CONTENTSEnvironmental ManagementEnvironmental Risk Management

We have conducted product recalls in accordance with the statutes of its Quality Committee. We did not have an environment-related product recall in fiscal 2004.

For accidents or emergencies that may cause environmental pollution, individual factories and their individual departments have clearly defined procedures and priorities to prevent or mitigate pollution. Daily activities include regular emergency drills and training events to acquire and improve competence in accident and emergency defense procedures. There were no environment-related emergencies in fiscal 2004.

All sites and offices of Honda promote environmental improvement activities in accordance with the Environmental Management System. For all environmental issues, Honda has established, and strictly abides by, its own voluntary standards, which are more stringent than national or local regulations.
In April 2003, Honda established Honda Conduct Guidelines as part of its efforts to improve its corporate governance system. In the guidelines, compliance is defined as “compliance with laws, company rules, and social norms,” and environmental conservation is defined as the “proper processing of waste and pollutants,” “efficient use of natural resources and recycling,” and “legally required measurements, recording and reporting.” At the same time, a director in charge of compliance was nominated as Compliance Officer. Honda is strengthening the framework under which every organization performs their duties toward compliance and risk management under the leadership of a director in charge.
There were no environment-related lawsuits filed against Honda in fiscal 2004.
The Saitama Factory received five complaints by phone in their daily operations. The complaints were mainly made in request for improvements to the traffic environment, including those related to traffic jams caused by vehicles coming in and out of the factory, parked cars and traffic noise, and for improvements in the factory environment, such as planting trees around the premises of the factory. The factory promptly responded to these complaints and asked all related personnel to pay due attention to the problems. The factory then reported the situations and steps taken to those who had registered the complaints and to the relevant administrative authorities.

Based on the important concept of “cooperation with local communities,” Honda actively promotes Green Factory activities and continuously adopts measures to resolve environmental issues. Our goal is to be a company that enjoys the confidence of local communities. We will continue our effort to become a company in which local communities can take pride.
To strengthen the monitoring of groundwater, we increased the number of observation wells established at our factory sites, which are used to monitor the soil and groundwater. As a result, it was confirmed that measured substances used at the factories have never been released beyond the boundaries of the premises.
Also, we will continue to monitor groundwater in the premises of our factories and will voluntarily announce the results in our environmental annual reports and on our Web site.