Murata and the Environment

Prevent pollution and manage chemical substances

At Murata, we consider “Prevent pollution and manage chemical substances” to be issues of key importance and facilitate various measures to make continued improvements.

Click the links below for more information on our initiatives.
Link: Reducing environmental incidents
Link: Reducing VOC emissions
Link: Eliminating the use of chemicals used for cleaning containing specified VOCs

Pollution prevention

Preventing environmental incidents and soil contamination

At Murata, we recognize that chemical substance contamination is a serious environmental risk. We have defined serious environmental incidents as "an incident exceeding the legally regulated values within our property boundaries," and have set targets to prevent such incidents from occurring.

During fiscal 2022, four serious environment incidents occurred due to liquid chemical substance leaks. Small amounts of light oil or sewage exceeding the legally regulated values within our property boundaries were leaked during these incidents. However, none of these incidents caused a serious negative impact on the environment of our neighbors, or resulted in administrative actions such as production stoppages, fines, or cleanup orders.
There were also no serious regulation violations in fiscal 2022 resulting in administrative actions or penalties such as production stoppages, fines, or cleanup orders.

This far, Murata has engaged in various initiatives such as conducting risk assessments when environmental incidents occur, and setting voluntary reference values to prevent chemical substances from leaking or splattering during storage or transport.

We will continue to promote initiatives to enhance current systems in order to further reduce the risk of environmental incidents occurring, such as strengthening efforts to identify risks and doing everything possible to prevent recurrence.

• *1

  Serious environmental incident: An incident exceeding the legally regulated values within our property boundaries

• *2

  Serious regulation violation: An incident resulting in administrative actions or penalties such as production stoppages, fines, or cleanup orders

Voluntary rules for prevention

• Prohibition of underground storage tanks
  In principle, storage tanks for new and waste fuels, organic solvents, and acids and alkalis, in addition to raw water tanks for wastewater treatment, will be located above ground. If it is unavoidable that a tank must be positioned underground, a double-walled tank must be used.
• Permeation barrier coatings
  Locations in which fuels, as well as new and waste organic solvents, and acids and alkalis are handled will be provided with beds treated with a permeation barrier coating or made of stainless steel.
• Prohibition of underground piping
  Pipes for transporting fuels as well as new and waste organic solvents, acids and alkalis, and waste liquids from industrial processes, will be located above ground.
• Emergency containment structures
  Operational areas in which new liquids are received from tanker trucks, etc. or waste liquids are discharged will be provided with a structure that allows immediate containment of any leakage outside the area if an incidents occurs.
• Setting environmental incident levels
  At Murata, we set three levels for environmental incidents and regard everything from exceeding the legally regulated values within our property boundaries to leaks of chemical substances within buildings as an environmental incident. We strive to prevent major incidents from occurring by identifying even the smallest leaks of chemical substances within buildings, analyzing the causes, and taking corrective action.
• Measuring the environmental impact emitted from worksites and setting voluntary reference values
  We conduct periodic monitoring with respect to regulations on emissions from worksites under environment related laws. In addition, we voluntarily set reference values which are more stringent than the legally regulated values. We analyze the causes and take corrective action when those reference values are exceeded, and we build a mechanism that does not exceed the legally regulated values.

Control of emissions of air polluting substances

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a cause of air pollution. Murata endorsed the efforts of four appliance and electronics organization including JEITA, began in 2000 installing regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTOs) at business sites with high VOC emissions, and has continued to voluntarily reduce 20 types of specific VOC emissions.
In response to global trends in regulations, we began in fiscal 2022 to increase the types of VOCs we aim to reduce^*1, set company-wide VOC emission reduction targets (fiscal 2030 target: reduce 30% compared with fiscal 2021; fiscal 2024 target: reduce emissions below that of fiscal 2021), and continue promoting initiatives to further reduce emissions.

Our VOC emissions totaled 1,690 t in fiscal 2022, which is a reduction of 220 t compared with fiscal 2021
While VOC emissions are expected to increase along with production, we will continue to promote initiatives to install VOC removal equipment and also reduce the amount of VOCs used in our manufacturing processes, in order to achieve our VOC emission reduction target for 2030.

• *1

  Volatile organic compounds with a boiling point of 250°C or lower under standard atmospheric pressure

Communications with local residents about environmental risk

We consider minimizing the impact of our business activities on local communities to be one of the most important aspects of our corporate social responsibility, and we work hard to respond swiftly if a problem occurs.

In fiscal 2022, the Murata group’s plants received seven complaints regarding noise and other matters, and we quickly resolved these issues in consultation with local residents.

We also strive to promote information disclosure, by such means as inviting local residents to tour our operating sites, so that they can better understand our active environmental efforts.

Chemical substance management

Murata's chemical substance management

Looking toward the realization of sustainable social systems, Murata strives to provide products with minimal impact on the global environment.
In addition to complying with laws such as RoHS and REACH regulations, Murata established voluntary reference values based on global trends in substances of concern and on requests from our customers. We also have set separate targets and are actively promoting initiatives to reduce or prohibit substances of concern in products, through the management system described below.

Targets and results

Management system

We are also responding preemptively to the revision of laws relating to environmentally hazardous substances.
The Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), commonly referred to as the POPs Convention, is a framework for international cooperation aimed at reducing or eliminating typical substances of concern. During the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) held in June 2022, a decision was reached to add perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), its salts, and PFHxS-related compounds to "Annex A (Elimination)." Murata had voluntarily prohibited the use of PFHxS due to it having a similar level of toxicity as perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and its salts, which were added to "Annex B (Restriction)" during COP4 held in 2009.

In addition to managing chemical substances in products, we will also promote initiatives to reduce the risk of workers being exposed to chemical substances handled in manufacturing processes. As a priority initiative, we will promote an initiative regarding chemical substances used in cleaning applications to prohibit the inclusion of nine specified substances^*1 by March 2025.

• *1

  Link: Regulations to restrict the inclusion of nine specified compounds in chemicals used for cleaning

Link: Regulatory chart for environmentally hazardous chemical substances contained in products (excerpt)
Link: Regulatory chart for environmentally hazardous chemical substances used in manufacturing processes