Environmental contribution through our products
At Murata, we manufacture environmentally friendly products by thoroughly focusing on the environmental burden throughout their entire life cycle, including parts and materials procurement, design and development, production, use, recycling, and disposal.
Assessment of Murata Products
Product assessments evaluate the reduction of energy and resources and appropriate management of chemical substances over a product’s life cycle. These assessments enable us to release environmentally-friendly products to the market which are safe and secure for our customers that conform to in-house standards based on laws and regulations, customer requirements, and on the demands of society.
Murata's "Eco-products"
Murata’s thoughts about eco-products
Murata assesses how products will affect the environment from the development and design stages, and confirms that all products are environmentally-friendly before supplying them to customers. Of our environmentally-friendly products, our products that contribute to environmental impact reduction are certified as “Eco-Products” through our own certification standard, and we aim to develop technologies to support the expansion and generation of our “Eco-Products.”
Standards for certification of eco-products
For our Eco-Products certification, we have applied a standard that includes a higher level of environmental consciousness in our product assessment process. As shown in the chart below, our certification concept is to fulfill our certification criteria (compact/high-performance/energy conserving/durability) at a level that surpasses a certain standard.
About Eco-Products
Example:Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors for Automobiles (0402 inch size (1.0×0.5 mm))
Thanks to thin layer forming techniques based on our own atomization and homogenization of ceramics as well as electrode materials, this product has been reduced from the conventional 0603 inch size (1.6×0.8 mm) to the 0402 inch size (1.0×0.5 mm).
By reducing the volume by approximately 76%, we’ve achieved to reduce the amount of materials such as raw materials and packaging materials that were used by approximately 70%.
■Reduction of used materials
List of eco-products
By clicking the links below, you can see the eco-products certified in the past.
Green procurement
In order to reduce the environmental load of products, "green procurement" is required to procure materials with a low environmental load. Murata distributes the "Green Procurement Standards" document that includes details such as Murata's approach to green procurement and requirements for suppliers, and promotes green procurement with the understanding and cooperation of suppliers.
Promotion of green procurement
evaluating suppliers’ “Green level”
When conducting new business, we ask that our partners address global environmental problems such as climate change and environmental pollution based on the "Murata Group Supply Chain CSR Procurement Guidelines." Moreover, in addition to asking to verify the certification status of suppliers under environmental management systems (ISO 14001, etc.), we audit the state of chemical substance control at the manufacturing sites to determine whether we can do business with a supplier.
Once we begin doing business with a supplier, we periodically evaluate how they are managing chemical substances and working toward reducing their environmental load. Suppliers who receive a poor evaluation are requested to make improvements or receive guidance through on-site audits.
Link: Murata Group Supply Chain CSR Procurement Guideline (PDF: 427KB)
Criteria for the green level of suppliers
- Acquisition of an environmental management system certification
- Confirmation of the actual operational condition of the chemical substance management system
- Submission of agreements concerning environmental protection initiatives
Green-level investigation of materials
Before adopting new materials, Murata conducts a green-level investigation for everyone.
As standards for these surveys, we use Murata’s original technical standards, which prohibit or limit the use of certain materials in accordance with legal regulations and customer requirements. Specialized personnel investigate chemical materials that require particular care in handling, and record the materials that pass this inspection in a database to ensure that the Group procures only accepted materials.
Link: Responsibility to and actions concerning suppliers (CSR procurement initiative)