Introduction

In these early years of the 21st century, events exceeding anything we anticipated have continued: changes in social circumstances at home and overseas; changes in international affairs; concerns for a worsening environment represented by global warming; and, most recently, the economic crisis that shook the world in autumn 2008. The ‘shape’ of the world and the ‘shape’ of economics are changing. In these circumstances, the role assigned to business enterprises has also changed. Now, in addition to the conventional role of delivering excellent products incorporating our own technology and technical know-how, and of providing customers with excellent service, all as a means to raise sales and profit and to return value to our shareholders, companies must also be aware of the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Such matters as the public policies conducted by companies and bringing potential solutions to social and environmental issues into business operations are of growing importance.

Companies must now recognize the necessity of taking actions to address the problems of modern society, such as poverty, famine, food supply, distribution of wealth, destruction of the environment, energy, the exhaustion of natural resources and economic crisis, in order to create a comfortable world to live in—and not only for the present generation but for future generations yet to come. In order to meet these responsibilities, all companies are requiredu to make same efforts in cooperation with international organizations, governments, NPOs and NGOs, people. This is what we think of as CSR. All companies are required to approach these problems through their business operations, and take tenacious actions as an integral part of business strategy. With this in mind, we must change the “shape” of business enterprises and the “shape” of our strategies for business operations.

Shibaura Mechatronics Group and CSR

Shibaura Mechatronics Group, as a supplier of equipment for the manufacturer of flat panel displays, semiconductors, optical discs and other products, bears responsibility for the manufacture of these products as a part of its business activities. Our business field is in manufacturing. We manufacture equipment for electronic components integrating leading-edge technology, and we seek to capitalize on the characteristics of this in our CSR, and in promoting the activities described below.

Initiatives in Response to Environmental Problems

In order to prevent global warming, we aim to achieve a low carbon, recycling-oriented society. Currently, Shibaura Mechatronics is carrying out business operations guided by the key concepts of “do not use” and “do not emit” and is taking measures to reduce the CO2 that is produced during business activities. At the moment we aim to cut CO2 at the “per unit of output (efficiency),” but for the future we are investigating the formulation of a long term plan that puts more weight on reducing overall emissions of CO2. In addition, we have taken steps in our own product development of enable our customers to use manufacturing equipment that helps them to bring to market products whose manufacture generates lower CO2 emissions. Further to this, we are drawing on our core technologies, our laser technology and automation techniques for instance, to start a new battery equipment business, and this too has the potential to provide a strong preventative to global warming.

Initiatives for dealing with social issues

Shibaura Mechatronics Group is promoting activities while recognizing that the ability to do so rests on the capabilities of the people who work for us. We call our employees “human resources,” and this is because we have a shared awareness that it is the individual capabilities of each and every individual in the company that supports our business operations in such areas as development, designing, assembly and testing. By understanding that person = human resource we are recognizing our company’s most important asset and Shibaura Mechatronics Group’s key management resource. For this reason, we believe that development of people is the very basis of our operations. Our employees, being alive, working with energy and commitment, are the nucleus for developing our CSR activities, and in this way “people who live CSR” are the basis of Shibaura Mechatronics’ CSR.

We have now decided to put accounts of the CSR activities that we are promoting into a single volume. We hope it will attract a large number of readers, and we would be happy to hear your opinions and critiques.