Asahi Glass | Integrated Environmental Management System

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Integrated Environmental Management System

The AGC Group has built an integrated environmental management system (Integrated EMS) to achieve the following targets:

(1) To integrate EMS within each of the glass, electronics and chemicals sectors so that they can conduct environmental activities in a cooperative manner through business operations.

(2) To include the head office, sales departments, and R&D departments in the target of EMS activities in addition to manufacturing sites. This will allow the Group to assess the environmental impact of all its business operations in advance, including those related to product design, construction of manufacturing sites, establishment of manufacturing lines, introduction of manufacturing equipment, manufacturing of products, and transportation, which will in turn help reduce the environmental impact of its products throughout their lifecycles.

We implement a Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) cycle for the Integrated EMS. Specifically, under the AGC Group's Integrated EMS, Group management monitors and reviews the environmental activities of the In-house Companies/SBUs to ensure their activities are conducted in a unified manner across the Group to produce the maximum possible results. Moreover, we receive audits on the EMS from the same certification body to ensure that all our sites are audited based on the same global criteria. These audits help us understand and improve the levels of activities conducted by our Group companies in each country and region.
In addition, we strived to receive audits from the same certification body not only for the Integrated EMS but also for our quality management system and occupational health and safety management system, with a view to improving our management systems in a comprehensive manner.

Organizations Incorporated into the Integrated EMS (As of January 1, 2011)

■ Click the image to see its detail.

AGC Group's ISO 14001-Certified Manufacturing Sites (As of January 1, 2011)

Location	No. of manufacturing sites	No. of certified manufacturing sites (No. of sites incorporated into the Integrated EMS)
Asahi Glass	11	11(11)
Group companies in Japan	50	40(36)
Group companies in Asia (not including Japan)	30	28(25)
Group companies in Europe	50	47(9)
Group companies in North America	17	6(6)
Total	158	132(87)

* As for non-manufacturing sites, a total of 99 sites are ISO 14001-certified (including the Integrated EMS).

Continuous Improvement of Environmental, Safety, and Security Activities through Audits

The AGC Group conducts “environment, safety and security audits” to identify the status of environmental, safety, and security activities and make each division strictly follow the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to realize the Group Vision “Look Beyond”. Specifically, the Group Corporate has audited main manufacturing companies of the AGC Group corporate once every two to three years since fiscal 2002. By carrying the audits by the Group Corporate across the main manufacturing companies, management level of AGC Group for environment, safety and security increases and the group-wide issues can be found and improved as Group. Addition to the Group Corporate CSR Office audit, each In-house Company/SBU audits the sub-organizational manufacturing sites every year.
Moreover, AGC Group conducts integrated EMS internal audits of In-house organizations that take a part in integrated EMS. This audit is based on the idea of mutual auditing. Internal audit teams comprised representatives of the each EMS secretariats of the head office and environmental officers of the In-house Companies/SBUs and conduct audits of other sites and factories so as to identify problems from different viewpoints, discuss them, and implement across-the-board improvement measures.
AGC Group verifies the effectiveness of each PDCA cycle by auditing and following up on the environmental, safety, and security activities of In-house organizations, thereby continuously improving its performance.

Environmental Education and Training

The AGC Group is engaged in various environmental education and training which enhances employee's environmental awareness and environmental improvement in order to provide the knowledge necessary to carry out environmental activities. Each In-House Company/SBU provides more specialized education in line with the nature of their respective work.

Major environmental education for AGC Group employees (Fiscal 2010)

Training subjects	No. of participants
EMS internal auditor training course	67
Chemical substance manager training	57
MSDS preparation training	26
Skill up training for PRTR Act	14

Topic
Receiving the Highest Commendation for Environmental Activities (the Philippines)

The Trophy awarded by the PCCI

PEP Award presentation ceremony

AGC Flat Glass Philippines (AGPH), which manufactures and sells various types of float glass received the PEZA Environmental Performance (PEP) Award from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in April 2009 for two consecutive years. To select the winners of the award, PEZA made a series of examinations and on-site inspections of 1,700 companies in the Philippines. AGPH's implementation of an Environmental Management System based on ISO 14001 is highly regarded. It helped AGPH to achieve the compliance with the domestic environmental laws and regulations or to sustain its commitment to waste management, materials recycling and pollution prevention. Its contribution to local communities was also highly praised.
Moreover in October 2010, AGPH received a Special Citation at the Excellence in Ecology and Economy Award held by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), in recognition of its environmental and business performance and its accomplishment and leadership in conducting improvement activities for the sustainability of the global environment.

Holding the AGC Group Environmental Forum to Share Excellent Cases of Environmental Activities (Global)

We held the AGC Group Environmental Forum 2010 at the AGC Monozukuri Training Center and the Asahi Glass Research Center on November 1 and 2, 2010 to share best practices and the challenges faced by the entire Group for the solution of environmental issues. In the forum, a total of about 120 members participated from eight countries and regions and proactively exchanged opinions about environmentally friendly products and energy conservation technologies on the theme "delivering technology solutions for climate change." Participants evaluated the forum to be very meaningful because it provided them with an opportunity to exchange information and identify regional differences in ideas and opinions about climate change. Based on the results of the forum, we will continue to promote our initiative of "delivering technology solutions for climate change" by developing technologies and providing products in consideration of the climatic and other conditions of each region.

Participants proactively exchanged opinions

Participants of the AGC Group Environmental Forum

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