Murata designs products with reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from material procurement, design & development and production to use, disposal and recycling.
Murata is Implementing Environmentally Conscious Design, in which it promotes reduction of the use of environmentally hazardous substance and effective use of resources by designing compact, energy-saving products.
To ensure Environmentally Conscious Design, in November 2004 we began product assessment throughout the Group in which we evaluate environmental impacts in advance and incorporate changes to reduce these impacts. Product assessment takes place prior to Design Review, which takes place in the development stage. The evaluation is then repeated during the prototype stage and at market launch.
Product Assessment Category
Murata conducts product assessment to reduce the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle. Murata’s representative products, such as monolithic ceramic capacitors and chip ferrite beads, are assessed using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Not only products, but also production machines are subjected to LCA at their design stage.
What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ?
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method for quantitatively evaluating the environmental impact of a product at each stage of its life cycle. Murata evaluates mainly the environmental impact of products in terms of global warming.
We assess the impact of our products on the environment from the development and design stages, to ensure that every product we offer our customers takes the environment into consideration. We classify products that go even further towards contributing to reduced environmental impact as "Eco-friendly Products," and we are working to create a wider range of these products.
Logo used on Murata Eco-products
Iwami Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Engineering Sec.
Hiroe Ogawa
The European Union REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation, which came into effect in June 2007, requires the registration of several tens of thousands of types of chemical substances. In addition to efforts by individual companies to properly manage chemical substances, creating an industry-wide standardized management system is also an effective way to maintain strict compliance with this regulation. Based on this recognition, Murata has participated in the Joint Article Management Promotion-consortium (JAMP) to establish a standardized mechanism to facilitate the smooth transmission of information on chemical substances contained in parts and materials, from upstream industries that produce chemical materials to downstream industries that produce end products. We are also working on establishing a chemical substance management system that employs JAMP-compliant tools and techniques.
Chemical Substance Management System
What Is JAMP?
An active cross-industrial organization to formulate and spread concrete measures to facilitate proper management and smooth disclosure and communications throughout the supply chain of data on chemical substances contained in articles.
Murata formulated the first edition of the Regulation Program for Environmentally Hazardous Substances as its own standard in 1996, to respond to the chemical substances regulations in Japan and overseas. While revising the Program according to the trends in relevant laws and regulations, we have established our voluntary management standards. Our voluntary regulations aim to reduce or eliminate hazardous chemical substances and to secure information for their risk management, by designating four levels of response: Immediate Prohibition, Voluntary Prohibition, Reduction and Monitoring. We have set up a system that disallows selection and orders to be made for substances restricted by law, by making a database consisting of only the substances deemed usable in light of our voluntary provisions. Through such measures, we have enhanced management systems for all work processes, from development to materials procurement, production and delivery.
Furthermore, Murata informs suppliers of its environmental philosophy and standards, requests that suppliers create chemical substance management systems and verifies the effectiveness of such systems through research reports and audits. Guidance and other corrective measures are taken for unsatisfactory areas.
Murata has created new databases that enable integrated management of environmentally hazardous substances contained in chemical substances and preparations used as parts and materials, environmentally hazardous substances contained in articles used as parts and materials, and environmentally hazardous substances contained in Murata’s products. We appropriately manage such environmentally hazardous substances on this basis.
Coordination of information concerning environmentally hazardous substances in parts, materials, and products between these new databases has increased the speed and efficiency of updates, enabling us to automatically formulate industry standard formats and provide updated information in a timely fashion to regulatory and local authorities and in response to customer demands.
