved.
Affiliated companies of Furukawa
Electric that were found to have water andsoil pollution in fiscal 2004 and their contamination situations are as follows.
● Tochigi Metal Co., Ltd.
Announcement May 2004
Contaminant Hexavalent chromium, lead,tetrachloroethylene

15

Site of countermeasures taken for contaminatedsoil at Tochigi Metal

The following companies have continued to undertake countermeasures since2003.
 Totoku ElectricContaminant PCB, dioxin
Location Former Nagato Works (Nagatocho, Chiisagata-gun, Nagano) Kyowa Electric WireContaminant Lead, cyanogens, boron,
fluorine, dichloromethane
Location Former Osaka Works(Neyagawa-shi, Osaka) Furukawa Color Aluminum
Contaminant Hexavalent chromium
fluorine
Location Main Works (Utsunomiya-shi,
Tochigi)

 Furukawa-Sky
Contaminant Tetrachloroethylene
Location Oyama Works (Oyama-shi,
Tochigi)

PCB Management
Concerning PCB, which had been used
as insulation oil for electrical equipment,
transformers, electrical capacitors andstabilizers for fluorescent lights, the volume is controlled and properly managed
at each of the works of Furukawa Electric.
These stored PCBs will be processed by
Japan Environmental Safety Corporation*,
etc. one by one.
* Japan Environmental Safety Corporation is a
“special company” established based on Japan
Environmental Safety Corporation Law, wholly
owned by the government, and mainly succeeding the PCB waste treatment programs of theformer Japan Environment Corporation.

PCB storage status■ Quantity of PCB stored
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Name of works
Chiba Works (Processed)
Chiba Works (Unprocessed)
Nikko Works
Hiratsuka Works
Mie Works
Osaka Works
Kambara Works
Shinagawa Works
Yokohama R&D Laboratories
Total(unit: item)

Removed and stored
86
36
182
40
53
55
0
(Stabilizer only)
9461

In use
0
0
140
3
73
11
3
0
0
230

Total
86
36
322
43
126
66
3
(Stabilizer only)
9691

Compliance with Laws and Regulations
We are regularly confirming the laws
and regulations to be observed, andmaking efforts for compliance by patrolling our sites to check the implementation status.
We keep track of revisions of laws andregulations, by closely following the latest
information in government gazettes.

Conduct of Investigation Regarding Handling of Wastewater Data
In response to the problem of water
quality data management at a certain
company in Chiba Prefecture, Furukawa
Electric rechecked the data of all of
its works. As a result, two works were
found to have made transcription errors,
although they met the standards. Theseerrors were corrected.

Oil Leakage inside Chiba Works
An oil leakage accident from an oil
pipeline flange, caused by the swellingand deterioration of the relevant packing,occurred in August last year. Although no
oil leaked outside the works and there
was no fire, the leaked oil permeated thesurrounding soil and contaminated a partof it. Upon reporting this accident to theContent of Investigation
1) Management System concerning Pollution Prevention● Are there standards?
● Is there a Management System Chart?
2) Analysis of Wastewater● Is there a transparent and objective scheme for sampling and analysis?
● Is the analysis data known to the staff concerned? To what extent is it known?
● Is the handling of analysis data standardized?
● Is there any scheme that prevents description errors in automated data handling ordata checks?
● Is there a scheme that checks the reports and the contents of the description
concerning notification to municipalities?
3) Confirmation of Document Content Submitted to Municipalities Concerning
Wastewater● Was there any error in the submitted contents concerning analysis data?
● Was there any error in the transcription or compilation of analysis data?
4) Compliance Awareness of All Employees● Is there education in law observance and ethics?
● Is there education and training in response to abnormal conditions?

fire, prefecture and city authorities, we
completed the restoration of the area bytaking measures such as replacing thecontaminated soil, which included measures to prevent a recurrence.

Chiba Works / Work of replacing soil

16E

nvironmental Performance

Environmental Accounting
We compiled “environmental conservation cost”, “economic benefit associated with environmental conservation
activities” and “environmental conservation benefit” to quantitatively grasp the results of environmental costs
and benefits. This data is collected in conformity with the environmental accounting guidelines published by
the Ministry of the Environment. For affiliated companies, the data is collected for 11 companies, an addition of
three companies to the eight companies publicized for fiscal 2004. The companies covered are described on
page 7.
Furukawa Electric

Affiliated Companies

Environmental conservation costs were: 5.3 billion yen and capital
expenditure of 400 million yen. Economic benefits were 260 million yen.
Expenses increased by 360 million yen from fiscal 2003. This is due toan increase of 650 million yen in soil pollution treatment costs, despite adecrease of 300 million yen in resource circulation costs including waste
disposal costs. Capital expenditure increased by 30 million yen.

The companies included in the compilation this time are Furukawa
Industrial Plastics, Furukawa Techno Material and Furukawa-Sky.
Environmental conservation costs were: 2.5 billion yen and capital expenditure of 800 million yen. Economic benefits increased by 300 million yen, due
to the soaring prices of crude oil despite a decrease in the energy consumed.

(Unit: million yen)

■ Environmental Conservation Cost
Category

Furukawa ElectricAfﬁliated Companies
Change over theAmountAmountprevious year

Key activity and the outcome(1) Business area cost(2) Upstream/downstream cost(3) Administration cost(4) Research and development cost(5) Social activity cost(6) Environmental remediation cost
Total

Pollution prevention such as air pollution, energy conservation,
waste disposal, etc.
Retrieval of containers, drums, etc.
Audit of environmental management system, monitoring of environmental impact, etc.
Development of environmentally friendly products, research insubstitutes for toxic substances, etc.
Tree planting, cleaning in local communities, donations, etc.
Assessment for environmental impact, cleanup of polluted soil, etc.

1,606

-277

1,559

408

49

117

470

-38

251

1,134

-25

390

4
1,683
5,304

-2
651
357

3
142
2,462

For Furukawa Electric, the data in fisca�
2003 is recompiled under the same scope as for fiscal 2004.
For affiliated companies, a cha�those in the previous fiscal year.

