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• CSR / Environmental Activities Top

Environmental burdens can result from the use of fuel in the course of distributing products and parts, and through the use of packaging materials. Olympus is working to bring our activities into harmony with the environment by taking a comprehensive approach to design, development, production, sales and distribution, from the perspective of logistics (*).

The all-in-one carton package used for the Olympus IX81 Motorized Inverted Microscope was given the prize for the Logistics Award in the 2006 Japan Packaging Contest and WPO(World Packaging Organisation)'s World Star Award. The IX81 Inverted Research Microscope Kit is part of the FV1000 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope system. We received the award in recognition of our efforts toward reducing packaging materials, facilitating handling, and creating a package that would benefit both people and the environment by using the packaging format described below.

Attention to Ease of Use
Instead of packaging units individually, Olympus adopted an all-in-one packaging system. The storage sections were specially designed to accommodate multiple parts and variations in quantities. Care was also taken to facilitate transportation and handling, by designing the package to support both palletized transportation and manual carrying (conveniently positioned hand-holes on both sides).

Use of a Single Material to Facilitate Recycling
If recycling is given top priority, cardboard is the No. 1 material of choice. We developed an all-in-one system of cardboard pallets and cartons and eliminated polypropylene (PP) joints in the creation of an all-cardboard structure.

Emphasis on Ease of Handling
To facilitate handling, we marked the packaging with universally recognized symbols indicating that the package must not be laid flat or turned upside-down.

Masami Kurihara of the Logistics Development Department, responsible for improving packaging for IX81 Motorized Inverted Microscope Kit		2006 World Star Award

All-in-one corrugated cardboard packaging system in IX81 Motorized Inverted Microscope Kit

* Logistics is an integral part of the supply chain. Simply put, it is the efficient and progressive flow of goods, including storage and services, from the point of production to the point of consumption to meet customer needs, and the planning, implementation and control of information relating to these processes.

Olympus clarifies the volume of CO₂ emission both in the international and domestic distributions and utilizes these data to reduce CO₂ emission in the distribution through improving logistics service management and loading ratio, etc.
The Olympus packaging & logistics system is divided into product logistics and parts logistics. We are making great efforts to reduce the environmental load from the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) viewpoint in developing compact and lightweight packaging, reducing the number of packaging materials used, and developing returnable packaging containers made using recycled materials, in light of the characteristics of the products and parts to be transported. The following diagram summarizes these measures. Our efforts thus focus on achieving further reductions in environmental load by pursuing each individual measure from the 3R viewpoint.

We are also surveying and analyzing the actual effects (impact, vibration, temperature, and humidity) on products and parts while products are being delivered to customers, in the international transportation environment. We aim to optimize packaging and logistics to avoid difficulties and waste by reviewing the company's packaging and cargo test methods and packaging design standards based on the results of these analyses.

• Changes in CO₂ emission in logistics process

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