Other Activities

Since 2003, Panasonic has fulfilled its legal responsibilities in Japan as an emitter of industrial waste by introducing the use of electronic manifests* named ET Manifest to facilitate the online management of information relating to such wastes. The integrated system operates around a central database that records and stores the data of manifests. Issuance of e-manifests also enables more transparent management of disposal and treatment processes for industrial wastes by allowing GPS-based tracking and identification of individual waste consignments. In fiscal 2007, Panasonic completed the process of introducing the e-manifest system at all 92 production sites operated by Panasonic in Japan.

*Based on the law governing waste treatment, the Japan Industrial Waste Technology Center uses such electronic manifests to manage a system that records the treatment of industrial waste.

Waste cooking oil collected from staff restaurants at Panasonic sites in the Kusatsu region of Shiga Prefecture is being recycled into biodiesel* to supply fuel for the fleet of hybrid trucks employed by Matsushita Logistics Co., Ltd. In July 2006, the scheme was extended to cover seven Group sites across the whole prefecture and supply fuel for vehicles used in nationwide distribution operations. In September 2006, we invited other businesses to join the scheme, boosting projected annual collection volumes of cooking oil to over 32,300 liters. In fiscal 2007, we also introduced the scheme in the neighboring urban Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe corridor, boosting capacity by a further 24,500 liters toward the fiscal 2007 target of 70,000 liters per year.

*Biodiesel: An alternative light fuel made from plant-derived materials