August 9, 2005

SDK Publishes CSR Report

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) has published its CSR Report 2005, detailing the Group’s corporate social responsibility initiatives. The report replaces the Responsible Care Report (RC Report) published annually since 1997 that focused on the Group’s activities pertaining to the protection of environment, safety and health.

(Responsible Care means the voluntary activities of companies dealing with chemical substances to ensure health and safety and to protect the environment from harm caused by chemical substances throughout such substances’ entire life cycles, namely, the development, production, distribution, use, final consumption and disposal.)

This year, SDK expanded the content of the report with more emphasis on CSR activities, and changed the title to “CSR Report.” With the subtitle of “Activities for Responsible Care; Relations with Society,” this year’s report consists of four chapters, namely, Initiatives on CSR; Initiatives on Environment; Initiatives on Safety; and Communicating with Society. Respective chapters stress the following:

Initiatives on CSR

• SDK established a CSR Committee and a CSR Office in July this year to promote Group-wide CSR activities.
• In response to the enforcement of the Law for Protection of Personal Information, SDK established its basic policy and rules to address the issue.

Initiatives on Environment

• To contribute to the prevention of global warming, SDK reduced its energy consumption by basic energy unit in 2004 to 79% of the 1990 figure. Thus, SDK achieved the 2005 target (80%) a year ahead of schedule.

Initiatives on Safety

• As part of its management policy, SDK is committed to safe and stable operations and to the principles of Responsible Care. The Group achieved the 2004 target of “zero Lost Workday rate” concerning its employees.

Communicating with Society

• To improve the quality of communications with customers, the Group is proceeding with its “Best Manners” campaign.

Under the medium-term consolidated business plan, the Sprout Project, which is due to expire at the end of 2005, the SDK Group is establishing itself as a “focused and individualized chemical company” by carrying out structural reforms and strengthening earning power. In the next business plan, the Group will put more emphasis on CSR activities and conduct businesses from the CSR viewpoint.