More than 300 varieties of flowers and trees are planted in Tokyo Head Office’s garden. The garden is regarded as a living guide to botanical species.

On New Year’s Day 2001, The Asahi Shimbun Company established “The Asahi Shimbun Charter on the Environment,” the first program of its kind in the newspaper industry, vowing to make company-wide efforts to become an environmentally advanced company.

Furthermore, the company resolved to contribute to curbing the effects of global warming by reducing CO2 emissions by 10 percent (compared to the fiscal 2001 level) by fiscal 2010, promoting an “All-Asahi” effort to implement environmental measures.

In order to attain these goals, Asahi’s head offices in Tokyo, Osaka, Seibu and Nagoya, along with the Hokkaido office, have strived to conserve energy at their offices and facilities, while plants nationwide undertaking printing for the company obtained ISO 14001 certification, an environmental management system, thus improving the environment.

The company advocated a “cool biz” campaign to limit the use of air-conditioning. It conducted in-house training on conserving energy and put up posters to raise environmental awareness, encouraging its employees to make individual energy conservation efforts.

As a result of these measures, the consumption of energy in fiscal 2006 was lowered substantially at Asahi’s four head offices and the Hokkaido office, as well as printing plants subject to the resolution to cut CO2 emissions. The CO2 emissions in fiscal 2006 totaled 104,455 tons, decreasing by 7.7 percent compared to the fiscal 2001 level. The calculations included the two factories in Kyoto and Hanshin that were newly constructed after the environmental action plan was adopted, and the plant in Omagari which had taken over the printing volume from the Hokkaido office plant. In terms of CO2 emissions limited to the original pledge covering Tokyo, Osaka and the other head offices as well as the Hokkaido office and 12 printing plants, the total came to 94,960 tons, a reduction of 16.1 percent.

Meanwhile, The Asahi Shimbun Company has not forgotten its primary responsibilities as a newspaper company, and has continued to give multilateral coverage on environmental issues that are becoming global issues. Especially, the company has focused on the North Pole, which is said to be the first area to be seriously affected by the consequences of global warming. It is worth noting that a collective effort was given to report on the North Pole and an environmental campaign was mounted entitled “Strange Changes Strike the North Pole.”

The Asahi Shimbun Company engages in a variety of programs covering an extensive range, and in fact, quite a few are environment-related.

2006 was a special year, commemorating the 50th year since Japanese scientific observation in Antarctica began. In 1956, which was the International Geophysical Year (IGY), the first polar observation party, with full support from The Asahi Shimbun, was dispatched to Antarctica. To commemorate the event, the company hosted an exhibit titled ”The Mysterious Continent -- Antarctic Exhibition 2006“ and held related lectures throughout Japan.

With the initial commitment period to reduce greenhouse gas emissions set forth under the Kyoto Protocol ready to start, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reported on the gravity of global warming now taking place. The Asahi Shimbun Company, as a media organization, is keenly aware of its responsibility to report and enlighten the public on environmental issues, and at the same time it strongly feels the need to expandits efforts to cut back on energy spending pertaining to its own corporate activities.

The Asahi Shimbun Adopts a Plan to Reduce CO2 Emissions by 10%

On September 30, 2005, the company resolved, as its contribution to curbing the effects of global warming, to reduce CO2 emissions by 10 percent (compared to the level of fiscal 2001) by fiscal 2010. The Tokyo, Osaka and the other two head offices, as well as one office and 12 printing plants covered in the consolidated financial statements, are to be subject to this resolution. The company intends to realize the target figure by replacing existing facilities with energy-saving ones and by encouraging employees to make efforts to trim energy consumption, as well as by having plants observe environmental ISO.

Consumption of Electricity and Gas, and CO2 Emissions

Following the resolution to reduce CO2 emissions by 10 percent, the company has committed itself to boosting the awareness of employees and called on them to make efforts in line with the environmental action plan, while at the same time asking individual plants and tenants to cooperate. On the other hand, as shown in the next section, 20 plants have obtained ISO certification and are immediately registering the effects of their energy-saving efforts. As a result, in fiscal 2006, the CO2 emissions of the head offices, offices, and the plants included in the consolidated financial statements totaled 104,455 tons, a reduction of 7.7 percent compared with the level recorded in fiscal 2001.

Twenty Plants across the Country Obtain ISO Certification

A project in which The Asahi Shimbun Company had been engaged since 2004, namely to have its 20 plants across the country obtain ISO 14001 certification, was completed at the end of 2005, a year earlier than scheduled.

Green Power Certification

Since July 2003, the company has taken advantage of the Green Power Certification System as part of its efforts to contribute to curbing the effects of global warming, purchasing annually 700,000 kWh of electricity generated by wind power. Since April 2006, moreover, the company has been supplied with an annual 500,000 kWh of biomass-generated electricity, which makes the total amount of eco-friendly electricity it uses annually 1.2 million kWh.

