Various world-wide activities are going on to cope with the problem of environment -conservation. For the semiconductor-industry community to which we belong, there is a task of promoting green procurement, such as Restriction of Hazardous Substance in electrical and electronic equipment in Europe (a directive on the restriction of hazardous substance such as lead or cadmium). We have used a lot of solder in order to mount parts on the circuit boards used for our products. Therefore, establishing “lead-free soldering”, that is, establishing the technique of mounting parts with solder which does not contain lead, is an important task. We are making efforts for the establishment of the technique.

In these days laws have been implemented to promote formation of recycling-oriented society, and 3R has become common sense. We have long been engaged in segregation of garbage; concerning recycling, we are mainly collecting plastics. In 2003, we achieved recycle rate of abandoned plastics over 70%.

Semiconductor products are very precise electronic products and temperature change , extreme dryness or humidness, or the dust is harmful to them. Therefore, in order to keep the whole factory clean and suitable in temperature and humidity, air-conditioning equipment and air cleaners which consume a large amount of energy are used. So we promote “Return of Air-Conditioning (circulation)” and other measures to save energy.

As members of the local society, we actively participate in the environment clean-up campaign, contributing to the local community. Recently we have been participating in environment clean-up campaign in the Iwami airport-site factory park, planting cherries, cleaning the park and so on. We will continue this campaign, as well as other local activities.