Enhancing Products with environmentally-friendly products
We are keenly aware of the impact that the Citizen Group's products have on the environment and endeavor to improve the environmental quality as well as the reliability and safety of our products.
Expanding our range of environmentally-friendly products
We are taking steps to expand our lineup of eco-friendly products. Only products that meet all of our assessment criteria, including resource and energy efficiency, reuse and recycling, long-term usability, environmental conservation (hazardous chemical substance management), the provision of environmental information and packaging, are certified as environmentally-friendly products.
We launched a comprehensive initiative in fiscal 2005 to achieve our target of increasing eco-friendly products as a percentage of new models to 100% by the end of fiscal 2008. Since then, the number has been steadily increasing. Since fiscal 2009, almost all of our new models have been eco-friendly.
In terms of compliance with REACH regulations*1 and the RoHS directive*2, meanwhile, we have introduced a dedicated management system and are managing chemical substances accordingly.
*1:REACH regulation
A European Union regulation on registration, evaluation, and authorization that has been in force since June 1, 2007, and which imposes obligations to identify controlled substances and to register hazard information on businesses handling chemicals at predetermined quantities.
*2:RoHS directive
A European Union directive for restrictions on the use of hazardous substances, which has banned the sale of electric and electronic products containing six chemicals (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)) within the European Union since July 2006.
Ratio of Citizen Environmentally-Friendly Products among New Models
Example Initiative
CITIZEN MACHINERY
Development of the Cincom environmentally friendly NC automatic lathe
M32 VIII
Machine tools are sometimes known as the “mother” machines. As such, they can play a very important role in the environment from the perspective of lifecycle evaluation. When Citizen Machinery developed the M32 VIII NC automatic lathe, the evaluation criteria included energy conservation and zero use of hazardous chemicals. Machine tools have numerous motors and heavy moving parts. Citizen Machinery identified the energy required for processing and visualized power consumption in an effort to completely cut wasteful energy use. Zero use of hazardous chemicals was attained by studying each of the approximately 3,000 components.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN T.I.C.
Environmentally friendly, solar-powered radio-controlled clocks for outdoor use
Solar-powered radio-controlled clock for outdoor use
Citizen T.I.C. Co., Ltd. primarily manufactures and sells time control systems. Our new solar-powered clock product replaces conventional storage batteries with an electrical double layer capacitor. As the clock runs on the natural energy of sunlight, it incurs no electricity bills, nor does it require an external power supply. What’s more, the adoption of an electrical double layer capacitor means it can store electricity efficiently even in overcast and rainy conditions. The capacitor uses environmentally friendly materials that can be disposed of as general waste in their final form. With a long operating life and no need for replacements, the clocks also have the effect of reducing CO2 emissions. Since first being announced in a June 2010 press release, the clocks have gone on to be installed in many public facilities and other locations.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN MICRO
Working towards a 100% ratio of environmentally friendly products
Coreless motor
At the Motor Division of Citizen Micro Co., Ltd., we have built an ISO system that allows us to design products with the environment in mind from the planning stages of new products. In design reviews conducted at each step in product development, products are required to satisfy the assessment criteria set out in our Environmentally-friendly Product Assessment. Products that have been developed based on this system, including planetary speed reducers and coreless motors that feature compact size and high performance, have been launched on the market as environmentally friendly products. Our efforts in this regard are not limited to new product development; we also take the global environment into account in the manufacturing process. As part of our three-year medium-term management plan, we plotted out an initiative aimed at “achieving an environmentally friendly production site,” and under the slogan of “micro-sizing production equipment” we are also focusing on the development of production techniques to reduce the CO2 generated from plants and produce other benefits.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN ELECTRONICS
Promoting green procurement
A seminar on REACH regulation
At Citizen Electronics Co., Ltd., since 2003 we have strived to guarantee the environmental quality of our products (by removing hazardous chemical substances) as one of the key elements in the development of environmentally friendly products. Based on an underlying policy of upstream management whereby we neither include nor use hazardous chemical substances, we promote the exclusive use of green components and materials, particularly at the design stages, and the exclusive procurement of green components and materials from green suppliers at the procurement stages.
A major challenge we now face is how to respond swiftly to legislation that becomes stricter by the year, particularly in the EU, and the diverse requirements for environmental quality from customers and the industry at large. To meet this challenge, we have undertaken a review of our current environmental quality database system and made progress in areas such as control procedures as part of our commitment to providing customers with safe products they can use with peace of mind.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN MACHINERY
Green procurement initiatives
At Citizen Machinery Co., Ltd., in the development and sale of environmentally friendly products we implement Green Procurement, where products, components, source materials and other items that place fewer burdens on the environment are purchased with priority from suppliers who have promoted environmental management activities. During fiscal 2010 we held Green Procurement briefing sessions for suppliers and reaffirmed recognition of the importance of environmental friendliness. In the future we will reinforce our efforts to ensure the continuance of these activities.
Example Initiative
CITIZEN WATCH
Replacing all batteries with mercury-free equivalents
An advertisement in EURO STAR magazine announcing the full-scale introduction of mercury-free batteries
From 2011 onwards, the sale of button batteries containing mercury and all products fitted with such batteries will be prohibited in the US state of Maine. As a company committed to the environment, we therefore decided to replace the button batteries in all of our quartz movements and finished watches with mercury-free equivalents by the end of 2008. As such, we began to implement this policy starting with the first batch of production in January 2009.
Although our Eco-Drive solar-powered watches have never used mercury in any form, the full-scale introduction of mercury-free batteries also covers finished watches, Q&Q brand and licensed brands other than Eco-Drive. Having launched the industry’s first externally marketed movements to be fitted with a mercury-free battery in 2005, we will now be replacing all mercury batteries with mercury-free equivalents.