■ Investment and Research Cost
Investment and Research Cost
Environment-related investment
Total investment cost
Total research cost

(Unit: million yen)

Furukawa Electric
Amount
433
8,402
9,667

■ Environmental Conservation Benefit

Afﬁliated Companies
Amount
786
9,418
4,131

Furukawa Electric Afﬁliated Companies
Environmental PerforUnit
mance Indicators
Industrial waste disposaltamount*Energy consumed (crude
1,000 koil basis)
1,000 tWater consumed
Emission of volatile organictchemical compounds
1,000 tonCO2 emission
CO2t
SOx emissiont
NOx emissiontSoot emission■ Economic Benefit Associated with Environmental(Unit: million yen)
Conservation Activities
Contents of Beneﬁts
Revenues gained by recycling
Reduction in waste disposal costs
Reduction in energy costs
Reduction in water purchase costs
Total

Furukawa Electric
Amount
179
54
30
-3
260

Afﬁliated Companies
Amount
75
-27
-364
0.3
-316

* - (minus) represents an increase.

■ Environmental Conservation Cost
4,948
4,355
3,721

5,304

Research and development cost

6

1,100

-564

2

-2

5

15

-1
67
-2

81
86
-64

Revenues gained by recycling
Reduction in waste disposal costs

1,103

Reduction in energy costs
Reduction in water purchase costs

800

Business area cost

Amount of revenues and expenses

600

2000

400

1000

200

0

3

1000

Upstream/downstream cost

3000

-632

* - (minus) represents an increase.

1200

Social activity cost
Administration cost

3,676

2,202

(million yen)

Environmental remediation cost

5000

Reduction■ Economic Benefit(million yen)
6000

4000

* Amount excluding recycled waste

Reduction

413

397

260

2000

2001

2002

2003

116

0

2004 (Fiscal year)

17

-200

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Environmental Preservation Performance Indicators
Of the works of Furukawa Electric, the data for atmospheric emissions and wastewater quality of four Works thatare registered as specialized plants are described below.
■ Chiba Works
Atmospheric Indicators
Item

Unit

NOx

(ppm)

Soot (g/Nm3)

Equipment

Wastewater Quality Indicators
SelfLegal
Average Maximum
imposedStandards
Value
Value
Standards

Measurement Item

Unit

Legal
Standards

SelfimposedStandards

Average
Value

Maximum
Value
8.3

Boiler

180

180

57

94

pH

5.0~9.0

5.0~9.0

7.8

Melting furnace

180

180

26

41

COD

(mg/l)

15

15

3.7

9.9

Boiler

0.2

0.2

0.009

0.017

SS

(mg/l)

20

20

3.4

12.5

Melting furnace

0.1

0.1

0.032

0.042

n-h (mineral oil)

(mg/l)

2

2

0.2

0.5

Legal
Standards

SelfimposedStandards

Average
Value

Maximum
Value■ Nikko Works
Atmospheric Indicators
Equipment

Wastewater Quality Indicators
SelfLegal
Average Maximum
imposedStandards
Value
Value
Standards

Item

Unit

180

180

111

130

pH

5.8~8.6

6.0~8.5

7.3

7.4

NOx

(ppm) Melting furnace

200

200

32

41

BOD

(mg/l)

25

16

3.7

5.1

Dryer furnace

300

250

19

38

SS

(mg/l)

50

20

1.0

1.6

Boilern-h (mineral oil)

(mg/l)

5

0.5

0.2

0.2

Legal
Standards

SelfimposedStandards

Average
Value

Maximum
Value

Boiler

17.5

17.5

0.51

0.62

SOx (K value) Melting furnace

17.5

17.5

0.28

0.28

Dryer furnace

17.5

17.5

0.20

0.20

Boiler

0.3

0.3

0.003

0.003

Soot (g/Nm3) Melting furnace

0.2

0.2

0.002

0.002

Dryer furnace

0.5

0.2

0.006

0.007

Measurement Item

Unit

■ Mie Works
Atmospheric Indicators
Item

Unit

NOx

(ppm)

SOx (Nm3/Hr)
Soot (g/Nm3)

Equipment

Wastewater Quality Indicators
SelfLegal
Average Maximum
imposedStandards
Value
Value
Standards

Measurement Item

Unit

Boiler

180

140

65

68

pH

5.8~8.6

6.5~8.5

7.4

7.7

Melting furnace

180

140

12

15

BOD

(mg/l)

10

4

1.2

2.0

Boiler

0.6

0.5

0

0

SS

(mg/l)

25

6

0.8

1.3

Melting furnace

41.6

33.3

0

0

n-h (mineral oil)

(mg/l)

1

0.7

0.1

0.4

Boiler0.3

0.24< 0.005 < 0.005

Melting furnace

0.3

0.24

0.007

Legal
Standards

SelfimposedStandards

Average
Value

Maximum
Value
8.1< 0.011■ Osaka Works
Atmospheric Indicators
Equipment

Wastewater Quality Indicators
SelfLegal
Average Maximum
imposedStandards
Value
Value
Standards

Item

Unit

150

120

2.0

2.0

pH

5.7~8.7

5.7~8.7

7.5

NOx(ppm) Melting furnace

200

160

2.0

2.0

BOD

(mg/l)

300

10

4.0

9.0

Heating furnace

170

144

2.0

2.0

SS

(mg/l)

300

50

12.2

26.0

Boilern-h (mineral oil)

(mg/l)

5

2

1.2

2.0

Boiler

1.17

1.17

0

0

SOx (K value) Melting furnace

1.17

1.17

0

0

Heating furnace

1.17

1.17

0

0

Boiler

0.10

0.08

0.001

0.001

Soot (g/Nm3) Melting furnace

0.20

0.16

0.001

0.001

Heating furnace

0.25

0.20

0.001

0.001

Measurement Item

18

Unit

S ocial Performance
Social Performance
Furukawa Electric defines “compliance” as “more than simply abiding by laws and regulations. Rather, compliance isbased on the values and ethics that the company and its
employees adhere to, as responsible members of society.”19

Social Contribution Activities
The Furukawa Electric Group is promoting social contribution activities as a member of society, through disaster
relief support and exchange with local communities.

Support and cooperation■ Relief Support for Earthquake off
Sumatra and Tsunami DisasterFor the great earthquake that occurred
off the Sumatra Island on December 26,
2004, Furukawa Electric, its domestic affiliated companies, affiliated companies inthe disaster-stricken countries and volunteers of employees called for donations,and they made a donation of about 15.
27 million yen to Japanese Red Cross
Society, the local Chamber of Commerceand Industry, and the Department ofIndustry and Trade that were all fully
engaged in relief activities in the disasterareas.

Cleaning in Local Communities■ The Furukawa Electric Group carries
out cleaning activities in local communities, including the areas surrounding
its respective business bases, and also
coastal areas and rivers.

