Oki Electric Industry Company says it has just added two production sites in China to its consolidated ISO certification program for environmental management.

"As production activities are shifting to China, we are please to add the two production sites in China to the consolidated ISO certification program for environmental management. Global management of chemical substances via networks will allow Oki to be compliant with various environmental regulations," said Masataka Sase, senior vice president of Oki Electric Industry and general manager of OKI's Global Environment Division. "The Oki Group will work on adding other production sites in China to the certification program as well as implementing consistent environmental measures and high-quality environmental management by achieving company-wide network-type environmentally-conscious management."

By consolidating the program group-wide, Oki can now share information on chemical substances, improve its business efficiency and unify its environmental management. In addition to the two sites in China, added in February 2008, Oki also added two other affiliated companies in Japan to the certification program. During the last fiscal year ended March 2008, Oki added 10 sites, to make a total of 45 sites throughout the Oki Group.

Concerns on environmental conservation and eco-friendly products have increased, which has led to stricter restrictions on chemical substances in products. While Oki Group companies in Japan and overseas had been carefully managing chemical substances in products and obtaining ISO certifications individually at each company, Oki now promotes a consolidated environmental ISO program, and has already consolidated three production sites in Thailand in its environmental management system. By adding the two productions sites in China, Oki can now gather information on chemical substances or confirm the conformance of environmental standards in each country and across all the different business processes from design, development, procurement and production through to shipment. Going forward, Oki will continue to work on reducing the use of hazardous chemical substances, reducing CO2 emissions to prevent global warming, and efficiently using limited resources by reducing, reusing and recycling wastes.