Our Reporting Approach

What We Would Like to Communicate

In order to strengthen our CSR accountability to our stakeholders, the fiscal 2008 reporting process was conducted with reference to global standards and guidelines, and the concerns of our stakeholders. We will continue to work to improve our standard of information disclosure.

At Panasonic we have developed a new approach to reporting that provides timely information on the results of our CSR activities, because reporting only once a year is not enough to fulfill our reporting responsibilities.

In addition to improved reporting on the Website, we will be releasing the digital version of the Panasonic Report For Sustainability 2008(Full version)on the Web, which will enable us to give more up-to-date information and better readability, and to reduce the environmental burden of printing and shipping.

With its diverse operations, sustainability issues cover a wide spectrum for Panasonic. We have picked out, analyzed, and reported on the most important of these, with reference to sources such as the third version of our Gobal Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Version 3.0(GRI G3), which reflect the opinions of the various stakeholders worldwide, and the Environmental Reporting Guidelines issued by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Notably, we have made use of AA1000* as a practical method for selecting items on which to report.

* The UK firm AccountAbility has developed standards for the disclosure of information.

Panasonic has examined the various social and environmental issues to determine which are closely related to, and strongly affected by, Panasonic's business activities using the five tests of materiality proposed by AccountAbility. Using widely available global sources, such as surveys and reports by the WBCSD and the UN, and through consultation with specialists, Panasonic has sifted through the various CSR issues to select important report items that have a high relevance to Panasonic, our stakeholders, or society.(See figure below)

In the CSR report, Panasonic does not just address matters that it finds convenient to discuss, but has taken care to deal with matters of over-arching importance. In order to ensure that report items meet this criterion, Panasonic bases its reports on its proprietary Panasonic CSR Reporting Guidelines, which was created with reference to GRI G3 and other documents.

The extent to which a subject is reported is determined by weighting it according to its level of compliance with certain items, its relevance to management issues, and the extent of its effect on society and the environment.

All Panasonic-affiliated companies-both domestic and foreign- are included in the scope of the report. In some instances, however, data applies only to the principal Panasonic group companies. For more details, please refer to the section entitled "Scope of this report."

Based on the management principles of "customer first," "co-prosperity," and "participative management through collective wisdom," Panasonic values open dialogue with customers, trading partners, employees, and other stakeholders. A wide range of methods is employed for engaging stakeholders, such as convening specialist committees with concerned parties from within and outside the company, and conducting opinion polls of customers and employees.

Having adopted a new approach to reporting, we are aware that there will be numerous outstanding issues to address. To properly respond to the stakeholders associated with all the Panasonic activities in a variety of countries and regions, we believe that we will have to create our own proprietary framework for engagement with stakeholders. We will continue to include dialogue with stakeholders in the daily activities of individual employees, and to incorporate CSR issues into our business activities.