 Area surrounding
the Nikko works

 Area surrounding
the Hiratsuka works

 Area surrounding the Ueda Plant of
Totoku ElectricCommunicating with the Community Letter of thanks from theJapanese Red Cross Society■ Relief Support for Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture
We made a donation of 3 million yen
to the Community Chest of Niigata Prefecture, for the Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata
Prefecture which occurred on October 23,
2004.

■ Cooperation to Chiba Environmental Restoration Fund
Chiba Prefecture has created a “Chiba
Environmental Restoration Fund” andaims to have the best natural environment
in Japan, under the slogan of “Restore
nature in our hometown!” The Chiba
works of Furukawa Electric called for
donations for this “Chiba Environmental
Restoration Fund” from all its employees
in the works. The proceeds and part of the
profits gained from “Eco Fair Ichihara”,
which totaled 145,000 yen, were handed
over to the Chiba Prefecture Environment
Foundation.

■ Since fiscal 2002, the Chiba works
has actively participated in “Eco-Fair
Ichihara” held in the Ichihara Civic
Center, and promoted interaction withlocal elementary schools in various
ways.
■ The Hiratsuka works participated in an“Environmental Fair” hosted by City of
Hiratsuka, which aims to be an Eco City,
and also participated in a Forum forEnvironmental Symbiosis Corporationsin Hiratsuka*1, and introduced its environmental activities to the local community.
* “Forum for Environmental Symbiosis Corporations”
This Forum was formed by an appeal of theIndustrial Labor Administration Section of
Economy Department of the City of Hiratsukain 2000, consisting of corporations interested in
Hiratsuka. The main activities include exchanging information about the environment, conducting tours of environment-related facilities
and hosting an Environmental Fair.

■ The Nikko works opened its premises tothe public and hosted a “Nikko Waraku
Odori Dance”. A total of about 20,000
tourists and local people wearing the
Yukata participated in this dance, which
encircled the Waraku Pond located in
the works.

 Nikko Waraku Odori Dance■ The Nikko works and affiliated companies including Nippon Foil Mfg. invited
local elementary school pupils to a tourof the plant.

 Hiratsuka Environmental Fair

 Tour of the Nikko works by elementary school
pupils*) The Chiba Environmental Restoration Fund isestablished in the Chiba Prefecture Environment
Foundation, in order to promote the “Chiba
Environment Restoration Plan” which was formu-

20

S

ocial Performance

Human Resources, Safety, Health and Compliance
Furukawa Electric believes that its asset is “people”. We are working on creating a comfortable working environment for our employees.

Relations with Employees■ Furukawa Electric’s View on
the Relationship Between the
Company and its Employees
Furukawa Electric is striving to build
a sincere relationship with its employees, based on trust and responsibility. In
addition, through business and work, weare aiming to establish more constructive
relations in which the company and our
employees can enhance each others abilities and values.

■ Placement, Evaluation and Job
Conditions
We are working to provide opportunities for placements and job assignments,emphasizing individual motivation andabilities based on the concept of equal
opportunity. As a part of this move, we are
implementing various interview systems
and providing opportunities for employees
to reflect on their career goals.
Regarding evaluation and incentives,
we have adopted an incentive program
for the fair evaluation and treatment of
our employees, according to their abilities
and performance. We are also working on
training managers to have performance
evaluation skills, in order to improve themanagement of the system and win thetrust of our employees.

■ Education and Training Systems
We believe that the strength of ourcompany lies in the synergy of the abilities of each employee at the work site andthat each employee’s ability is enhanced
in a practical way through everyday work.
Furukawa Electric provides a place forindividuals to grow through work, and provides opportunities to support a proactive
approach for the development of skills by
motivated employees. These opportunities include training, distance learning andsupport for acquiring qualifications.

■ Support System Corresponding
to Various Ways of Working
We respect our employee’s lifestyles
and have established various support systems that enrich each individual’s personal life.

Various Systems

Purpose / Content

Flexible Working
Hours

We adopt a system of ﬂexible working hours which enables employees to work efﬁciently according tobusiness demand. We support employees having ﬂexible working hours that suit their lifestyle.
Employees are able to take three consecutive days off once a year, and ﬁve consecutive days off every
ﬁve years, so that they can enjoy well-planned holidays and refresh their minds and bodies.
A maximum of 10 days out of the remaining regular annual holidays can be carried forward to the accumulated holidays (effective for ﬁve years).
Any employee who has a child under one and half years of age can take maternity or paternity leave fora duration of their choice, until their child is one and a half years old.
In cases where an employee’s spouse, child or parents (including the spouse’s parents) need nursing
care, that employee is able to take nursing care leave for up to one year, if certain conditions are fulﬁlled.
For union members who reach a certain age, labor and management jointly provide Retirement Seminars, with the aim of enhancing their current lifestyle and supporting their lifestyle after retirement.

Refresh Holiday
Holiday
Accumulation
Maternity andPaternity Leave
Nursing Care
Leave
Retirement
Seminar

Safety■ Company-wide Priority Safety
Activities■ Occupational Safety and HealthManagement System

Activities are carried out by focusing
on the company-wide priority safety activities, which are decided according to the
Safety Control Guidelines issued in fiscal
2004.

The Chiba works made an introductorydeclaration to establish this system and isproceeding with setting up the basis of thissystem and educating users about it, setting fiscal 2004 as a preparatory period.

1. “Improvement of compliance management system of dangerous and hazardous work”
We investigated the level of standardization that has been achieved by operation chiefs, and the daily
management system of dangerous and hazardous work according to laws and regulations, and quantitatively evaluated the management status at each works, each division and each department to clarify
the items that need to be corrected.
We will improve the system by continuously carrying out these activities.

2. “Recheck of safe passage and safe transportation rules and improvement of forklift
truck driving skills”
Forklift truck accidents and near-miss accidents continue to occur. We held a company-wide forklift
truck driving competition for the first time, as a centerpiece for reestablishing walking and driving safety
in the works. We held an all-encompassing company-wide competition which included our suppliers,
with the aim of re-educating drivers about basic driving skills, which they learned when they obtained
their driving licenses, and also with the aim of helping supervisors to recheck the driving skills that are
required by laws and regulations, and raise awareness of the need for daily checks, bearing in mind thatsupervisors do not necessarily have a forklift truck driving license themselves.

■ Safety Education
Focusing on standardization activities, we are promoting the standardization of C-ranked specifications of facility safety design standards in conformity with ISO12100
and company-wide education about work standards. In
particular, process analysis is important to properly establish work standards for irregular tasks in which there is ahigh occurrence of accidents. We are working on these
activities, and changing our conventional mindset.