Product Regulation Program for Environmentally Hazardous Substances in Products
| Rank | Target substance group | |
|---|---|---|
| Prohibition | Substances specified as Class I Specified Chemical Substance in Paragraph (2) of Article 2 of the Act on the Evaluation of Chemical Substances and Regulation of Their Manufacture, etc. | |
| Substances specified in Paragraph (1) of Article 16 of the Enforcement Order of the Industrial Safety and Health Act | ||
| Specified poisons as prescribed in Paragraph (3) of Article 2 of the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act | ||
| Substances specified in Pow 35-3 (1), (3), and (4) of Appended Table 2 of the Export Trade Control Order | ||
| Substances classified as "Any use" under the Significant New Use Rules (SNUR) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) | ||
| Substances listed in Annexes A, B, C, and E of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer | ||
| Acrylonitriles | Asbestos | |
| Azo compounds | Chlorine-based flame retardants | |
| Chlorinated paraffins (short-chain) | Chlorinated dibenzofuran | |
| Cadmium and its compounds | Metallic carbonyls | |
| Metallic nickel (only if users will be in constant contact with the substance) | Hexavalent chromium compounds | |
| Red phosphorus and red phosphorus-based flame retardants | Bromine-based flame retardants (PBBs, PBDEs) | |
| Mercury and its compounds | Dioxin | |
| Thallium and its compounds (with some exceptions) | Arsenic and its compounds (with some exceptions) | |
| Lead and its compounds (lead as subject to the RoHS Directive and lead in ceramic dielectrics used in condensers under a rated voltage of DC 250 V/AC 125 V) | ||
| Phthalates (DEHP, DNOP, DBP, DIDP, BBP, DINP) | ||
| Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) | Beryllium and its compounds (used in ceramics) | |
| Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) | Perfluoroalkyl sulfonate (PFAS) | |
| Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and PFOS salts | ||
| Benzene | Pentachlorophenol (PCP) | |
| Radioactive substances | Formaldehydes | |
| Polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs) | Polychlorinated naphthalenes (chlorine number of 3 or more) | |
| Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and mixtures containing PVC (with some exceptions) | ||
| Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) | Inorganic cyanide compounds | |
| Organotin compounds (3-substituted compounds, DBB, DBT, and DOT for specific applications) | ||
| Organophosphorus compounds | ||
| Heavy metals used in packaging materials (Cd, Cr6+, Hg, Pb) | Cobalt chloride used in packaging materials | |
| Reduction | Antimony and its compounds (with some exceptions) | Xylene |
| Samarium and its compounds | Dioctyltin compounds (except when used in specified applications) | |
| Thallium (used in gold plating) | Tantalum and its compounds | |
| Trichlorobenzene | Toluene | |
| Lead and its compounds (ceramics, glass , high-temperature solders, etc. to which the RoHS Directive does not apply) | ||
| Arsenic and its compounds (copper foil for printed circuit boards) | ||
| Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and mixtures containing PVC (for wire coating and vehicle fitting applications) | ||
| Monitoring | Substances specified for management by the Joint Article Management Promotion-consortium (JAMP) | |
| Alkylene glycol ether and its acetates | ||
| Antimony and its compounds (contained in plastics) | Zinc and its compounds | |
| 2-isopropyl-bicyclo［4.4.0］decane or 3-isopropyl-bicyclo［4.4.0］decane | ||
| Ferric chloride | Cobalt chloride (except in packaging materials) | |
| Vinyl chloride monomers | Chlorinated paraffin (excepting short-chain) | |
| Chlorine and its compounds (for use other than as flame retardants in adhesives, external plastics and inks) | ||
| Perchloric acid and perchlorates | Gold and its compounds | |
| Silver and its compounds | Cobalt and its compounds other than specified above | |
| Diisopropylnaphthalene | Cyclodeca-1,5,9-triene | |
| Cyclododecane | Dibenzyltoluene | |
| Dipentene dimers or hydrogen additives | Bromine-based organic compounds | |
| Tin and its compounds | Hydrogenated terphenyl | |
| Tetraphenyltin | Selenium and its compounds | |
| Copper and its compounds | Tellurium and its compounds | |
| 1,3,5-tri-tert-butylbenzene | Triisopropylnaphthalene | |
| 1,3,5-tribromo-2-（2,3-dibromo-2-methylpropoxy）benzene | ||
| Lead and its compounds (alloys, etc. to which the RoHS Directive does not apply) | ||
| Nonylphenol ethoxylate | Palladium and its compounds | |
| Bismuth and its compounds | Arsenic and its compounds (used in semiconductors) | |
| 1,1-bis（tert-butyldioxy）-3,3,5-trimethylcyclohexane | ||
| Biphenyls | Phthalate esters | |
| Phenols | Beryllium and its compounds | |
| Boron and its compounds | Magnesium and its compounds | |
| Organocyanide compounds | CMR substances | |
| N,N-dicyclohexyl-1,3-benzothiazole-2-sulfenamide | ||
| O-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)＝O-ethyl＝phenylphosphonothioate | ||
| 1-tert-butyl-3,5-dimethyl-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene | ||
| SVHC defined by the REACH regulations | Foaming polystyrene used in packaging materials | |
Product development to meet advancing ecological needs
The market share of energy-efficient and long-life LED lighting systems is quickly expanding as the market demand leans toward ecologically conscious products. LED lighting systems require more ecological features for their electronic devices used, such as smaller, thinner and longer-life. Our business unit succeeded in developing ceramic capacitors with higher capacitance during actual usage for LED lighting systems, and we will continue our efforts to develop products that contribute to the environment.