Tetsuya Nakamura President and Chief Operating Officer

What the prevailing financial crisis brought on was not solely a global economic deceleration. Quite possibly, it is calling upon us to reflect on and do some soul-searching over our business setups and lifestyles.
Formulated in 1995, our SMK Environmental Charter demands that we be, first and foremost, a good corporate citizen. A corporate citizen has not only the right to engage in profitable activity but also the responsibility to fulfill its obligations to society.More specifically, we must redouble our approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent global warming, a task facing all humankind in common. And as a manufacturer of electronic components for IT equipment, we must comply with various regulations, including the EU and China Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, J-Moss, and the Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). Furthermore, we have to provide thorough environmental education in order to point the mindset vector of each and every employee toward environmental preservation activities.

SMK views the present tough times as a precious opportunity for innovation.
To adapt to and survive the upheaval in the economic climate, we are not only pursuing a rigorous elimination of all waste and loss but also taking steps including the promotion and development of design perspectives with consideration for the global environment, reduction of CO₂ emissions, and materialization of new business prospects in the market associated with the environment. Meanwhile, we remain unswervingly committed to pursuing the goal of “all quality aspects on the job (zero defects)” until their attainment.

For the future, we shall continue to discharge our responsibilities as a global citizen, and report our achievements to all of our stakeholders through media such as this document.

	Yoshio Sakurai Vice President of Environment Div.

The year 2009 is the second year of the commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. On June 10, the Japanese government announced its medium-term target of a 15 percent reduction by 2020 in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 2005. We at SMK are, of course, taking aim at this national target, and shall also continue to make the maximum effort to reduce the CO₂ emissions of our entire Group worldwide.

Based on ISO 14001, our environmental preservation activities are steadily evolving. Every year, each work makes the switch to more energy efficient equipment and improves material efficiency in accordance with systematic plans while implementing training programs to enhance employee environmental awareness. Since 2005, we have been participating in Team Minus 6%, a national project for prevention of global warming. In the spirit of this project, we have been conducting COOL BIZ and WARM BIZ campaigns (to adjust temperature settings of air conditioners at specified levels in summer and in winter), participating in Black Illumination program (keeping lights off for several hours on the summer solstice), and calling upon employees to take action to reduce CO₂ emissions in the home.

As a result of these activities, we ranked 121st among all Japanese manufacturers participated in the 12th Survey of Environment Oriented Management Index conducted by Nikkei Inc. in 2008 (as compared to 197th in 2007).
On the product front, we intend to expand upon the product assessment we have been making and introduce a scheme of life cycle assessments (LCA) in fiscal 2009. We are also putting resources into the development of components for eco products such as photovoltaic power generation systems, light emitting diodes (LED), and organic electroluminescent (EL) lighting.

Although the business climate is a severe one, we shall press ahead in our endeavors to achieve the ends of both environmental preservation and business profit by returning to our basic conviction that ecology is a type of economy and that business foundation will actually be strengthened by alleviating environmental impact through firm steps to save resources and energy.