■ Number of accidents that led to cessation ofwork(No. of cases)
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

1995

1996

1997

1998

21

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

From “News from Chiba
Standards Association”
Mr. Eto, Senior Vice Minister of
Health, Labor and Welfare, paida visit to the Chiba works andobserved the actual situation of
the safety and health management. He observed the copper
wire rod manufacturing site andthe optical fiber amplifier manufacturing site.

Health■ Mental Health Care
Furukawa Electric has been promoting
company-wide mental health measuressince 2002, in line with “Guidelines for
Mental Health in the Work Place” published by the Ministry of Health, Laborand Welfare (former Ministry of Labor).
In fiscal 2004, managers and supervisors
trained general employees with the aimof sharing accurate knowledge about
mental health among all our employees.
In fiscal 2005, we are targeting managers
with an advanced course, incorporatingcase studies, to help them acquire skills
in practical response for preventing andresponding quickly to any mental healthproblems.

■ Health Care for Employees thatWork Long Hours

lems of employees who work long hours
at each of our works.

Based on the guidelines issued by
the Labor Standards Bureau “Measures
employers should take to prevent healthproblems caused by overwork,” weare committed to the health care of ouremployees that work long hours by placing strict restrictions on the time theywork, based on the results of a medical
examination, and using a consultation
system which involves a medical officer
and the employee who works long hours.
Furthermore, in fiscal 2005, we will raise
health awareness by holding a training
session for managers and supervisors,concerning the prevention of health prob-■ Promoting separate smoking
areas
We set up more than 70 smoking
rooms during fiscal 2004 to promote
separate smoking areas, in line with the“Guidelines for Smoking Measures in
the Workplace”, a notification issued by
the Director-General of Labor Standards
Bureau in 2003. We will continue to positively promote the prevention of passive
smoking.

Compliance
The Furukawa Electric Group carries
out the following activities to promotecompliance.
We define “compliance” as “morethan simply abiding by laws and regulations. Rather, compliance is based on thevalues and ethics that the company andits employees adhere to, as responsible
members of society.”
I Establishment of the Furukawa ElectricGroup Action Guidelines and ensuring company officials and employees
adhere to this philosophy
II Setting up a Compliance Committee
We have set up a “Compliance Committee” to promote and strengthen thecompliance system at Furukawa Electricand its affiliated companies at home andabroad.

Contents of Concrete Activities of
the Committee● Awareness and education concerningcompliance● Grasp and analysis of risk statusconcerning compliance, internally at
Furukawa Electric and in the Group● Reporting the management status of
the compliance system at a management conference

Furukawa Electric Group Action Guidelines
We, company officials and employees of the Furukawa Electric Group, will:

1. Abide by the laws and regulations in Japan and abroad, and act in conformity with internal rules and external rules such as social codes and ethics;
2. Properly display and adequately disclose corporate information, including
financial statements;
3. Deal with antisocial groups in a resolute manner;
4. Aim to be a company that is useful to society by developing products that
aid the development of society and by providing reliable products and services;
5. Try to act with consideration for the protection of the global environment;
6. Respect human rights, cultures and traditions as a member of the international community;
7. Create a company in which employees can feel a sense of reward, easeand fulfillment; and8. Maintain and develop sound and good relations with all stakeholders.

I will further establish the traditions of Furukawa Electric.
The Compliance Committee’s office is set up in the Legal
Department. The successive management of Furukawa Electricstates that we should “conduct correct management fairly andsquarely” as one of our policies, and you could say that the spiritof compliance is one of our traditions. I am determined to let
this inherited tradition permeate further, among all the company
officials and employees of the Furukawa Electric Group, throughthe activities of the Committee.

Nozomu Amano
General Manager ofLegal Department

22

S

ocial Performance

Environmental Education and Enlightenment Activities
This section introduces environmental education and enlightenment activities for employees of Furukawa Electric.

In order to improve the environmental
awareness of our employees, we put up
an environmental campaign poster every
year in each work place. These posters
contain a slogan for environmental preservation activities, a Basic Environmental
Policy and major activity targets for the fiscal year. In June, which is designated as
the month of environmental preservation,
the chairman of the Central Committee
for Environment Management delivers amessage to all the employees. In addition, each works carries out activities suchas distributing leaflets that inform theemployees about the environmental preservation month, installing notice boards,
calling for a catchphrase concerning theenvironment, implementing the 5S activities in and around the Facilities’ premises
and conducting night-time patrols.

■ Environmental Seminar for
Executives
In order to further promote awarenessamong managers about environmental
activities, we held a second seminar for
managers of consolidated companies,
following on from last year. We invited
university professors and managers of theenvironmental divisions of Japan’s leading companies, who are experts in environmental issues, as speakers.
We held a lecture entitled “CSR Required: Its Management Issues” and“Environmental Management andInitiatives of Green Procurement at NTT” in
September 2004. A total of 87 top officials,

sessions relating to specific work.

■ Support for Education for
Affiliated Companies
We provided education sessions relating to environmental problems in general,and environment-related laws and regulations, for executives and managers ofaffiliated companies at their request.

■ Level-up Seminar for Internal
Auditors
including the President, executive directors, members of the Central Committee
for Environmental Management and personnel in charge of environmental management at Facilities of Furukawa Electric,
and presidents and other managers ofaffiliated companies participated in thislecture.

■ Environment-related Education
We conducted education sessions forour new employees, and the employees
of our administrative divisions and engineering divisions in their second year of
employment (a total of 77 people), about
environmental problems in general. In
addition, at each works and workplace,
we conducted as necessary a generalenvironmental education session at thetime when employees are assigned to adivision, and conducted special education

Following the revision of ISO14001
Standards, we held a seminar relating tothis revision. A total of 18 internal auditors
centering on the EMS Office attended thisseminar from each of the works.

■ Education Session for Training
Internal Auditors
We held a seminar for training internal environmental auditors six times, andtrained a total of 95 internal auditors,
including 54 from Furukawa Electric and
41 from its affiliated companies.

