Issues and Initiatives
Takao Adachi, Envronmental management Officer of Elpida Memory, Inc.
- Issues and initiatives related to the environmental management system
The Elpida Memory Group contributes to the realization of IT equipment that is more sophisticated, more energy efficient, and lower in cost by developing and designing semiconductor memory and by supplying DRAM (dynamic random access memory), a key device in today's electronic products. Environmental management is a key aspect in forming the future shape of the group as a whole as we move forward with these business activities. As we actively incorporate new technologies and ideas into our operations, we have endeavored to deal with the following two issues in the past fiscal year.
Considering positive and negative environmental aspects together The first issue relates to the positive environmental aspects of our activities and involves the creation of products that make an industry-leading environmental contribution. The trend in IT equipment is toward smaller size, and mobile devices are tending almost limitlessly toward greater compactness and higher functionality. This creates a demand for ever-smaller devices that deliver sophisticated functions while reducing power consumption. We employ the latest design and manufacturing technology to meet this demand.
The second issue is reducing the negative environmental impact of our activities. The main focus here is environmental activities for manufacturing as "eco factories." Elpida Memory started full-scale production on its 300 mm wafer lines in FY2005. These operations combine high levels of productivity and environmental efficiency. Semiconductor device manufacturing involves processing silicon wafers, which form the raw material, with pure water, chemicals, and gases. Then the wafers are treated under high temperature. In addition, the production lines themselves must maintain high-purity clean room conditions. Supplementary facilities are therefore required for tasks such as air conditioning and water purification. This consumes large amounts of electric power, water, and chemicals. The issue is therefore to minimize the environmental burden of these as far as possible.
Improving environmental performance and reducing risks to the environment The requirements for an environmental management system for the operation of our main business are continuous improvement of environmental performance, as described above, and minimization of the risks to the environment associated with our business activities.
In addition, attention is increasingly focused on life cycle assessment (LCA). This involves the establishment of indices for all stages in a product's life cycle, including materials procurement, manufacturing processes, product use, and disposal after use, to enable quantitative tracking of environmental impact. LCA methodologies for the semiconductor industry are currently being studied, and we are actively committed to setting up our own LCA system in future.
Although some environmental risks are difficult to express in terms of numerical targets, it is important to ensure that absolutely no pollution of the air, water, or soil occurs as a result of contamination by the large volume of chemicals we use in our operations. At the same time, we believe that management of factors affecting the safety and health of our employees is essential. The Elpida Memory Group considers its environmental management system to be a key element in the management of environmental, safety, and health matters, and is actively promoting related activities. Hiroshima Elpida Memory has obtained occupational health and safety management system certification (OHSAS 18001) as part of the company's efforts to manage and reduce risks to health and safety.
Promotion of future environmental activities Some issues and initiatives related to environmental management at the Elpida Memory Group are described above.
The basis for the function of an environmental management system is sharing information and reforming the consciousness of employees. In particular, it is essential that employees share information on day-to-day problems that arise in connection with efforts to reduce environmental risks in order to raise their awareness of such issues.
During the current fiscal year we have been working to establish a shared awareness of key issues and to enhance our educational programs for reforming the consciousness of employees. In this way we hope to further promote environmental activities.
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