When it comes to electronics, Sony is an iconic name. The company, headquartered in 
Tokyo, is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for both the consumer and professional markets. Sony has a widely diversified presence in electronics, gaming, entertainment (including motion pictures and music), semiconductors, network services, medical business, and financial services. Its products cover the gamut from televisions to cameras, and headphones to tablets—and, of course, PlayStation®.
Sony, NERC, & the Environment
Sony’s corporate social responsibility initiatives dictate that each of their businesses will operate in an ethical, sound and responsible manner. Using an innovation-driven approach, the Company strives to generate maximum social value with its technologies and content. According to Doug Smith, Director of Corporate Environment, Safety and Health, “innovation is how the Sony Group enhances its corporate value and helps to build a better, more sustainable world for everyone.”
With a changing world, global climate change, and rising social unrest, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. As a global corporate citizen, Sony embraced these goals as a roadmap to building a more sustainable world.
Stated Smith, “Sony joined NERC as an Advisory Member because of its long-standing work in electronics recycling and its openness to varying perspectives and priorities. Sony believes in the importance of engaging with its stakeholders and others in a continuous dialogue and NERC shares that value.”
Innovating for the Future
In 1946, Masaru Ibuka, started an electronics shop in Tokyo with eight employees. Joined by a colleague, Akio Morita, in the following year, they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The small company successfully built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G. In 1958 the company adopted the name "Sony".
Today, Sony’s approximately 125,300 employees provide the company with a diversity of skills and backgrounds to help realize the Sony mission in the same vein as the company’s founders—through innovation and challenge.
In 2016, marking the 70th anniversary of Sony's founding, Kazuo Hirai, President and Chief Executive Officer, announced that the Company has set its sights on “sustainable growth. . . laying the foundations for the future by boldly pursuing new businesses, and continuing to strive toward the creation of new value.”
The Future of Communication
Sony has a mission to be a company that “inspires and fulfills curiosity.” The Japanese word KANDO means “to move people emotionally, and it is rooted in our brand philosophy to deliver moving experiences to Sony consumers by innovation and challenge. This ‘Spirit of innovation and challenge’ is detailed in our Founding Prospectus, written by one of our Founders, Masaru Ibuka.”
Indeed, this innovation and challenge is evident in its products.