Safety and Security

In order to reduce environmental impacts of its products and to comply with chemical substance regulations in relevant countries, Sharp manages chemical substances contained in its products in accordance with its own management categories that take into account applicable laws and regulations in relevant countries, voluntary standards set by industry groups, and even potential future regulations. We determine chemical substances that we should manage according to these categories, notify suppliers, and conduct a survey of chemical substances contained in products to obtain chemical substance content data.

Sharp’s Standard Manual for Management of Chemical Substances Contained in Parts and Materials is made available to the public to clarify the chemical substances it manages according to its own management categories.

This manual divides the target chemical substances into four categories: banned substances, substances banned depending on the application, candidate substances to be banned, and managed substances. For each category, applications, criteria values, and the date of total abolition are defined.

We conduct Delivered Goods Evaluation in cooperation with suppliers. Its purpose is to assess the chemical substances contained in parts and materials (materials, general components, finished and semi-finished products, indirect materials, others) sourced from suppliers according to the chemical substance management categories. Information obtained through the Delivered Goods Evaluation is used for understanding chemical substances contained in products and compiling information to be shared with our supply chain.

Sharp’s suppliers are required to submit a Report on Chemical Substances Contained in the Product before they deliver a new component or material for the first time. This is used to confirm their conformity with the regulations prohibiting the use of specific chemical substances in products in relevant countries. With this report, we check the presence of banned substances and decide whether to purchase the component or material.

Suppliers must also submit analysis data on the 10 substances regulated under the EU RoHS Directive* (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBB, PBDE, DEHP, BBP, DBP, and DIBP) for confirmation of compliance with the regulatory requirements.

The EU REACH regulations*1 and other legal requirements in countries around the world oblige companies to communicate and disclose information on chemical substances contained in their products throughout their supply chain. To meet these requirements, it is necessary to have a system through which all supply chain partners—whether supplying raw materials, materials, parts, or finished products—cooperate to gather, aggregate, and share information on chemical substances.

Sharp’s suppliers are asked to enter information on how much chemical substances are contained in their parts and materials, and where, in the Chemical Substance Content Survey System. This helps us gather information on chemical substances contained in our products, which is then used to manage and aggregate data on our chemical substance management system. For information collection, Sharp also utilizes chemSHERPA*2, an information sharing scheme compliant with the IEC 62474*3 international standard.

Sharp has also been registered with the SCIP*4 database since January 2021. SCIP is one of the EU’s measures aimed at building a circular economy.

Sharp strives to minimize the risk of environmental pollution and accidents associated with chemical substances and to properly meet chemical substance regulations. To this end, Sharp controls chemical substances used at, and released from, its production bases by implementing the process assessment system and the monitoring and risk management of chemical substances. To minimize the environmental impact and ensure occupational safety, workers handling chemical substances go through regular education and training. They also receive regular health checks.

The process assessment system is Sharp’s in-house system for preliminarily assessing the hazards, safety measures, and other factors of chemical substances. This assessment applies when a new chemical substance is to be introduced or when the procedure for handling chemical substances needs to be changed, for example. The system ensures that chemical substances are properly managed at all stages from procurement to disposal and that safety measures are implemented for the equipment handling them. It is designed to review the appropriate disposal of waste chemical substances, the proper treatment of exhaust gas and wastewater, and safety procedures for workers handling chemical substances, and to evaluate and determine the conditions for the safe use of chemical substances.

Chemical substances are grouped into four categories according to their gravity of impact on safety/health, hazard/explosion, and environmental conservation: legally banned substances, sensitive substances, managed substances, and registered substances. An appropriate management level is assigned to each category.

Sharp has established voluntary standards that are stricter than either the regulatory requirements or the levels agreed upon with local communities for chemical substances used at its production bases. These standards ensure the comprehensive monitoring and management of the target chemical substances released and transferred, as well as the concentrations and emissions of air and water pollutants.

Sharp strives to reduce the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) it emits. It has set a target of keeping VOCs released into the atmosphere to no higher than fiscal 2010 levels (based on a voluntary action plan by the Japanese electrical and electronics industry). Fiscal 2022 VOC emissions were 73 tons, lower than the amount emitted in fiscal 2010 (204 tons), thus achieving the target.

Sharp is reducing VOCs with the installation of highly efficient abatement facilities in LCD production sites, a major source of VOC emissions.

Sharp properly manages pollutants that affect air and water quality by establishing voluntary standards that are stricter than those set forth in laws and regulations and stricter than those agreed upon with local communities. It also actively conducts risk communication with local communities.

Sharp has established and is appropriately applying in-house standards to minimize the risk of environmental pollution and accidents caused by chemical substances. It also strives to prevent such incidents from occurring by taking multi-layered leakage prevention measures at facilities that handle chemical substances. For plants where chlorine solvent contamination was found in the past, Sharp regularly notifies local government authorities and others of the cleanup progress.