Procurement activities

Sustainable

Sustainable Procurement

To allow an organization to fulfill its social responsibilities (such as respect for human rights, commitment to safety and health, and legal compliance), it is necessary to promote appropriate measures for addressing challenges related to sustainable procurement, not only within the organization but also across its supply chain. The Mitsubishi Electric Group established the CSR Procurement Guidelines in 2018 and has been researching the CSR activities of suppliers. In 2024, we established another set of guidelines based on the RBA Code of Conduct, named Mitsubishi Electric Group Supply Chain Code of Conduct, with the aim of giving suppliers a deeper understanding of our attitude toward sustainable procurement and what compliance we are expecting from them.
In addition to promoting the contents of this Code of Conduct, we ask our suppliers to respect the rights of individual members of groups or ethnicities that may be at higher risk of human rights impacts, such as children, migrant workers, ethnic minorities and indigenous people.
We request that the persons in charge at our suppliers confirm their consent to the above Code of Conduct so that we can ensure that they are promoting what it requires.
The Mitsubishi Electric Group also monitors progress in the sustainable procurement efforts of suppliers, provides them feedback on the evaluation results, and communicates to them by encouraging them to take corrective measures where their improvements underperform.

Mitsubishi Electric Group Supply Chain Code of Conduct

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Mitsubishi Electric Group Initiatives for Responsible Minerals Procurement

The Mitsubishi Electric Group views such issues as environmental destruction and the abuse of human rights by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of The Congo and its neighboring countries as issues of the utmost concern. As transactions of conflict minerals* are said to fund these armed groups, we are implementing measures to ensure the transparency of our supply chain so that we do not encourage or become complicit in such issues in any way, and to promote responsible mineral procurement.

* Conflict minerals refers to gold, silver, tantalum, tungsten, and other minerals that are mined in the countries referred to above.

What is Green Procurement?

Green procurement is the procurement of materials with minimal effect on the environment, and it is essential to reducing the environmental impact of supplying the market with our products and services. Based on this understanding, the Mitsubishi Electric Group targeted green procurement as one of the priority goals of its corporate Environmental Plan, and formulated the Green Procurement Standards Guide in September 2000. Since then, chemical substance regulations have expanded worldwide, such as Directives on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS)1, the ELV directive, the REACH2 and CLP regulations, Japan's J-Moss system, and China's version of RoHS. The Group has taken this global trend into consideration, and has continued to revise the Green Procurement Standards Guide. Issues such as the preservation of biodiversity, reduction of greenhouse gases, and management of water risks have also been included in the Green Procurement Standards Guide in response to existing situations.

  1. RoHS: A directive issued by the European Union restricting the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic products. From July 2006, it has become illegal to sell products containing any of the six designated substances in the EU. Another four substances will be added to the hazardous substances from July 2019.
  2. REACH: An EU regulation which requires approximately 30,000 types of chemicals that are produced and imported within the EU to be registered and subjected to risk assessment. Substances of very high concern because of their potential negative impact on human health or the environment must have prior authorization, and substances that pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment are restricted from production, import, and use.

Green Accreditation Guideline

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Control of Hazardous Chemical Substances

The Mitsubishi Electric Group categorizes and manages chemical substances in three levels.

Level I: Substances banned from being contained or attached (substances that are currently or are scheduled to be banned)

Substances that have profound impact on people's health and on the ecosystem, and whose use is prohibited or restricted under domestic or international laws and regulations, or is voluntarily prohibited by the Mitsubishi Electric Group

Level II: Substances scheduled for elimination

Substances that do not fall under Level I, but whose use in products should be reduced, as governed by domestic or international laws and regulations, or by the Mitsubishi Electric Group's voluntary restrictions

Level III: Substances to be quantified

Substances that fall under neither Level I nor II, but whose presence in a product must be assessed and understood

Chemical Substance Control List

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RoHS: Mitsubishi Electric Group "Level 1 Prohibited Substances Non-Usage Guarantee"

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According to each level, we request suppliers to substitute, provide written guarantee of non-usage, or implement activities to eliminate inappropriate chemical substances, and to investigate the extent to which certain chemical substances are contained in their product(s).
We obtain information about chemical substances contained in products of suppliers from them using MelHARo-Web, the chemical substance management system of the Mitsubishi Electric Group, which adopts the information communication scheme provided by the Joint Article Management Promotion-consortium (JAMP).

MelHARo-Web, the chemical substance management system of the Mitsubishi Electric Group

Check MelHARo-Web, the chemical substance management system of the Mitsubishi Electric Group.
(Provision of JAMP-AIS tools was discontinued in June 2018.)

(open new window)MelHARo-Web Login

We also conduct our own analysis as needed to identify whether inappropriate chemical substances are contained in products.
This in-house analysis is carried out mainly through X-ray fluorescence screenings and by the one-drop extraction method (an analysis method developed proprietarily by the Mitsubishi Electric Group).