Environmental-conscious Products

The Hitachi Cable Group is committed to contributing to the development of a sustainable society by providing environment-friendly products and services and, consequently, by assisting the global community in protecting the environment. In line with the Hitachi Group's proprietary product assessment standards, Hitachi Cable defi nes its products that satisfy the said standards as "Eco-Products" and those that are more sophisticated in terms of environmental performance as "Eco-Products Select" (formerly, "Super Eco-Products"). The Company is working to expand sales of these products.

Environment-Friendly Design

The Hitachi Cable Group develops, designs, manufactures and provides environment-friendly products and services. Through these activities, we aim to help the global community protect the environment and establish a sustainable society.
In order to realize a society that sustainably develops in harmony with the environment, we must reduce the environmental burden of our products and services and, at the same time, make more effi cient and effective use of limited resources. To this end, we must incorporate environmental considerations into the design and development of our products and services. To enable such design and development processes, the Group has adopted the Assessment for Design for Environment (Assessment for DfE) scheme, which is unique to the Hitachi Group. Assessment for DfE allows us to evaluate the environmental impact of our products and services throughout their entire life cycles, covering such stages as raw materials, manufacture, transport, use, disposal and reuse. The results of these evaluations are utilized in the design and development of products with even lower environmental burdens. Based on such life cycle assessment (LCA), the Group plans to start a project in FY2012 to calculate CO₂ emissions associated with certain products currently under development.

Increasing Eco-Products

Our products and services, where applicable, are assessed using eight criteria, including weight reduction, product longevity and energy effi ciency in comparison with existing products. Then, products that satisfy certain set standards are designated as Eco-Products. As of March 31, 2011, the aggregate number of Hitachi Cable products designated as Eco-Products totaled 199, with sales of these products amounting to ¥220.2 billion in FY2011. This sales fi gure accounted for 53% of the consolidated net sales of the Hitachi Cable Group for the period. Furthermore, among Eco-Products, those products and services having especially high environmental effi ciency—an index refl ecting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, consumption of resources and increases in product and service values—are designated as Super Eco-Products. During FY2011, three Hitachi Cable products were designated as Super Eco-Products, bringing the aggregate total to 19.

Exhibitions Where We Exhibited Eco-Products

In FY2012, Hitachi Cable replaced the Super Eco- Products category with the "Eco-Products Select" category to accelerate its development and provision of products with even greater environmental performance than before. Products designated as Eco-Products Select must satisfy one of the following four requirements.

1. Having a global warming prevention or resource factor of 10 or more (Reference year was changed from FY2001 to FY2006, and the rating of functions became more stringent.)
2. Being an industry leader in terms of environmental performance
3. Being award-winning or publicly certified
4. Achieving a 50% or more CO₂ emission reduction compared with equivalent products in FY2006

Also, the Hitachi Cable Group launched a new fi veyear plan in FY2012. Under this new plan, we have set the following FY2016 targets and will promote environmental product design and thereby accelerate the provision of our environment-friendly products to achieve these targets.

FY2016 Targets

Participating in Exhibitions

To communicate its environmental initiatives, the Hitachi Cable Group displays many of its environment-friendly products, including those with the Eco-Product designation, at various exhibitions.

Exhibitions Where Hitachi Cable Products Have Been Presented

Exhibition Name (Location) Period Automotive Engineering Exposition 2010 (Yokohama) May 19 to 21, 2010 Electrical Construction Equipment and Materials Fair (ECEMF) 2010 (Osaka) May 26 to 28, 2010 INTEROP TOKYO 2010 (Makuhari) June 9 to 11, 2010 Tsukuba Forum 2010 (Tsukuba) October 20 to 21, 2010 Eco Products 2010 (Tokyo) December 9 to 11, 2010

A source of renewable energy, photovoltaic (PV) power generation contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and expectations are growing for PV power generation's use as a means to create clean energy that has a significant potential to help prevent global warming. Accordingly, the use of PV power generation has spread to wide-ranging fields, including for residences and public facilities. The solar panels used for PV power generation are composed of interconnecting modules consisting of thin, silicon solar cells. Hitachi Cable's NoWarp* PV wires are used to connect these solar cells and serve as a conductor to efficiently collect the electricity generated. We have improved NoWarp's thermal stress resistance by reforming highly conductive copper materials to achieve greater flexibility. Such a feature helps minimize cell warping, which often occurs when other conductors are used to connect the solar cells. Consequently, NoWarp prevents cell deformation and breakage. This enables the creation of thinner solar cells, which, in turn, contributes to a reduction in the amount of silicon used. Also, Hitachi Cable offers an environment-friendly NoWarp PV wire that uses lead-free soldering, and this wire is compliant with regulations under the RoHS Directive. * NoWarp is a registered trademark of Hitachi Cable, Ltd. in Japan.