Attending a seminar for internal environmental auditors
I was given a chance to attend aseminar for internal environmental
auditors. A total of 13 employees
participated in the seminar this time,
and the lecturer was from the Safety,
Environment & Quality Promotion
Dept. of the Head Office. On the firstday of the seminar, there was a lecture
and an exercise on the environmental
management system and related laws
and regulations. On the second day,participants were divided into groupsof four or five people, and each group
reviewed the lecture and exercise that
had been given on the previous day, theyexamined a document, and simulated an
audit of the site. The seminar was a twoday course, although in the past the same
seminar had been a three-day course.
I felt that the seminar was pressed for23time and that the lecture proceeded alittle too fast. Everybody was surprised
when the lecturer said to us “You are aninternal environmental auditor from today.
You will attend the internal environmental
audit at the end of the year.” Although
the seminar was completed, I was not at
all confident about practicing audit work
immediately. Thus, I may participate in theinternal environmental audit this time andconsider it as “on-the-job training.” I may
cause trouble to the people concerned
and I would ask for their advice andguidance.

Teruko Kikui

Design & Engineering Section,
Plant Engineering Department,at Nikko works

Environmental Performance of the Works
The works of Furukawa Electric engage in activities to harmonize with the local community as a good corporate
citizen.

Chiba Works

Continues to be a leader in environmental
preservation

Located almost in the center of the
Keiyo Seaboard Industrial Area, one of
the leading petrochemical industrial zones
in Japan, the Chiba works is engaged
mainly in manufacturing of wire materials,
power cables (currently manufactured
by VISCAS), communication cables, andalso develops and manufactures largecapacity communication equipment.
The Chiba works has taken the leadrole in environmental preservation activities at Furukawa Electric by acquiring
ISO14001 in 1998, ahead of our otherworks. Something that is especially noteworthy this time is zero emission (landfill
waste of 1% or less) which we have been
striving for, for four years. Our steadyefforts have borne fruit and we expect toachieve zero emission during fiscal 2006.
Waste is a resource - we have thoroughly sorted the waste at sites in ourworks under this principle. Now there isa high environmental awareness shared
among our employees, to the degree
that a work site can suggest the possible recycling of items to the EMS Office.
These activities have grown to such an
extent that recycling activities have turneda profit. In fiscal 2004, the profit made on
the sale of items for recycling exceeded
our waste disposal costs, surpassing the
break-even point. This is an outstanding Coastal Area Festival

 Ecology Fairachievement for an electric wire-related
business.
On the other hand, we have also continued to promote exemplary activities,
in terms of active participation in thelocal community. We aim to become aworks that acquires a favorable reputation among local residents, by providingthem with wooden planters made fromcollected wooden drums, delivering at
no charge organic fertilizer made fromraw garbage from the company cafeteria,
and providing cooperation to the Chiba
Environmental Restoration Fund.
We will continue to play the lead rolein Furukawa Electric, based on individual
employee’s activities in line with compliance, not to mention the agreement
between the city, the prefecture and ourselves.

A

Toru Kumabe
Manager of Chiba Workslthough the core businesses of this works,
the telecommunication business andpower cable business, have been forced toengage in a hard-fought struggle amid a severe
economic environment for the last few years,
our environmental preservation activities haveyielded results in one form or another. When I
moved to this works from our Head Office lastyear, I was really surprised at the high awarenessfor environmental preservation.
A full seven years have passed this year since
the acquisition of ISO14001, and the production
system of the works has undergone a largechange, such as the inauguration of VISCAS
due to the alliance of the electric power business24

 Plant Tour

Chiba Works

Location: 6, Yawata Kaigandori, Ichihara-shi, Chiba
Lot area: 672,000 m2
Number of employees: 1,550 (as of April 2005)

at the beginning of the year. We will take thisopportunity to further step up our activities basedon our social responsibility.
Meanwhile, there was one thing thatdeserved special mention in fiscal 2004. The
income exceeded the expenses with respect toenvironmental preservation costs. This is a resultof our honest and steady efforts so far, and hasbrought a great sense of accomplishment to
all the employees of the works. Environmental
preservation costs are a big management issue
in promoting corporate activities. Not satisfied
with this result, we will set an even higher target
to lead the environmental preservation activitiesof the entire company.

S

ocial Performance

Environmental Performance of the Works

Osaka WorksThe Osaka works, which has a long
history as the mainstream works for
Furukawa Electric’s Metals Group, hasbeen manufacturing copper and copper
alloy products including copper tubes
used in heat exchangers for air conditioners.
The thermal conductivity of copper tubes, which are often used in heatexchangers, plays an important role in
improving the energy efficiency of air
conditioning systems. The Osaka works
continues to make improvements andcontribute to energy conservation, by
providing air conditioner manufacturers
with high-performance copper tubes.

Contribute to a sustainable society withtechnological innovation
ment results from our repeated andsteady efforts to improve the efficiencyof our energy consumption by modifying
facilities and reviewing the process flowat production sites, and setting the temperature for air conditioning at 28°C or
higher and turning off lights during officelunch breaks.
Furthermore, we have achieved excellent results in waste reduction. From fiscal 2000, when we acquired ISO14001, tofiscal 2004, we have reduced the amountof equipment lubricant and working fluids
used with 5S improvement activities, andin addition we have reduced the total
amount of waste by 60%, by recycling
paper garbage from offices.
Recently we have started positively
working on reusing discarded copper
tubes used in heat exchangers as a raw

material. We will continue to work to effectively use resources and reduce waste,with the aim of becoming an even moreenvironmentally friendly works.

 We received recognition for“Plant Excellence in Wastewater Control”
from the city of Amagasaki.

Osaka Works Cleaning activities around the works

The Osaka works has unified to workon energy conservation, and almost
achieved the target of reducing theamount of energy used by 1% over theprevious year, every year. This achieve-

 Enlightenment activities of energy
conservation

B

Shigefumi Chigusa
Manager of Osaka Works

roadly speaking, there are two issues
surrounding our environmental initiatives
at this works. One is to improve the energy
efficiency of customers’ products (air conditioners, for example) and to contribute to social
energy conservation by enhancing the efficiency
of copper tube products, which are manufactured
by us. Although copper tube products are said
to be approaching maturity, there are technicalissues which we believe can be improved. We
intend to continue to manufacture highly-efficient
products that help to achieve a sustainable
society.
Another issue is energy conservation andwaste reduction in the works. It is difficult to25

Location: 6, Doicho 7-chome, Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo
Lot area: 136,000 m2
Number of employees: 330 (as of June 2004)

produce improved results just by repeating
conventional methods. The targets for energy
conservation become larger every year. We aim
to continuously achieve these targets, by further
raising awareness of environmental preservation
among individual employees and devising newmeasures.

