Message

Message
Summary of Business
Furukawa Electric’s Approach to Society
Medium-Term Plan for Environmental Preservation Activities 2005

Our Environmental ReportSocial Performance Report
Environmental Activities of Affiliated Companies
Progress in Environmental Management

Activities of the Furukawa Electric groupworking
on the realization of "sustainable society"
Furukawa Electric has proactively engaged in activities aiming to realize a sustainable
society that reduces environmental impact and increases resource capabilities in order torealize a"resource-recycling society", and has continuously disclosed the outcomes ofsuch activities to society.
We finally began seeing bright signs in the overall domestic economy as a result of thereceding financial crisis and deflationary concerns in fiscal 2003. Meanwhile, although
the Company’s business environment has significantly improved since the year before
last, IT investment in Japan and overseas has not yet smoothly expanded and thus thebusiness situation still remains harsh. However, one of the most important assignmentson the management agenda is actively striving to solve various issues related to preservation of the environment with the aim of achieving a sustainable society. This is being
undertaken by Furukawa Electric’s parent company, working in cooperation with all ourcorporate groups. In terms of concrete actions related to the environment, we specified
target levels and time frames that must be achieved in each target group.
Furukawa Electric and its group are involved in a number of core businesses including
Telecommunications, Plastic, Cables and Wires, Nonferrous Products, Electronics-related
Products and others. We have a long time involvement in proactive recycling of copperand aluminum, and recovery and reuse of plastics, while focusing on developing environmentally friendly products.
From fiscal 2003, in particular, we developed a number of new environmentally friendly
products under the name of ECOLINK, such as environmentally friendly optical cables
that are halogen- and lead- free, new type of cable troughs for which disposed cables
were recycled, and partial-stripe precious metals for which the use of these preciousmetals are minimized. We also intend, through development of sophisticated recycling
technologies and environmentally friendly products, to make a contribution to preserve
the global environment and conserve its resources.
For promoting the procurement of green supplies, we believe that we have also won ourcustomers’ trust by meeting their requirements for environmental investigations and plantaudits. Meanwhile, we have clearly specified company-wide standards in order to purchase products for which greenness is well assured.
In fiscal 2002, we acquired ISO14001 certification, which had been an important
objective in the area of environmental preservation, for 11 works, that are all production
bases of Furukawa Electric. 33 out of 40 affiliated companies, which participate in consolidated environmental management, acquired certification in fiscal 2003. We willcontinue pursuing active programs on environmental preservation through co-sharing
environmental preservation data, exchanging information regarding concrete environmental actions, and holding seminars, targeting the acquisition of ISO14001 certification by all affiliated companies.
We had promoted environment preservation activities based on each operational basein the past. However, recently we have received a variety of requests in broader areasfrom society, including customers and local communities. We intend to further strengthen our activities to improve these environmental issues.
Here we present a report summarizing our environmental preservation actions in fiscal
2003. It is our hope that readers will reach some understanding of the activities of
Furukawa Electric and its associated group of companies and that you will pass onto us
your frank opinions and suggestions.

Hiroshi Ishihara,President

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