Toshiba Group Environmental Vision 2010

22 March, 2005


TOKYO -- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has established Environmental Vision 2010 with the aim of improving the eco-efficiency of products throughout their life cycles. In addition to the eco-efficiency indicator for products, which was introduced in 2004, Toshiba has set an eco-efficiency indicator for the entire business process encompassing product development, manufacturing and recovery after the end of use. The target is to double Toshiba Group's overall eco-efficiency encompassing products and business processes by fiscal 2010 compared with that in fiscal 2000.

Also, Toshiba has established the Fourth Voluntary Environmental Action Plan, a plan covering the period from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2010 for achieving the target of Environmental Vision 2010. The voluntary plan calls for a 25% reduction ratio of energy-originated CO2 emission per nominal production volume compared with fiscal 1990.

In fiscal 2004 Toshiba introduced an eco-efficiency concept*1, in which the value of a product and the product's environmental impact are related, and started activities to assess and improve eco-efficiency based on the factor*2, comparing the eco-efficiency of a product in the year subject to assessment to the eco-efficiency of a product in the benchmark year.

Also, in fiscal 2004 Toshiba launched Factor T, an action program in which factors are applied to create environmentally conscious products with the objective of systematically improving product eco-efficiency. In Environmental Vision 2010, the scope of Factor T has been expanded from products to cover the entire business process.

In Environmental Vision 2010, from the perspective of life cycle assessment (LCA), overall eco-efficiency*3 is calculated based on product eco-efficiency and business eco-efficiency, taking the ratio of the environmental impact during each phase, such as manufacturing and usage, into account. Toshiba aims to improve product eco-efficiency 2.2 times and business process eco-efficiency 1.2 times, thereby doubling overall eco-efficiency by fiscal 2010 compared with fiscal 2000.

*1 The "eco-efficiency" of a product is based on the relationship between the product's environmental impact and value. The "eco-efficiency" is calculated by dividing the value of the product by its environmental impact. The smaller the environmental impact and the higher the value of the product, the greater is the eco-efficiency.
*2 The "factor" is calculated by dividing the eco-efficiency of a product subject to assessment by the eco-efficiency of the benchmark product. The higher the eco-efficiency of the product, the larger the factor is.
*3 In the life cycle of a product, the product's environmental impact is thought to be higher during usage than during manufacturing. For calculating overall eco-efficiency, product eco-efficiency, business process eco-efficiency and their relative importance are taken into account.

More information on the Toshiba Group Environmental Vision 2010 can be found at:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/env/en/management/vision.htm
More information on the 4th Voluntary Environmental Action Plan can be found at:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/env/en/management/plan4.htm


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