Sony has obtained third-party verification since fiscal 2001 to ensure the credibility of data reported and facilitate the ongoing improvement of its environmental management. Since fiscal 2003, Sony has sought independent verification from the Bureau Veritas (BV) Group, the external auditing organization for the Sony Group's global environmental management system. In fiscal 2010, Sony asked the BV Group to undertake independent verification of the reliability of data collection and reporting processes, as well as the accuracy and the appropriateness of conclusions drawn from such data, at production sites, non-manufacturing sites, design sites and Sony's headquarters.

Bureau Veritas has verified the environmental data collection and reporting and associated environmental management activities at the Sony headquarters and other business sites. The following conclusions have been made as a result.

1. Site Environmental Impact Information
   • Due to the revision of the data management standard (document) that has been actively implemented globally, the standardization of data management has progressed and the overall data management level at each site has further improved.
   • The data collection percentage has improved overall during the reporting period. Activities in South America region, especially, have progressed.
   • The reason for data management errors seemed to be due to incomplete hand over of duties when changing over responsible operational staff. A data management procedure should be documented to ensure that the job duties are transferred completely during staff succession.
   • With the installation of this year�fs newly updated environmental database site by site, re-training has been implemented for the use of the data input procedure; however, not all pertinent operation staff have received the training yet and it will be important to complete the training as soon as possible.
2. Energy Consumption & Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions
   • The data at sites have been checked using a system that gives a warning when the year-over-year number deviates by 20% or more, to help identify input errors.
   • It is necessary to clarify the procedure for the calculation of these figures, ensuring there is adequate understanding of regarding the use of decimal points when aggregating data.
3. Waste
   • Waste has been sorted into categories at sites, which confirms a more detailed and proactive to waste collection.
4. Controlled Chemical Substances
   • Input errors of consumption data rarely occur, especially at sites with a high volume of environmentally controlled substances in use. This is due to chemical substance data being aggregated based on information from purchasing records. However, in some cases, the input data is interrupted when a substance changes. Therefore, it is necessary to record such interruption events to be able to determine the cause for any resulting data errors.
   • At certain sites, there has been a proactive approach to obtaining more accurate distribution factor data to apply in calculating VOC emissions to atmosphere.
5. Air Pollutants & Water Pollution Material
   • Some omissions in data collection were detected at certain sites; however, the overall collection percentage across all sites has increased.
6. Product Environmental Data
   • It was confirmed at headquarters that the product assessment procedure is clear and has been implemented properly. Also, operational procedures have been standardized by advancing documentation of workflow diagrams, forms and a data entry manual.
   • The calculation method for the quantity of CO2 emission for Sony Products in the �euse phase�f has not changed from the time of database development. However, the shift in users�f lifestyles and therefore product use, should be considered periodically to assess if the methodology remains fit for purpose.
7. CO2 emission from logistics
   • The CO2 emission aggregation for the Logistics section has been continued to progress since last year and now covers most operations in the overseas regions.