OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2012. Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that its Semiconductor & Storage Products Company (S&S Co.) acquired integrated ISO 140011 certification of its operating bases worldwide at the end of October.

Toshiba' semiconductor business has promoted integrated ISO 14001 certification since fiscal year 2007. Since the integration of the semiconductor and storage businesses in July 2011, S&S Co. has promoted certification for all areas of its business.

ISO 14001 was previously secured by individual sites. However, this resulted in only a partial optimization of environmental activities, prompting a move to integrated acquisition to assure shared standards and targets. Under its new ISO 14001 certification, S&S Co. will promote an Environmental Management System across its operations and processes, including production, development and sales, to secure the following objectives:
A system that ensures group-wide awareness of top management's environmental management philosophy.
Optimum allocation of management resources to environmental preservation.
An improved function for allocating overall targets to individual bases in such areas as greenhouse gas emissions and amounts of waste sent for final disposal.
An interactive, global environmental information network.

Recent years have seen the enactment of various environmental laws and regulations around the world, such as the EU’S REACH2 regulations and the RoHS3 Directive, which have provided models for similar regulations in other regions and countries. By strengthening its Environmental Management System, S&S Co. will reinforce the network that supports its compliance with increasingly complex legislation by collecting and sharing information.

The network also allows the company to understand the environmental activities promoted at each site and to transfer best practices and activities to other sites, with consideration for regional characteristics and requirements, and by doing so to develop optimized environmental management that meets society's demands.

A key tool for optimization and developing a strategic perspective across the entire organization is the promotion of activities based on the PDCA cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act. Taking this to the global scale will provide more effective and focused support for measures geared to reducing the impact of business activities on the environment.

Semiconductor & Storage Products Company will continue to promote environmental awareness and activities that contribute to society by developing and supplying products that take into account environmental impacts.