Global Global
The International Conference of Environmental Officers was held from November 7-11, 2006 at Fujifilm's headquarters in Tokyo, the 11th such gathering to take place since the first conference in 1991.This international conference is designed to bring together all companies within the group with the aim of improving communication on environmental issues and creating a consistent environmental strategy and policy across the group. It provides a venue for exploring environmental policies from a global viewpoint and formulating a thorough response to international regulations as well as gaining a deeper understanding and knowledge of background factors including national and regional differences in regulations and value systems. The conference was attended by 22 environmental officers from 16 companies, including two overseas subsidiaries, FUJIFILM Imaging Colorants Limited and FUJIFILM Australia Pty Ltd., who were participating for the first time. The conference was also attended by employees from domestic companies within the group representing a wide cross-section of sectors, including development and production, making it the best attended conference so far.
Kazuyoshi Yamate, General Manager of CSR Division, opened the conference by stressing the growing importance of the role played by the environmental officer as environmental regulations become ever stricter. He urged participants to cooperate globally to an even greater extent to promote environmental policies to respond to these regulations, to share information, find solutions to the challenges facing each company and move forward with their sights firmly set on the future to develop thorough global environmental activities in response to the regulations. A lively discussion then developed focusing from a variety of viewpoints on the priority targets for implementation under the Fujifilm Group Green Policy and the regulatory trends having a significant effect on the group's activities as well as the group's response to these trends. Domestic managers in charge of sales, development, production and other departments were able to exchange practical information and discuss various questions with overseas environmental officers and a wide variety of information was shared via the reports presented by each country. As priorities to be implemented under the Green Policy, the conference re-evaluated the progress being made in the measures to reduce GHG (Global Greenhouse Gas) and curtail waste, including recycling, with the aim of improving eco-efficiency in each of the overseas companies. The overseas companies also have a great deal to contribute towards attaining the targets set by the Green Policy, and because further improvement is required in the areas of GHG and waste reduction, the intention is to actively promote policies across the group as a whole, including the overseas companies The four-day conference provided us with the opportunity to re-evaluate the efforts being made by each company as well as the overall progress of the group and to share information and set new themes for cooperation aimed at achieving the objectives of the Fujifilm Group Green Policy.
In July 2006, the RoHS Directive*1 for the management of chemical substances used in products came into force in Europe and Japan, and is also scheduled for introduction in the USA and China at a later date. Japan is the first country to introduce the GHS*2 regulations dealing with how information is provided on the management and labeling etc. of chemical substances, and the target is for all countries of the world to introduce these regulations by 2008.In Europe, the even broader REACH*3 regulations have been introduced.
