September-28-2004

Proactive Environmental Initiatives by JAE


The 21st century is called the century of the environment. In order to preserve the earth so it can be passed on to future generations, public and private enterprises, other organizations, and individuals are developing various environmental activities in Japan as well as overseas.
Japan Aviation Electronics Industry, Ltd. (JAE) has also been proactively setting ambitious objectives including total elimination of CFCs, lead-free manufacturing, zero emissions, energy conservation, green procurement, etc. As represented by the diversified activities introduced below, we are promoting the above efforts even more vigorously, setting "environmental management" as one of our management reform goals for this fiscal year.


<JAE's Major Environmental Initiatives>

(1) Globally promoting green procurement across the JAE Group companies and subcontractors
In order to minimize environmental impact of its production processes from design to manufacturing, and to distribution, use, disposal, and to waste recovery, JAE developed "Green Procurement Guidelines" in May 2002. These guidelines were created to proactively promote environment-oriented procurement and product delivery. Some of our customers have certified JAE as their green partners.
In this fiscal year, we have made a specific effort toward enhancing the system for environmental efforts by developing environmental advisors to promote our green procurement activities not only within the JAE Group but also with subcontractors. Similarly in the area of customer services, we have built a database system storing data on chemical substances related to our green procurement activities so that we can promptly respond to inquiries on chemical substances contained in our products and/or relevant chemical composition information. .


♦ Environmental advisor development, and support visits to subcontractors started (in May 2004)
To help ensure environmental quality such as reduced hazardous substance content and lower environmental impact across all subcontractors of JAE and JAE Group companies, we have enhanced the green procurement system by developing and appointing environmental advisors in order to provide visiting support to subcontractors.
•Number of environmental advisors: 59 (28 at the headquarters, 31 at Group companies, as of July 2004)
♦ Green procurement database system established for prompt response to customers
In order to enable quick response to our customers' green procurement activities, we accumulated data on chemical substances contained in products, from JAE and Group companies alike, along with composition information by major product and by component. We then compiled the data into a centrally managed database system in December 2003. This system has been helping us quickly respond to product-related inquiries from customers.



(2) As part of our social action programs, we have developed a forest named "Forest of JAE Group" at Okutama, Tokyo.
The land of Okutama-machi, Tokyo, is 90% mountainous and is surrounded by the 2000 meter Chichibu mountain range including Mt. Kumotori. Okutama is one of Japan's notable mountain districts with Okutama Lake in the middle of the town, which is an artificial lake built for the Ogouchi Dam and an important drinking water reservoir of Japan's capital, Tokyo. In this area, forestation has declined in recent years as regions of "bare mountains" have been left by logging activities without subsequent replanting.

In order to protect the forest resources, the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for Promotion of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been proposing various projects designed to encourage participation of metropolitan residents and enterprises (including the Citizens' Forest project that encourages individuals to participate in fund-raising campaigns and volunteer physical labor and the Okutama Co-existence Forest fund-raising project designed for easier participation of individuals and enterprises). This year, the foundation launched a system named Enterprise-supported Forest project for developing forests (by planting trees, etc.) in Tokyo, in an effort to impact global warming by reducing CO2 and for the protection of clean sources of drinking water.

As a city having a particularly strong tie with Okutama, the city of Akishima supports this initiative and has been actively participating in the project. (Many residents of the villages that are now under the waters of Ogouchi Dam moved to Akishima. The city, including JAE's establishment there, totally depends upon groundwater of the Okutama river systems.

JAE celebrated its 50th anniversary last August. In order to commemorate the occasion and to express appreciation for the long-standing relationship with the city, JAE made a small contribution to the city of Akishima to help develop the municipal government's priority projects related to welfare and disaster prevention.
As a derivative of this action, we founded the JAE Group Forest as the first effort under the Enterprise-supported Forest project launched by the Akishima municipal government. It is our hope that the forest would be useful as a symbol of JAE's environmental management.

On June 22, we had a tree-planting ceremony with JAE President Shinozaki in attendance along with representatives of the Promotion Foundation and the municipal government, including the officials who introduced us to the project.
In the future, we are planning tree-planting events with participation of JAE employees and environmental activities such as weed control on an annual basis.



◊ Site location: Aza Osawairi, Hikawa, Okutama-machi, Nishitama-gun
The Osawairi area is located along the Nokogiriyama forest road, a major forest road linking Okutama-machi and Hinoharamura, which has a long history as the Okutama tree farm planted with Japanese cedar cypress trees.
◊ Development area: 1.33 hectares
◊ Development method: Planting broadleaf trees in flat areas and Japanese cypress trees in the remaining areas.



(3) Effort toward elimination of hazardous chemical substances
Total elimination of CFCs: Completed in 1993
Switching to lead-free manufacturing: Targeted for December 2004
Switching to sexivalent chrome-free manufacturing: Targeted for December 2005



(4) Acquisition of ISO14001 certification
JAE and Group domestic/overseas production affiliates (10 companies in all) gained ISO14001 certification by October 2003.



(5) Group-wide effort toward zero emissions
◊ FY 2001: Achieved a result exceeding the target recycling ratio of 95% for all wastes discharged from business activities (including paper, plastics, vinyl, etc.)
◊ FY 2002: Achieved a recycling ratio exceeding 99% for industrial wastes


Japan Aviation Electronics Industry, Ltd.

Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Division

Tel. +81-3-3780-2711
Fax. +81-3-3780-2733

E-mail : jaeinfo@jae.co.jp