The Asahi Joins the “Team Minus 6%” Project

As part of the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in pursuit of the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol now in effect, the Japanese government has set up a Global Warming Prevention Headquarters and mounted a national campaign entitled “Team Minus 6%.” In July 2005, The Asahi Shimbun Company, agreeing with the campaign in accordance with their long-standing commitment to curbing global warming, registered with and began to participate in “Team Minus 6%.”

The Asahi Submits a Five-Year Plan to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Complying with a Tokyo Metropolitan Government ordinance to safeguard the environment, the Tokyo head office has submitted to the metropolitan government a plan for anti-greenhouse measures. The Tokyo head office has set a target of 3.6 percent which, together with the 4.0 percent reduction achieved during the past three years, will make the total reduction 7.6 percent. The TMG has awarded the Tokyo head office the highest mark, AA, out of its five grades. The Setagaya Laboratory of Asahi Tokyo Printech has also been awarded an “AA.”

Cutbacks in Photocopying and Printing Paper

At the Tokyo head office in fiscal 2006, the number of sheets of paper, including photocopying and printing material, paper to be used in editing work and paper for full-page galleys, decreased 700 thousand, or 1.6 percent, from the fiscal 2005 figure. The Osaka head office, also succeeded in a reduction of 1.6 percent, the Seibu office in 13 percent cutting, the Nagoya office in 3.5 percent decrease.

Purchasing of Environmentally Friendly Products and the Proportion of Recycled Constituents

While newsprint accounts for the largest share of purchased materials, the total amount purchased (weight) in fiscal 2006 stood at 777,000 tons, 70 percent of it recycled paper. The proportion has been substantially increasing: from 54 percent in fiscal 2001 to 62 percent in fiscal 2002 and 69 percent in fiscal 2003, with the 70 percent figure having already been exceeded in fiscal 2004.

As for photocopying paper for office use, the government stipulates in terms of purchasing of environmentally friendly products that the proportion of recycled paper should be 100 percent with a whiteness degree of 70 percent or less. In their photocopying paper use, the Tokyo, Osaka and Seibu head offices have conformed with this stipulation since fiscal 2003, with the Nagoya head office following suit in May 2005.

Environmental care in the procurement of goods and services is also observed in other fields such as plant construction.

Recycling Rate of Used Paper

The Tokyo head office, as part of its activities to enhance customer satisfaction (CS), launched a campaign, “promotion for used paper recycling at all ASA (newspaper delivery agents),” to promote the recycling of used paper. According to a survey concerning recycling of used paper conducted in June 2005, the number of ASAs which engaged in recycling in one form or another totaled 1,301 (86.4%), an increase of 10.6 percentage points compared to the result obtained in a survey conducted two years earlier.

Recycling of Waste

The Tokyo head office promotes the separation of waste into 19 categories by installing trash receptacles for each category in every workplace. In September 2005, the office added the recycling of chopsticks used in its canteens, so that the annual recycling rate reached 96.2 percent, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the figure of 95.7 percent recorded in fiscal 2005.

The recycling rate of the Osaka head office building in the previous fiscal year stood at 59 percent. Relevant divisions concerned at the head office, operating with the understanding and cooperation of partner companies, made up for this late start by encouraging collection of recyclable plastic and glass bottles.

At Riverwalk Kita-Kyushu, where the Seibu head office is located, used paper, glass bottles, cans, and plastic bottles are recycled. Since the end of fiscal 2005, burnable waste which had not thus far been recycled has been forwarded for thermal recycling under a Kita-Kyushu Eco-Town project.

Recycling of Packing Materials for Newspapers

Since 1999, the Tokyo head office has collected for recycling, through ASAs in Tokyo, wrapping films and bands to pack newspapers. Currently, these materials are collected in all the zones in the Tokyo metropolitan area in which the second-latest and latest editions of the morning newspaper are delivered. Since fiscal 2005, binding bands made from used and recycled bands have come into use.

At the Osaka head office, packing materials have been collected since July 2003, while the Seibu head office provisionally took a similar step in August 2005 and, in the following month, packing materials at 33 distributors in Fukuoka city started to be collected for recycling.

Low-Emission Vehicles Adopted for Transportation of Newspapers

As for the introduction of low-emission vehicles for transportation of newspapers, the Tokyo head office has provided subsidies to logistics companies to introduce low-emission vehicles. As for vehicles hired for news gathering, the office has called on drivers to show an understanding of eco-friendly driving, including conducting a campaign to stop idling.

Asbestos Inspection

Following a large asbestos-related scandal in Japan in June 2005, the company conducted extensive asbestos-focused inspections in facilities across the country. Inspections carried out up until March 2007 showed no particular damage.

Environment-Related Activities

Major environment-related activities The Asahi Shimbun Company engaged in between April 2006 and March 2007 covered an extensive range, from the award of the “Asahi Environment for Tomorrow Prize,” the “Asahi Corporate Citizen Prize,” and other prizes through to the holding of environment-related symposiums and surveys whose results are presented in the “Asahi Shimbun Research Center Report AIR21”.

The Asahi Shimbun Charter on the Environment Environmental Measures