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• CSR / Environmental Activities Top

Up to FY2003, Olympus had written and published the Environmental Reports according to its policy of providing a fair and honest description by in-house writers. In FY2004, a year before publishing the CSR Report, Olympus decided for the first time to be subject to a third-party verification in order to write a report that is correct in content, easy to read, and sufficiently transparent. The independent third-party auditors, TUV Rheinland Japan, an ISO 14001-certified organization that checks the environmental promotion capability of Olympus (see page 38), did a review to see if all important information and environmental data were properly gathered, summated, and disclosed by valid means in the report*1; if the report was complete with important information from the guidelines referenced in the CSR Report*2; and if such information was accurately described*3 in the report.

*1. Validity of the report: Verifying whether any information that is damaging to the management or company was omitted or judging the importance of the report with respect to the necessity of descriptions (i.e., the degree of influence that false data or omitted data have on the judgment of stakeholders)
*2. Completeness of the report: Verifying whether all information from the guidelines referred to in the report was disclosed
*3. Accuracy of the report: Verifying whether the data in the report were correctly measured or calculated

• OLYMPUS CSR Report 2005 - Purpose of a Third-Party Verification (PDF:158KB)

The third-party gave us high marks on the following contents:
- Olympus' social responsibility concerns are participation in the Global Compact and relevant environmental issues.
- This is due to the fact that the CSR Report explained the problems related to the environment which the Company faced and it showed the mechanism that was put in place to solve the problems.
- Specific data are shown on the Company's Web site, where stakeholders who are interested in knowing more can read about it.

It was, however, pointed out that the report failed to clearly indicate concrete visions, policies, and commitments from Olympus on what the Company should do in the future; indicators for the evaluation and measurement of effects; or quantified or specific information. It was also mentioned that information on CSR, how Olympus started to methodically carry out in FY2004, was insufficient in terms of quantified data, even though Olympus' policies on and current situation concerning CSR were explained.

Olympus accepted these evaluation results and decided to promote interactive communication with stakeholders so that their comments can be used to improve future CSR Reports and create and implement better policies and actions regarding CSR.

Interviews concerning CSR Division	Field examination and verification of environmental data at Ina Plant	Verification of data at the Environmental Development Department

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