Murata and the Environment

Creating a system to reduce environmental impact from the design stage

At Murata, the executive in charge of environmental affairs is responsible for environmental activities throughout the Group, and the Sustainability Department supports and promotes environmental activities across all of Murata’s business sites. The Murata Environmental Committee, a consultative body to the President, discusses and examines the status of environmental activities at each business site, as well as company-wide environmental issues.

Moreover, in order to strongly promote the reduction of CO₂ emissions, we established the Climate Change Committee to accelerate not only the reduction of CO₂ emissions in design, development, and manufacturing but also the introduction of renewable energy and other initiatives concerning general climate change measures.

Link: Overview of Murata’s Corporate Governance System

Integration of environmental management systems of domestic and overseas Group companies

Murata acquired ISO 14001 certification for 50 sites before April 30, 2023. We worked on integrating systems, and in March 2007, we had completed the switching of individual certification of Group business sites in Japan to ISO 14001 multi-site certification. In addition, in March 2010, we completed the integration of the environmental management systems employed in all of our production sites and business sites in Japan. Through this integration, we have been able to implement environmental management incorporating every division from design and development to production, distribution and logistics, and sales, allowing us to also take best practice improvements that proved successful in one plant or office and apply them to other plants and offices for the improvement of the environmental performance of the entire Murata Group.

In 2016, seeking to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our activities, we integrated our environmental management and occupational health and safety management systems.

Link: ISO 14001 certification Status

Environmental education for all employee groups based on type of work

Murata conducts environmental education for all employees to improve their environmental awareness.

With regard to courses for training our internal auditors, in fiscal 2019, the Group created a new course to conduct EHS internal audits in line with the EHS management system. In fiscal 2020, this course was updated to comply with ISO45001. Also, employees who handle wastewater and gas emission equipment or other equipment that affects the environment receive individual training on appropriate inspections and efficient operation to minimize impact on the environment.

Three views to rectifying problems

The Murata Group conducts three types of internal environmental audits at all Japan sites and production plants. Each of these audits is conducted from a different perspective, enabling us to identify problems and make improvements based on broad-ranging perspectives.

Murata’s internal environmental audits

• Internal plant audits
  Internal plant audits are self-audits conducted by each plant based on its own management standards set for routine work for the purpose of monitoring operations and discovering and correcting noncompliance. An audit is conducted once a year by the Internal Audit Team to investigate whether various prescribed rules can be followed correctly. In order to improve the level of auditing and promote the exchange of information between business sites, we have also established a system for the exchange of auditors between business sites. 
  
• Visits to production plants by the Sustainability Department
  The Sustainability Department of the Head Office conducts visits to production plants in order to supplement audits performed by external auditing agencies, and to conduct audits and propose improvements in specialized areas not addressed in internal plant audits.
• Visits by auditors
  The auditing officers inspect the plants’ EHS management systems and their operation to verify overall conformity and, when necessary, provide opinions.