Yokohama R&D Laboratories
Yokohama R&D Laboratories aims to
improve the basic technologies that support other companies, as a key center ofour research and development activities,
as can be seen from the development of ahigh-power semiconductor laser for opticalfiber amplifiers (honored with the Okochi
Memorial Production Award), and at thesame time, is working on the research anddevelopment of leading-edge technologies
that will form the core of our next-generation businesses in the medium- to longterm.
We acquired ISO14001 certification in
2002. Unlike plants, we do not have a large
production line, but because we handlechemical substances and high-pressuregases, we have fully studied their control
methods. Priority items for fiscal 2004 are“research and development in consideration of the environment,” “strengtheningof chemical substance control and prevention of water pollution,” “effective utilization

 Cleaning activities

Pursues environmental preservation
truly for people

 Soccer class in the grounds of our laboratories

of resources and reducing and recycling
waste” and “promotion of energy conservation activities.” Among different types ofresearch and development, in consideration of the environment we have workedon the introduction and operation of DfE,
the technical development of lead-free solder and the development of analysis technology in consideration of the environment.
With regard to analysis technology, we
make precise measurements to evaluate the presence or absence of minuteamounts of substances that will impact
on the environment in the products of
Furukawa Electric and affiliated companies,
utilizing know-how and analysis technology which has been accumulated at theAnalysis Technology Center of our laboratories. We contribute to our green procurement and product development through thedevelopment and establishment of suchanalysis technology.

I

Kazunori Nakamura
Manager of Yokohama R&D
Laboratories

frankly feel that awareness of the environmenthas become rooted in every single employee.
This is because, although we do not havelarge lines unlike plants, every single employee
controls chemical substances and the like,during their research and development work.
Routine consideration to the environment ofeach employee leads to effective utilization of
resources and the reduction and recycling ofwaste.
Our laboratories are located in a residentiala r e a o f Yo k o h a m a , a n d a t t h e v e r y l e a s t ,an environmental issue is not to causeinconvenience to the local residents. We havenever received any complaints from them so far,26

We will continue to promote researchand development activities, with anincreased awareness for the environmental
preservation that is essential for the creation of new products and new businesses,with an eye towards the next generation.

Yokohama R&D Laboratories

Location: 4-3, Okano 2-chome, Nishi-ku, Yokohamashi, Kanagawa
Lot area: 19,881 m2
Number of employees: 300 (as of April 2005)

but we will try to give more friendly consideration
to the local environment, by completely eliminating any abnormalities in the wastewaterproduced by our research.
There is a recreational ground on the premiseof our laboratories, and it is used by the local
residents for soccer classes and the Bon festival
dance. We have upgraded the toilets in therecreational ground so that the local residents are
not inconvenienced when they need to use them.
We will work on environmental problems without
neglecting our friendly consideration for people.

S

ocial Performance

Environmental Performance of Affiliated Companies
This section introduces the environmental preservation activities of the affiliated companies of Furukawa Electric.

Access Cable Company
History
The Access Cable was establishedthrough the merger of the former Nishiura
Electric Wire Co., Ltd. and the former
Kyushu Okano Electric Wire Co., Ltd. in
April 2002. Our Head Office is located inTokyo, and we have factories in Hokuriku(Ishikawa Prefecture) and Kumamoto. Our
main business is manufacturing opticalfiber cables, indoor and outdoor wires,
LAN cables and coaxial cables.
We hope to satisfy our customers
through the development and manufacturing of products as well as to contributeto society, even if it is only slightly. We
are promoting our activities, while always
keeping harmonization with the environment in mind, and giving consideration toenvironmental preservation.

Environmental Preservation Activities
We set up an Environmental Committee
at each of our factories, making it ourbasic policy for promoting environmental
preservation activities that recognition ofprotecting the global environment as amanufacturer is the most important thingwith regard to our social responsibility asa corporation and that each employee
pledges to improve environmental preservation while putting emphasis on being
environmentally-friendly in addition to that
we contribute to achieving an affluent
society in which all the people can live
safely.
● The Kumamoto Factory acquired
ISO14001 in October 2000
● The Ho kur iku Fa c t o r y a c q u i r e d
ISO14001 in December 2004

Priority Items
 Reduction of electric power consumption
We introduce energy-saving facilities ina systematic way, to reduce greenhousegases, and carry out our activities withawareness of saving power in our daily
air conditioning, plant lighting and officeautomation equipment.

■ Reduction of Electric Power Consumption

Local Community Activities

250

(%)
Total electric power consumption
7
Reduced electric power consumption
6.4%
Reduction ratio
6

200

5

150

4

(10,000 kWh)
300

100

We participated in river cleaning activities hosted by the town.

3
2%

50

0.9%

0
2000

2001

2002

2003

2
1
2004 (Fiscal year)(Data of Kumamoto Factory) Reduction of waste
Aiming at reducing waste from factories and recycling 100% of our waste(zero landfill disposal), we have workedon the control of emissions, reusingmaterial, recycling material and thermal
recycling, in the order described.
● Since September 2001 PE has beensold as a valuable material to be recycled.
● Since October 2002 non-valuable plastic waste, except PVC, has been thermally recycled.
● Since October 2003 optical fiber cable
scraps have been sorted and thermallyrecycled.
● Since October 2004 plastic bobbins
and transparent PE bags have beensorted and the material has been recycled.
● Since October 2004 sorting standards
have been subdivided and plastic
waste has been thermally recycled.

■ Total Emission and Recycling Ratio of
Plastic Waste(tons)
120(%)

Total emission of plastic waste
Landfill quantity
Recycling ratio of plastic waste

100
80

72%

60

100
85% 80

80%

60

55%

40

40

25%

20

20
0

2000

2001

2002

2003

0
2004 (Fiscal year)(Data of Kumamoto Factory)■ Volume Handled and Emission of
Trichloroethylene(tons)
12
Volume handled
Emission

10
8
6
4
2
0

2001

2002

2003

2004 (Fiscal year)(Data of the Hokuriku Factory)

Access Cable Company

 Reduction of hazardous air pollutants
In June 2004 we completely stopped
the use of trichloroethylene as a fluid forwashing coaxial cable cores.

 Enlargement of green area
On the 30th an-niversary of the Kumamoto
Factory, all the employees planted trees.

