Developing CSR Management

Implementing CSR throughout the Supply Chain

Today, Panasonic's CSR efforts must go beyond our group companies to include all the companies we do business with throughout our supply chain. Panasonic has always tried to compete fairly within the rules of society, and in addition, Panasonic has had "mutual prosperity" as a basis for doing business so as to contribute to the sound development of society through mutual growth with our business partners. This is the essence of supply chain CSR, in which all companies involved in the business process-from development to production to sales and service- cooperate to respond to the demands of society. We will continue to aim to be a company that all our stakeholders worldwide can trust as we embark on new efforts in CSR management in fiscal 2008.

In recent years, the need to address environmental problems on a global scale has reached a crescendo while awareness of human rights and labor issues has risen around the world. Along with that awareness has come the demand on companies to take action. In response, the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) was created primarily for the US electronics industry, and a self-assessment tool for CSR was developed by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), primarily for the info-communications industry of Europe and the United States, with the goal of contributing to sustainable development.

Panasonic has reinforced its management system in the areas of management philosophy, codes of conduct, labor and occupational health and safety, compliance, environmental management, and customer relations management. In order to respond quickly to these types of societal trends, we need to strengthen and further develop our existing management system group-wide and globally.

Implementing CSR management globally is a matter of ensuring that the 300,000 group employees of Panasonic worldwide undertake sound measures in the course of daily business activities. We have developed global structures to promote group-wide adoption of CSR-related measures around the world. Besides systems to facilitate rapid global transmission of CSR-related messages from senior management, we have also established systems to ensure that the demands and expectations of stakeholders in various sectors and regions are reflected in business activities in a timely manner. The Matsushita CSR Board, which is chaired by the President, and other bodies coordinate the adoption and implementation of PDCA cycle-based CSR initiatives within each region and at each business domain company.

we exchanged information with a variety of stakeholders and conducted benchmark surveys globally.

By bolstering our CSR management, we have enhanced our capabilities for explaining our CSR initiatives and addressing customer interest in our CSR activities.

We are creating the mechanisms for the continued implementation of CSR activities in our everyday business activities through such measures as hosting a global CSR conference and implementing self-auditing.