NSK - Investors/Financial information Annual Report 2005

Social and Environmental Activities

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities have gained increasing importance as a foundation of corporate activities. As part of its environmental policy, NSK is committed to reducing the energy burden on the environment through the use of its core “Tribology Technology,” developed to control friction and lubrication, and ensuring that its global operation sites are responsible corporate citizens in the communities where they operate. In accordance with this policy, NSK has been promoting CSR activities befitting the global company that it is.

NSK and Society

Children’s Science Class
A boy attempts to pull an adult as part of an experiment

Smooth Sailing for BEARING
—NSK Bearing Art Exhibition
“Bearing Amusement Park”

Contributing to the Understanding of Mechanical Friction and NSK Technology through Science Classes and an Exhibition

•Children’s Science Class—Experiencing the Mysteries of Friction

The NSK Group is making efforts to provide educational support to children, who will be responsible for the future. We aim for children to experience the fun of science, especially the fascination of tribology (the science related to friction, wear and lubrication), which is our core field of expertise. In November 2006, the NSK Fujisawa Plant invited 117 third graders from a nearby elementary school and treated them to a science class to experience friction and a plant tour. About 40 people from NSK’s technology department and the Fujisawa Plant participated in the event. For the science class, NSK personnel devised experiments the children could perform to give them an understanding of science while having fun. We plan to continue this program and extend it to other NSK plants.

In addition to this, NSK Precision Co., Ltd. and NSK Steering Systems Co., Ltd. co-sponsor the Maebashi Robot Contest (Robocon), in which young participants compete for points with robots of their own making. In this event, these two Group companies also send staff volunteers, give instructions in robot making and sponsor prizes.

•NSK Bearing Art Exhibition—Rediscovering Bearings in the World around Us

In November 2006, NSK held the “Smooth Sailing for BEARING—NSK Bearing Art Exhibition” at the Spiral Garden in Aoyama, Tokyo, for five days from the 22nd to 26th, to commemorate the Group’s 90th anniversary.

NSK staged this exhibition in collaboration with the Rendez-vous Project, an art-technology interface program. The executive producer was Manabu Akaike, Japan’s leading authority on universal design. Sixteen teams of artists from various fields ranging from video to fashion and music collaborated with NSK engineers to create works of art based on the world of bearings. Although bearings are used in a wide variety of familiar products, such as automobiles, home appliances and industrial machinery, they are rarely seen. This exciting event let us rediscover the presence of bearings.

Major Social Contribution Activities

Japan
	Provision of lecturers for university programs	Various locations
	Work experience programs for students at junior and senior high schools near plants and sales offices	Shiga
	Cooperation with institutions for children	Shiga, Fukushima
	Sponsorship of the NSK Cup for women’s volleyball	Saitama
	Participation in greenery and flower promotion activities in Fujisawa City	Kanagawa
	Environmental protection and cleaning activities in local communities and industrial estates	Nine plants and distribution centers
Overseas
	Provision of scholarships to Tsinghua University	China
	Provision of scholarships to industrial high school students	South Korea
	Food campaign, traffic safety courses for hildren and nutrition courses	Brazil
	Participation in women’s marathon to support a breast cancer charity	France
	Donations to NGOs, participation in voluntary activities	U.S.A.
	Fund-raising for victims of the Jogjakarta earthquake and 2007 Jakarta flood	Indonesia
	Donation of sports equipment	Thailand

Reducing Environmental Impact

Environmental Information Sharing System

A New System for Enhanced Environmental Management

With the Environmental Policy and Environmental Code of Conduct, the NSK Group aims to reflect the Company’s environment conservation initiatives in all corporate activities.

To effectively achieve the Third Environmental Voluntary Action Plan (FY2006-FY2010) started in fiscal 2006, the Group is reinforcing its environment management by introducing three environmental information systems. These are the Environmental Information Sharing System, the Chemical Substance Management System and the Waste Management System.

[Environmental Information Sharing System]

To centralize and manage environmental information from Group sites, NSK began introducing the Environmental Information Sharing System in fiscal 2006.

This system is designed to share information, including the amount of energy consumption, amount of waste disposal, and the measured value of pollutants in exhaust gas and drainage, through a dedicated intranet server. It improves awareness of activity conditions at each operation site in real time, and also substantially speeds up the collection and analysis of these data from throughout the Group. We are planning to extend it worldwide, and improve the functions of the system in fiscal 2007.

[Chemical Substance Management System]

In fiscal 2005, NSK introduced the Chemical Substance Management System as a response to the recent years’ strengthening of laws and regulations regarding the management of chemical substances, and increasingly stringent standards for procurement on the side of customers.

NSK has made information about chemical substances available to its employees on the intranet, and this has evolved into a new database system. Using this system, personnel from the R&D, procurement, production and sales divisions can easily utilize this information, if so required. The system helps the Group develop products in line with the EU’s RoHS and ELV directives, conduct appropriate green procurement and reply promptly to customer inquiries.

[Waste Management System]

In order to support the complicated management established by the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law with systems, fully comply with laws, and improve efficiency and speed while processing gathered data, NSK began introducing the Waste Management System at its Japanese plants in fiscal 2006. As a backup, using this system, NSK’s head office as well as each plant can conduct real-time checks on the state of waste disposal at each of the Group’s plants.

Environmental Education

The NSK Group is making efforts to reinforce environmental activities by increasing awareness of environmental issues among all employees by providing more environmental education programs. For instance, all employees receive the annual CSR Report, and related articles appear in the in-house magazine NSK Group News to raise employees’ awareness of environmental issues.

To improve environmental understanding, chemical substance and waste management information has been incorporated into an e-learning program designed for compliance education. Also, NSK Corporation in the U.S.A. publishes the Environmental Newsletter, featuring conservation initiatives at the Group. This is one example of how Group companies have launched their own environmental initiatives appropriate for their areas.