Head Office: NF Kanda Building 4F, 1-8-9, Kanda-Nishikicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Hokuriku Factory: 19-3, Wakabadai, Shika-machi, Hakuigun, Ishikawa
Kumamoto Factory: Ouaza Sougawa 2001, Kosa-machi,
Kamimashiki-gun, Kumamoto
Number of employees: 113
Enquiries and further information
EMS Office, Kumamoto Factory
TEL:+81-96-234-1180 FAX:+81-96-234-1181

27

Asahi Electric Works Co., Ltd.
History
The Asahi Electric Works has been an
exclusive manufacturer that has played
an important role in power transmission
and distribution technology from its foundation in 1948, right up until the presentday. We are invigorated to take steps
forward toward future energy transportation and information transmission support technology, based on our technology which has been cultivated for over
50 years.

Environmental Preservation Activities
We are promoting preservation activities making it our basic policy that wehave an obligation to preserve the global environment and to protect our precious earth in order to pass it on to ourdescendants in a good condition and that
we will assume our social responsibility
as a corporation by contributing to theestablishment of a better environment
for people, society and the earth. We
acquired ISO14001 in February 2003.
When ISO14001: 2004 was published,
we quickly responded to it and had aTransition Audit in February 2005, switching to the 2004 version. Taking this opportunity, we will work on our activities withfresh spirits.

Environmental Policy Item
1. Promotion of energy saving to prevent global warming
2. Reduction of the amount of environmental impact substances used(complete elimination of trichloroethylene)
3. Reduction and recycling of waste
4. Development of products that reducethe impact on the environment
Of the above, which are set as priority
items, number 2, the “complete elimination of trichloroethylene” was achieved
one year earlier than we had planned,
and our activities for eliminating it are
introduced below.

Reduction of Amount of Environmental
Impact Substances Used

■Change in Annual Amount of
Trichloroethylene Used

(Complete elimination of trichloroethylene)

(kg)
2500

Trichloroethylene is said to be a carcinogenic and a pollutant of groundwater, and its use has been regarded as aproblem. We used a combined amountof 1,700 kg to 2,000 kg at the Nagai andKumamoto plants each year for cleaningmachined parts and as a solvent for a surface treatment agent for processed electric parts. The staff in charge of engineering and manufacturing started promoting activities in fiscal 2002 to completely
eliminate the use of trichloroethylene.
The trichloroethylene that was used
for cleaning purposes was eliminated bychanging cutting oil to a water-soluble
agent, thereby eliminating the need forcleaning altogether. However, we hadgreat difficulty in selecting a substitute fortrichloroethylene as a solvent for surface
treatment, because there were two kindsof products (aluminum and copper) tobe surface treated, and we had to selectsubstitutes that were suitable for both ofthese materials. There were more thanten kinds of potential replacement candidates, and we spent a considerable
amount of time and labor on this problem, but our efforts were rewarded withsuccess when we found a suitable chemical. The trial product passed the required
quality level in the performance test, andthe safety data sheet confirmed it had no
impact on the environment, and so we
could eliminate the use of trichloroethylene at the Nagai plant in August 2004.
Then, we extended this approach to the
Kumamoto plant and in November 2004
at last we achieved complete elimination.
We had to deliberate carefully, because
we needed to select a substitute without impairing the quality of our products,
and we are proud to say the enthusiastic
initiatives of the staff concerned brought
about the success.

Kumamoto Plant
Nagai Plant

2000
1500
1000
500
0

2001

2002

2003

2004 (Fiscal year)

Nagai Plant: Achieved complete elimination in
August 2004
Kumamoto Plant: Achieved complete elimination in November 2004

Future Activities
A thinner used by some of our products as a degreaser contains toluene,
an environmental impact substance. We
will work to reduce the amount of thinnerused in the future.

Asahi Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Head Office: 2-11-16, Azamino-Minami, Aoba-ku,
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa
Nagai Plant: 1812, Imaizumi-Yamada, Nagai-shi,
Yamagata
Kumamoto Plant: 556, Kyokushifumoto, Kikuchi-shi,
Kumamoto
Nikko Plant: 500, Kiyotaki-machi, Nikko-shi, Tochigi
Number of employees: 220
Enquiries and further information
Quality and Environment Group, Head Office
TEL:+81-45-910-2800 FAX:+81-45-910-2809

28

S

ocial Performance

Environmental Performance of Affiliated Companies
Furukawa Logistics Corporation
History
Furukawa Logistics was establishedin October 1980, having been separated
from the logistics section of Furukawa
Electric, as a trucking, packing and packaging, and warehousing business.
Then, we were entrusted with all theworks and nationwide distribution centers of Furukawa Electric and the worksof Furukawa-Sky. In 2000, we established the Oyama Distribution Center,and in 2003 we set up offices in China(Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin).
Our business covers a wide range ofareas, including logistics-related businesses such as transportation, customs
brokerage, warehousing businesses andlogistics consultancies, and general worker dispatch businesses.

Environmental Preservation Activities
We have formulated our quality andenvironmental policy to achieve, througheconomic activities of logistics, “an affluent society in which people in the world
understand each other and make full useof humanity, individuality and creativity”
as defined in our management policy,
and promoted environmental preservation activities.
We acquired ISO14001 certification
at 14 bases of our Branch Offices andCenters nationwide including the Head
Office in June 2002, aiming at becoming an environmentally friendly logistics
company.

of these drums, in order to produce new
drums. When there were materials that
had to be discarded, various ideas weregenerated including using them as litter for horses (at our Sapporo Center)or using them as boards by reducing tochips (at another center).

■ Landfill and Incineration Disposal(tons)
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

First half of fiscal 2001(%)
Quantity of landfill and incineration disposal
100
Reduction ratio
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2002
2003
2004 (Fiscal year) Deployment of support activities for GreenManagement Certification acquisition
We began to encourage transportationand delivery companies to acquire GreenManagement Certification and help themain special delivery transportation companies acquire this certification. We will
start with the Chiba Branch Office in fiscal
2004 and expand our support throughout
the country.
We held an Eco-Drive seminar because one of
the criteria for Green Management Certification is
the practice of eco-drive techniques. We obtainedcooperation from a truck manufacturer and held theseminar at the Chiba Branch Office and the Kanto
Distribution Center in September 2004 and March
2005. The participating drivers of trucking companies
learned “low fuel consumption driving techniques(eco-drive).”

We are going to have a combined audit of ISO14001:
2004 and ISO9001: 2000 in May 2005.

Environmental Preservation Activities(Fiscal 2002 to fiscal 2004)

 Eco-Drive Seminar Reduction of NOx per ton · kilometer from vehicles
The NOx emission from trucks, ourmain means of transportation, wasreduced by 6% over the first half of fiscal 2001 per product transportation
ton·kilometer.

