Status of increase of sales volume of the products that were stored in the environment (compared to that of one or two years ago)

Note: Targets the enterprises that manufacture and distribute environment-friendly products in the 15 product fields that are the major targets of green purchase, regarding sale and commercialization of environment-friendly products

Source: "The 6th Green Purchase Questionnaire Survey Result Report" by the Green Purchase Network Bureau (Period of survey: October and November 2001)

Transition of the number of enterprises and organizations that issued environmental reporting

reformation of the top-down concept. The number of certifications that were acquired in Japan reached about 8,000 as of the end of 2001. With the increase of the number of organizations that implement green purchase and sales of environment friendly products, some enterprises, which are suppliers of products and services, have started to implement green procurement and at the same time, such movements have become highly valued by the market in terms of environmental conservation. Corresponding to such a trend, enterprises have started to recognize the importance of environmental communication and more and more enterprises prepare environmental reporting each year.

The appearance of green consumers who choose environment-friendly products and shops and of green investors who take account of enterprises' environmental considerations for investments also promote positive measures of environmental conservation by enterprises. The Environmental Conservation Law that was recently enhanced includes many mechanisms for promoting voluntary environmental conservation by enterprises and some businesses tackle environmental control.

In this way, various factors involving enterprises such as the markets, citizens and change of awareness, and measures taken by the Government are becoming more closely related to environmental conservation, having a profound impact on the concepts and actual measures taken by enterprises.

Recent laws and regulations regarding environment and examples of eco-business

Year	Laws and regulations regarding the environment	Main movements such as eco-business
1992	Revision of Montreal Protocol (advancing CFC reduction) Establishment of Automobile NOx Law	Technical development of CFC avoidance advanced such as ozone depletion coefficient "zero" refrigerator Spread of development of lean-burn engine that satisfied both low fuel cost and low NOx emission and three-way catalyst
1994	Effectuation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Ideal of zero emission by the United Nations University	Acceleration of development of energy conservation technology such as for electrical appliance manufacturers and automobile manufacturers Zero emission measures started in automobile, electrical appliances, and beer manufacturers.
1996	ISO14001 certification system	The ISO14001 certification acquisition support service, LCA support business, and environmental report creation support business were started.
1997	Revision of Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law (Review of the Manifest system)	Recycling and waste disposal support businesses are accelerated.
1998	Announcement of bioremediation environment influence assessment guideline	Promotion of bioremediation technology development
1999	Revision of Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy and execution of Bill for the Promotion of Measures to Tackle Global Warming Announcement of Law Concerning Reporting, etc, of Releases to the Environment of Specific Chemical Substances and Promoting Improvements in Their Management	Progress of technology development related to solar batteries and fuel cell batteries Development of chemical control systems such as for manufacturers of electrical appliances
2000	Execution of Law Concerning Special Measures for Dioxins Execution of Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging Announcement of Law on Promoting of Green Purchasing Announcement of Construction Materials Recycling Act Announcement of Food Recycling Law Held the 6th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the UNFCCC	Progress of modification (and new installation) of dioxin countermeasure waste incineration facility Development of business supporting Container and Packaging Recycling Law Acceleration of spread of environment-friendly products to the market Effort for zero-emission was started mainly by major general contractors. Raw garbage processing business accelerated. Trading business started to attract attention.
2001	Execution of Law for Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances	Consultancy business related to waste processing and recycling flourished.

Presentation: Ministry of the Environment