We carry out design assessment in consideration of the product life cycle - from procurement through to disposal. Checks are performed throughout product development, and only acceptable products are shipped.

Mission: Aiming for maximum materials saving and development of robust products.
We continue to limit the materials used in our products, while maintaining performance.

Light, miniaturized products
Portability is an essential concept in developing notebook PCs. They are carried from place to place, and the lighter and more compact the product is made, the better it is. To that end, the case needs to be thin. But it also has to be able to withstand external forces such as dropping, shock, and pressure that may cause damage.

Lengthening product life
The gap between the head and the disk in a hard disk drive is only about a nanometer. For this reason, the hard disk drive is one of the most delicate parts in the PC. If damages to the hard disk drive is decreased, the life of the PC will be lengthened.

Commitments for Toshiba PC
In order to achieve a slim product design we had to increase its strength, although we encountered the difficulties in realizing greater high-density packaging while halving the thickness of the product.

Commitment 1: Realizing a case only 0.6mm thick
Metal retains strength even when formed thin, but it is still relatively heavy and not a good material for portable products in general. We use magnesium alloy for our PCs, a metal, but light, to achieve 0.6mm thinness with acceptable hardness. We brought the magnesium die-casting process to mass production, and realized a 0.6mm thinness case. We did this by adopting technology such as the "film gate" - a thin, wide opening for pouring magnesium.

Commitment 2: Reduction of residual materials on printed circuit boards
In manufacturing printed circuit boards, residual materials cannot be avoided. We are making efforts to minimize them. This example shows a case where we succeeded in a 50% reduction compared to the previous board through changes in the board layout and improvement of production facilities.

Commitment 3: Protect Hard Disk Drives from accidental shock
The hard disk drive is a precise electro-mechanical device, and one of the most delicate parts of the PC. We have introduced a three-dimensional acceleration sensor for monitoring the position of a notebook PC. Inclination of the notebook PC that could lead to damage to the hard disk drive is calculated, and if it is reached - if the PC falls from a desk for example - the read/write head is retracted from the surface of the disk, avoiding damage to the disk or the head.

We continue to improve the energy efficiency of our products: lower consumption of electric power by each individual user adds up to global energy saving.

Mission 1: Reduction of CO2 emissions and stop global warming
Global warming, caused in major part by CO2 discharges, is one of the most serious environmental issues today. Energy consumption in production processes results in emissions of large volumes of CO2. Reduction of such emissions is a key challenge that we must continue to tackle.

Mission 2: Improvements in the energy efficiency of notebook PCs
Basically, the notebook PC is more energy efficient than the desktop PC. That said, we must continue to improve its energy efficiency so that we can use it for a longer period of time under the limited battery capacity without any functional degradation.

Commitment 1: Development of "ACPI" power-saving system
If the CPU or other devices inside of a PC is set to low power mode, its processing speed slows. If the luminosity of the display is lowered, its operability is affected. Here is where power management becomes necessary. For instance, the power consumption of a device not in use can be kept lower, and the power supply can even be automatically shut off if it is not used for a certain period of time.

Commitment 2: Additional power saving with Toshiba "Power-saving Utility"
In order to meet needs for use of PCs on the go, and for efficient power saving without sacrificing necessary functions, power saving in the mobile environment is becoming increasingly important.

Commitment 3: ENERGY STAR Compliant design
Toshiba provides ENERGY STAR qualified notebook PCs to world wide regions that participate in the ENERGY STAR program. All products developed 2009 (up to the end of July, 2009) comply with ENERGY STAR Version5.0 except no-OS models.

We implement product design that makes recycling of materials easy, including design for easy disassembly at end-of-life.

Mission 1: Prevention of resource exhaustion
Past oil crises taught us an important lesson - that the Earth's resources are finite and will be exhausted some day if we continue to consume them. Most plastics are derived from petroleum. It is important to promote the recycling of these plastics, as this directly contributes to preventing a drain on petroleum resources. We continue to implement design for recycling that allows plastic parts to be recycled and reused.

Mission 2: Reuse as materials
Recycling of plastics can be carried out through "material recycling" that reuses plastics as resin, "chemical recycling" that produces chemical raw materials, and "thermal recycling" that turns plastic into fuel. Plastics have the longest life cycle when reused as resin. This use also prevents a drain on resources and produces fewer environmental impacts than incineration or disposal in landfill.

Commitment 1: Promotion of use of recycled materials for the PC case
We promote the use of materials recycled from various products used in the market. We are accustomed to using recycled material in our daily life. When it comes to a Toshiba PC, reworked plastics are used as some parts of the PC case.

Commitment 2: Promotion of material recycling by adopting a magnesium alloy case
There is a limit to the use of plastics in the manufacture ultra-thin PC cases. Sustained rigidity means thicker plastics. Magnesium alloy, on the other hand, has the advantages of plastic's light weight plus inherent rigidity. As it is a metal, recycling is not an issue.
We began using a magnesium alloy case in 1996, when we succeeded in manufacturing a PC case of only 0.7mm thickness. Magnesium alloy is as light as plastic with the rigidity of metal, so it can be used for ultra-thin cases and easily reprocessed. It is also suitable for recycling. However, manufacture of PCs using magnesium alloy requires advanced die-casting technologies and various secondary manufacturing processes, and the manufacturing cost cannot equal that of plastics. For the time being, we will use magnesium for PCs with a slim design concept.

RoHS Directive
As early as in September 2005, we designed and launched our first RoHS compatible notebook PC. Since then, we have been designing and launching RoHS compatible PCs.
The Directive restricts use of six hazardous substances in electrical and electric devices in the EU from July 1, 2006 ;lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls(PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers(PBDE).

Mission: Early Realization of RoHS Compatible Design
We restrict use of hazardous substances by developing alternative parts and components, and by introducing new technologies.We are delivering products that help customers to feel secure and comfortable.

Commitment 1: Establish a technical base compatible with RoHS
We have been developing environmentally conscious notebook PCs for a long time. In 1998, we realized halogen- and antimony- free printed wire boards that do not generate dioxin even if burned. We adopted lead-free soldering in 2001. Since the temperature of lead-free soldering rises to around 250 degrees centigrade, every part has to resist that temperature. In cooperation with parts suppliers, we realized lead-free soldering for all printed circuit boards made in our factory in 2003. Then we replaced the parts with RoHS compatible ones part-by-part and launched our first PC with a RoHS-compatible printed circuit board and case in January, 2005. Our last issue was to replace unit devices, such as DVD drives, with RoHS compatible alternatives. We realized that and launched our first PC with all of the parts and components that are compatible with RoHS.

Commitment 2: Work RoHS compatibility into the development processes
We built a system that enabled us to integrate RoHS compatibility into all processes, from parts selection to manufacturing and shipment. We promoted RoHS compatibility by incorporating RoHS management in the PC development infrastructure.