 Reduction of the quantity of landfill andincineration disposal
The landfill and incineration quantity of waste was reduced by 84% overthe first half of fiscal 2001. Activities thatlargely contributed to the reduction were
the recycling and repairing of collectedwooden drums for electric wires, for theirreuse, as well as collecting and reassembling materials after the disassembly*Eco-Drive in Trucks
Driving technique for fuel saving
 Gradual starting acceleration  Use of upper gearfor improved fuel economy  Maintaining a constant speed  Engine speed within the green zone
 Unsteady driving is an enemy of fuel economy
 Using an engine brake  Refraining from speeding  Short periods of idling  No strong idling
Provided by Hino Motors, Ltd.

 Reduction of Electric Power Consumption
We promoted company-wide energy
saving activities, targeting at a reductionof electric power consumption. Electric
power is mainly used for lighting in our
offices and work areas, and outdoor lighting. It was reduced by 16% over the firsthalf of fiscal 2001.

 Reduction of Purchased Amount of Office Paper
We worked on reducing the purchasedamount of office paper, by using the backside of used paper, as an initial environmental activity, with the aim of raising company-wide awareness, and we
reduced the amount by 31% over the firsthalf of fiscal 2001.

Future Activities
We plan to carry out the following
activities from fiscal 2005.
1. Reducing the number of accidents
2. Reducing electric power consumption
3. Reducing NOx per ton·kilometer fromvehicles
4. Reducing the quantity of landfill andincineration disposal
5. Deploying support activities to acquire
Green Management Certification
6. Preparation of ton·kilometer data to beprovided to consignors, with respect
to the revision of the Rationalization in
Energy Use Law, to take effect in 2006
7. Participation in environmental preservation activities in cooperation withmunicipalities

Furukawa Logistics Corporation

 4-ton Unic truck used for driving
at Eco-Drive seminar
Effect of Eco-Drive
Average speed
Fuel consumption

Before seminar After seminar
23.5 km/h
22.3 km/h
4.26 km/5.59 km/

CO2 Emission

When 4,000 liters of fuel is used per month:
Conventional driving / 4,000 liters / Emission of about
10.5 tons of CO2
After fuel saving / 3,053 liters / Emission of about 8.0 tonsof CO2
It is possible to reduce the emission of CO2 by about 2.5
tons per month.

29

Head Office: Furukawa Electric Kanda Building 6F, 16-8,
Uchikanda 2-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Number of employees: 239 (as of the end of March 2004)
Enquiries and further information
ISO Office, Quality Assurance Dept.
TEL:+81-436-42-9311 FAX:+81-436-42-9350

● Progress in Environmental Management

1972

Company-Wide Regulations for Pollution Prevention formulated

1974

Environmental Control Department established
Energy-conservation Team started

1989Team for Reduction in Use of Speciﬁed CFCs started

1992

Renamed from “Team for Reduction in Use of Speciﬁed CFCs” to“Team for Reduction in Use of Ozone Layer Depletion Substances”

Head Office : 6-1, Marunouchi 2-Chome,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8322 JapanFounded : 1884
Changed firm name : 1920

1993

Basic Framework for Protecting the Global Environment formulated(Furukawa Electric’s voluntary plan of environmental preservation)

1994

Committee for Company-Wide Promotion of Energy Conservation
started

1996

Speciﬁed CFCs and trichloroethane completely eliminated from thecompany

1997

Team for Promotion of Reduction in Industrial Waste started

1998

Furukawa Electric Basic Environmental Policy formulated
Central Committee for Environmental Management started
Committee for the Development of Environmentally Friendly Products
startedChiba works acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation
Mie works acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation
Company-Wide Regulations for Environmental Management
formulated revising the “Company-Wide Regulations for Pollution
Prevention”

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

Company Profile

Safety, Environment and Health Promotion Department started,
incorporating the Environment Control Department and the Safety
Control Divisions
Ecology and Energy Laboratory established
Liaison Meeting with Afﬁliated Companies established
Environmental Report began to be issued
Meeting of Environmental Personnel started
Hiratsuka works acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation
Osaka works acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation

Paid-in Capital : 69.2 billion yen
Number of employees : 4,922
Works : Chiba works, Nikko works, Hiratsuka
works, Mie works, Osaka works, Yokohama
R&D Laboratories
Sales Offices : Kansai Branch Office, Chubu
Branch Office, Kyushu Branch Office
Research Laboratories : Yokohama R&D
Laboratories, Metal Research Center, Ecology &Energy Laboratory, FITEL Photonics Laboratory,
Automotive Technology Center(As of April 1, 2005)* The Shinagawa works in this report became the Head Officeof VISCAS in January 2005. The Kambara works closed in
March 2005.

■ Total Sales (Consolidated)(Billion yen)
1000
800
600
400
200
0

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004 (fiscal year)■ Sales Composition Ratio(Consolidated)

Medium-Term Plan for Environment Preservation Activities 2002
formulated (for 2001 - 2002)
Shinagawa works acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation
Environmental accounting started to be disclosed

20%

Electronics andAutomotive Systems

Telecommunications

15%

Energy andIndustrial Products

23%Light Metals

Nikko works acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation
Yokohama Laboratories acquired ISO14001 certiﬁcation
Green Procurement Preparation Committee started

28%

Metals14%

Furukawa Electric Basic Environmental Policy revised
Medium-Term Plan for Environment Preservation Activities 2005
formulated (for 2003 - 2005)
Green Procurement Executive Committee started
Liaison Meeting of Consolidated Environmental Management started
Seminar for executives of consolidated companies held
Medium-Term Plan for Environment Preservation Activities 2005
revised (for 2003 - 2005)
Renamed from “Safety, Environment and Health Promotion
Department” to “Safety, Environment and Quality Promotion
Department”
Green Product Management Committee started

30

Information Disclosure on Web site
On our Web site, we disclose how
Furukawa Electric is promoting its environmental preservation initiatives, andpresent past environmental reports in
PDF format.
Furukawa Electric’s Web site

http://www.furukawa.co.jp/english/Safety, Environment and Quality Promotion Department
6-1, Marunouchi 2-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
100-8322 Japan
TEL: +81-3-3286-3090 FAX: +81-3-3286-3540
http://www.furukawa.co.jp/english/
Published in September, 2005

This report is printed on 100% recycled paper with soybean oil ink,
using a waterless printing method that generates no wastewater.

IE-104 1G9 TR 50