KYOCERA Launches the "Environmental Consciousness Evaluation System"
Implementing at All Divisions and R&D Groups
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(This document was translated from the Japanese press release.)
April 17, 2006
Kyocera Corporation (President: Makoto Kawamura) today announced the launch of the "Environmental Consciousness Evaluation System" where environmental consciousness is evaluated at the products and technologies development stage at all divisions and R&D groups for facilitating the manufacturing of environmental-friendly products.
This is an internal system to conduct a quantitative evaluation on new products and technologies using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) at all steps of the commercialization process, from planning and development to mass production and sales. It is conducted at three stages: planning, prototype creation, and mass production. Products that meet the internal criteria at the final stage will be certified as "Kyocera Global Environmental-friendly Products."
Kyocera will prepare internally for the enforcement of the EU directive for the eco-design of Energy-using Products (EuP) in two years in Europe by initiating this system as early as possible. It will foster development of environmental-friendly products from the design stage of components and final products, and thereby assume responsibility as a manufacturer.
Name : Environmental Consciousness Evaluation System
Operation start : from April 2006
Scope : Kyocera Corporation
Background
The initiatives for contributing to protection of the global environment and reducing the environmental impact are indispensable for corporate activities. Particularly in the manufacturing industry, we are entering an age when a reduction in environmental impact needs to be considered throughout the production cycle, including material procurement, manufacturing, distribution, use, disposal and recycling. With this as a background, companies are introducing and operating LCA, a technique for making quantitative evaluation of the environmental impact by knowing the volume of resources and energy consumptions, and the emission of environmental burden throughout the life cycle of products.
Kyocera established the "Kyocera Green Committee," chaired by the president in December 1990, with its special subcommittees, the "Global Environment Products Section" "Environment Products Subsection" and "LCA Subsection." According to this framework, LCA were implemented and Kyocera Global Environmental-Friendly Products and Kyocera Eco-Label have been certified.
In the meantime, following the WEEE directive enforced in 2005 and the RoHS directive to be enforced from July 1, 2006, the EuP directive will take effect in two years. The EuP directive is designed to consider the environmental impact from the product design stage based on the understanding that approximately 80% of the impact depends on how the product is designed. If this directive takes effect, more environmentally friendly designs will have to be considered as well as quality, performance and price. It will be also required to disclose LCA data for components and devices.
In response to these social trends, Kyocera reconstruct LCA systems that have been in place, and introduce and operate the Environmental Consciousness Evaluation System from April, 2006.
Outline
1. Implementation of quantitative evaluation assessments based on three themes
Kyocera has established three themes for achieving environmentally-friendly products throughout at the planning stage, development stage, mass production and sales stage:
(1) Global warming prevention and energy saving
(2) Resources Circulation (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)
(3) Environmental preservation and safety.
The concepts are set along these themes and from the viewpoint of contribution to environmental protection and environmental impact reduction. Under the concepts, LCA is effectively used for the quantitative evaluation.
Theme and Concept
2. Flowchart for the evaluation system
Environmental-friendly products were previously assessed only at the beginning of development and design stages. In the new evaluation system, the procedure is reformed, and assessments are made at the three steps indicated in the diagram below. In Step 1, targets are set for each concept at the planning stage. In Step 2, the achievement level is estimated from the specifications at the prototype stage. In Step 3, the achievement level is verified based on the actual measurement values at the mass production stage. If products pass the certification criteria in Step 3, they will be certified as "Kyocera Global Environmental-friendly Products" and "Kyocera Eco-Label Products." All processes including application, assessment, certification, and approval will be posted on the company intranet, so all divisions and R&D groups can check the status at any time, and it is easy for them to use the information effectively when they develop the next product.
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