Consistent with our vision to contribute to the world through environment and health conscious business, focusing on energy-saving and energy-creating products, Sharp Electronics strives to conduct our business operations in an environmentally conscious manner. We support the industry call for a unified, national program to address the recycling of end-of-life electronics products in the United States. We are committed to making our products easier to recycle, and we continue to work toward that goal.

The handling of end-of-life electronic products is best addressed through cooperative and collaborative efforts. As an example, every year since its inception in 2003, Sharp has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Plug-in to eCycling" Award for participating in and contributing to collection events for discarded electronics. Since the Plug-in to eCycling program's inception, Sharp has supported more than 650 Plug-in events that collected and recycled 15.4 million pounds of electronics. In 2007 alone, over 100 Sharp supported events collected and recycled 2.25 million pounds of electronics.

In January 2008, Sharp, in partnership with Panasonic and Toshiba, announced the formation of Electronics Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM) in the United States to efficiently manage collection and recycling programs. During its first year of operation in Minnesota, MRM has collected and processed 11 million pounds of end-of-life electronics products, making it the largest program in the state.

In February 2008, we expanded our national Copier Toner Recycling Program, which enables business and government customers to recycle used Sharp-branded copier, printer and multifunctional peripheral (MFP) toner cartridges sold in the United States at no cost.

Sharp is proud to have been recognized for our commitment to environmentally-friendly practices and business operations. Our core business philosophy is to aim for mutual prosperity with stakeholders by contributing to the culture, benefits, and welfare of people throughout the world, and thus, reducing our impact on the environment is as important to us as improving the scope of our technology.