Third-Party Evaluation

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In order to improve the reliability of the environmental performance data presented in this report, Toshiba Group requested Bureau Veritas Japan Co., Ltd.* to conduct a third-party verification of the data. Global data regarding the results for FY2010 was reviewed to check the processes of the collection, aggregation and internal verification of data and the accuracy of aggregated data.

*

A certification organization that conducts inspections, reviews and certification regarding ships, buildings, health, safety, the environment, systems and consumer products Bureau Veritas (A separate window will open.)

• Third-Party Verification and Methods for Calculating (PDF:544KB)

Reference View

Bureau Veritas has conducted environmental performance data verification for the “Toshiba Group Environmental Report 2011.” The following conclusions are made as a result of the work.

1. Positive Findings

• The Environment Management Information System (EMIS) for data aggregation, counting, and reporting is gradually and efficiently being implemented across all of Toshiba's group companies.
• Toshiba's Head Office has detected abnormal values, and those that have noticeably changed compared with the previous year, resulting in a low probability of miscalculations and misreporting in the final data.
• This verification has been the second in consecutive years for the Toshiba overseas sites. The production sites have shown much interest in environmental issues, and personnel were fully cooperative with the verification process. Data collection and aggregation has been expanded globally under cooperation from Toshiba's Head Office.

2. Follow-up of Issues from Reference View report for the “Toshiba Group Environmental Report 2010”

• The data management has gradually improved by using an automatic computation, although there is still a manual calculation being conducted on certain data items at some sites.
• Although the progress seems to be varied at each site, the methodology for data aggregation has been well documented.

3. Opportunities for Improvement

• It is recommended that a system to prevent errors in data input such as double-checking should be established, particularly at sites where manual calculations are still present.
• It is observed that some new staff with responsibility for data aggregation has not been given sufficient information for the purpose of collecting data. Training is recommended to ensure that any risk to data collection and calculation is minimized in the event of staff hand over.
• Each in-house company has responsibility to check the environmental performance data for individual site, but data anomalies or errors are often found by Toshiba's Head Office from this process. It is recommended that the head office supervises the effectiveness of the in-house companies' data management in order to maintain the collection and collation of accurate data from all sites.