Epson Issues Sustainability Report 2006

- TOKYO, Japan, September 15, 2006 - Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today issued the English version of its Sustainability Report 2006 detailing social and environmental initiatives conducted by the Epson Group in FY2005.

Epson began publishing its Environmental Report in FY1999 to summarize the results of each year’s environmental efforts. In FY2003, Epson expanded the content of this report to include two sections: a social initiatives report addressing its stance and progress on social responsibility in general terms, including its ideas about corporate ethics, the work environment and social contributions; and a report on Epson’s many environmental efforts outlining the development of eco-friendly products, recovery and recycling of end-of-life products, and manufacturing methods that minimize energy consumption and use resources effectively. To reflect this expanded scope, the name of the publication was changed to Sustainability Report.

Details of Epson’s Sustainability Report 2006 are given below.

Features of Sustainability Report 2006

1. The data covers 107 consolidated subsidiaries in the Epson Group and as far as possible reports activities on a global scale.
2. The report has been published both as a booklet and on the Internet. The website version contains more detail and supplementary information that would not fit in the booklet, and in the interests of publicizing Epson’s activities in an easily comprehensible format the number of pages in the booklet has been reduced to 60 from last year’s 76.
3. Through its Annual Report (AR) and Sustainability Report (SR), the Epson Group reports annually on all corporate activities and each of these reports fulfills a clearly defined role. The two publications report on the following areas:
* AR: Corporate vision, corporate profile, financial statements
* SR: Social initiatives report, environmental report
* Corporate governance, legal compliance and risk management are covered in both reports
4. The social initiatives section of the SR outlines Epson’s activities by stakeholder (customers, suppliers, employees, society) in an easily comprehensible format featuring quantitative results and interviews with employees who are leading initiatives.
5. The environmental activities section of the SR explains Epson’s environmental efforts at each of six stages in the product life cycle: product development, materials procurement, manufacturing, distribution and sales, usage, and recovery/recycling.

Key activities in FY2005
Social initiatives

1. Epson believes that trust-based management is a fundamental tenet of corporate endeavor, and to enable every employee to steadily put such management into practice we have launched new initiatives to evaluate our corporate activities and address fields requiring further enhancement in light of the nine Principles of Corporate Behavior* instituted in September 2005. This year’s report outlines one such initiative taking place in China.
2. Supply chain management has become another key area and the report outlines CSR procurement initiatives carried out in FY2005. Epson has approximately 2,000 suppliers in the Asian region including Japan and almost all of these companies have now been briefed on CSR procurement.

Environmental activities

1. Eco-friendly products
Epson develops and markets eco-friendly products and discloses environmental information on them through its Epson Ecology Label system. There are now 290 Epson Ecology Products and 324 products with Epson Ecology Profile sheets.
2. Management of chemical substances
Green purchasing standards for production materials have been revised to strengthen systems ensuring that chemicals included in products are not environmentally harmful. For chemical substances used in production processes, Epson’s original E-Chem chemical data management system has been introduced in all of the group’s 34 production facilities worldwide. These initiatives enable employees anywhere in the world to obtain information on any chemical substance and securely manage its use.
3. Prevention of global warming
Overall emissions of greenhouse gases (the total for CO2 and other substances such as PFC gases and SF6) were reduced by 3.4% compared to FY2004 figures.
4. Resource recycling
Four group companies achieved level 2 of Epson’s zero emission program, which aims at reducing levels of waste generated and introducing more sophisticated recycling.
5. Environmental accounting
The environmental accounting report announces consolidated results for the entire Epson group. The results come from 38 group companies (19 in Japan and 19 overseas) and indicate the environmental cost and economic effectiveness of efforts and the material balance of business activities at major affiliates working to fulfill the General Environmental Policy. Environmental investment amounted to 4.2 billion yen, up 57% from the previous year. This was due to a high proportion of construction expenses in environmental costs, required to make the Epson Innovation Center R&D facility constructed on the Hirooka office one of Japan’s most environmentally conscious buildings. Environmental costs totaled 19.7 billion yen, up 15% from the previous year. This was largely due to increased R&D efforts to develop environmentally responsible products and processes; such environmental R&D costs amounted to 7.2 billion yen. The discernible economic effect was 6.6 billion yen, which outweighed expenses incurred in efforts to save energy, reduce the volume of environmentally hazardous chemicals used and recycle water.

The writing of the Sustainability Report 2006 was guided by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines (FY2003 version) and the Global Reporting Initiative’s 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

Japanese and Chinese language versions of the report are also being issued.
Epson operations divisions and group companies will also issue environmental reports for their own sites, giving detailed results of environmental activities. The Chitose plant, Matsumoto Minami plant, Epson Toyocom and the Imaging and Information Products Operations Division’s Hirooka office have already issued their Environmental Report 2006.

* Ethical conduct and compliance with the law; protecting people, assets and information; creating customer value; cultivating safe, healthy and fair workplaces; human resources development and a stronger organization; relationships of trust with business partners; honest dialogue with stakeholders; development hand in hand with the community; respect for the natural environment

Click here for a website version of the Sustainability Report 2006 containing additional details and supplementary information.

About Epson
Epson is a global leader in imaging products including printers, 3LCD projectors and small- and medium-sized LCDs. With an innovative and creative culture, Epson is dedicated to exceeding the vision and expectations of customers worldwide with products known for their superior quality, functionality, compactness and energy efficiency.
Epson is a network of 90,701 employees in 120 companies around the world, and is proud of its ongoing contributions to the global environment and to the communities in which it is located. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corp., the Group had consolidated sales of 1549.5 billion yen in fiscal 2005.