Initiatives With Business Partners
Green procurement/Initiatives related to regulations for chemical substances contained in products
At Advantest we are striving to eliminate hazardous substances across our manufacturing activities including suppliers and assembly and processing partner companies, and wish to connect this to the development of green products. We engage in communication with our business partners, and formulated the Advantest Green Procurement Guidelines in fiscal 2002 to facilitate this process. We operate according to these guidelines in order to give consideration to the environmental aspects in addition to quality, cost, and delivery throughout the whole process of production, including the purchasing of the components and materials that are used for our products. In fiscal 2014 we explained the Guidelines to all business partners, including new accounts, and requested their cooperation.
We have created a database from the environmental information we received from our suppliers, and are utilizing it to promote eco-friendly product manufacturing, along with the implementation of product environmental assessments.
- Advantest Green Procurement Guidelines (PDF: 169KB)
The Basic Principles of Green Procurement
Component Registration in Green Procurement
Regarding component registration, we are conducting environmental research of the procured components, with the cooperation of our suppliers. We investigate the components to find out if they contain chemical substances that can burden the environment, and promote green procurement initiatives to reduce environmental impact.
Banned and Restricted Substances
Advantest specifies the chemical substances that are prohibited from inclusion in our products or otherwise subject to restriction based on the IEC 62474* standard.
* IEC62474:Material Declaration for Products of and for the Electrotechnical Industry
(See http://std.iec.ch/iec62474)
Survey of suppliers on hazardous substances
Starting with the RoHS Directive, there have recently been additions and revisions of electrical and electronic regulations. On 1st October 2014, Advantest, in line with the revised IEC62474, revised its questionnaire on harmful substances and informed our business partners. Since the notification of the revision has still not fully reached all partners we will continue to make this process complete.