CSR - Environmental, Photo Division, Tamron USA, Inc.

Econtribution
Better Product Performance is Healthier For The Planet.

What would photography be without breathtaking scenes of natural beauty? Tamron complies with environmental regulations, making continued effortrs to keep our world intact for future generations. Minimizing our footprint on the environment calls for ceaseless effort and improvement in every aspect of our business. Our product development and business practices reflect this effort–from our Designs for the Environment (DfE) program that strives to reduce energy and waste in all our products, right down to our supply chain management. Our mission: reduce energy and waste throughout the product lifecycle, eliminate the usage of harmful chemicals in all our products and improve product performance.

DfE - Design for the Environment

From size, to weight, to impact on the environment Tamron’s DfE program guides the design and production process within Tamron to ensure that we engineer and develop photographic lenses with the least amount of environmental impact.

This approach is particularly effective in making product improvements. For example, when following our DfE guidelines, we’ve found what we feel is an optimal solution by replacing metal with more durable and lighter molded polycarbonate resins that are easily recyclable, resulting in products that have minimum impact on the environment both in production, and upon disposal.

In addition, through DfE we are able to continuously minimize the physical number and size of lens components while improving functionality, and in the process reduce the lens’ weight, size and number of components used. Minimizing lens parts isn’t easy, but by using innovative aspherical lenses with a high refractive index and well researched combinations of various types of glass we’ve reduced the number of elements in our lenses and offer the same, if not better, quality images than heavier lenses with more parts.

DfE in Action
Our most significant achievement to date is the A001N 70-200mm zoom lens. Compared to its predecessor, the 67DN 70-210mm zoom lens, it is 10.4% lighter and has 31% fewer parts, while offering better performance. This was achieved by reducing the number of stainless steel balls used as bearings, resulting in smooth focusing and zooming, as well as making the lens easier to operate.

The Tamron Eco Label

The Tamron Eco Label is the label that marks our products that have earned our DfE certification. It’s an eye gently looking at the triumvirate: Society, Economy, and Environment. The eyebrow symbolizes a flowing stream of the elements air and water. The pupil represents the green earth, and the tree represents the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. This label will soon appear on our products that meet our standard.

Eco Partner Accreditation

Doing business today requires synergy like never before, and to do business effectively we expect our partners to commit to similar values. Our Eco Partner Accreditation program is an Environmental Quality Assurance program that ensures that our partners adhere to the same standards that we do.

We begin by distributing three publications to our prospective partners:

1. Environment-Related Substance Management Regulations

2. Environmental Quality Management Procedures

3. Guidance for Environmental Quality Assurance

We then ask them to audit and cooperate with these standards to guarantee that our products are free from harmful chemical substances. With XRF, X-ray florescent analysis apparatus; ICP-AES, Inductively-Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry; and GC-MS, Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry we ensure that all products are free from harmful lead, mercury, cadmium, sexivalent chrome, PBB, and PBDE. If we detect any of these harmful chemicals in parts or components, they are not used and sent back to the supplier. Rest assured that when you purchase a Tamron lens that it meets our high standards and is free from harmful chemicals.

At Tamron we support and comply with the initiatives of the “Restriction on the use of certain Hazardous Substances,” RoHS and the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restriction of Chemicals, REACH.

UN Global Compact: Ensuring compliance with global standards throughout our supply chain

We have always paid careful attention to all the materials that go into Tamron products, and go to great lengths for our customers to ensure that all of our products are free from harmful chemicals. Since 2008, we have adopted a new standard that broadens the scope of these parameters to include the monitoring of the health and well being of partner company and supplier employees, along with ensuring their compliance with workplace cleanliness and environmental regulations. At Tamron we refer to this as our “Socially Responsible Supply Chain Management Structure”, and through it we hope to play a role in preventing child and other unfair labor practices while engaging in the promotion of environmentally sustainable business practices around the globe. We are participating in the UN’s Global Compact to ensure these global standards are adhered to, with the ultimate goal of creating a better world for us all.

UN Global Compact >

Citizenship | Economic | Environmental