The Beginning of Unified Environmental ISO Certification at 42 Companies throughout the World

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (YMC) will begin efforts to unify certification for the ISO 14001 environmental management system it has introduced at its group companies, including overseas business sites, starting from April 2012.

Currently, 42 Yamaha Motor group companies in Japan, Europe, North America, ASEAN countries, China, Taiwan, India, and South America have introduced the ISO 14001 management system. Each is currently being inspected by separate certification organizations. The expected results of global unification by using one certification agency include:
　(1) Improved governance through uniform management
　(2) Improved level of environmental activities
　(3) Drastic cost reductions through greater efficiency

The first specific effort will be the establishment of common rules by YMC for the global Yamaha Motor group based on a unified certification standard. Each group company will determine and implement yearly environmental activity plans according to these rules. YMC will work to improve and homogenize the content of these activities through communication with each group company.
As part of the first step from summer 2012 to spring 2013, 11 companies (nine Japanese and two overseas companies) will obtain unified certification to replace existing individual certification, followed by the remaining 31 companies obtaining unified certification from autumn 2013.

Yamaha Motor began introducing the ISO 14001 environmental management system at the company's various sites starting in February 1999 to manage the impacts of business activities on the environment.
These activities and others have continued since and all nine sites were consolidated in October 2004.

Yamaha Motor is currently working to increase its corporate value through sustainable growth by expanding "business scale," improving "financial strength" and augmenting "corporate strength" as outlined in the next medium-term management plan. This initiative falls in the realm of efforts to augment "corporate strength" and will surely contribute significantly to the company's ongoing efforts towards implementing effective environmental management on a global scale.

ISO 14001 is a standard related to environmental management systems that was issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in September 1996. It systematizes the required environmental management system components for organizations to effectively manage their impacts on the environment.