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	One of Pioneer’s persistent, but inconspicuous, pursuits in developing characteristic products is adopting eco-friendly materials while offering designs vouched for by advanced functions, high performance and reliability, as well as quietness. Specifically, as our industry leading efforts to abandon the reliance on petroleum products, we have been expanding our use of plant-based resins ever since we became the first in the world to commercialize drives that use such plastics. A drive is comprised of many different plastic parts---a front panel, a bezel, buttons, and a tray---to name a few. Before the introduction of non-petrochemical plastics, we had been working on designs that enabled easy recycling, drawing on our internal environmental standards, in addition to affixing labels that identified the materials used, which was the industry-wide norm. However, we naturally came to think that, that’s not Pioneer doing, and got our feet wet with the new challenge. 　 So, in joint effort with resin material manufacturers, we set out in pursuit of the best drive---a non-petrochemical product---using plant-derived resin. While we secretly got on with investigating and discussing the adoption of plant-derived resin for outer parts of the drive, we also cooperated with the marketing members from early on in the process and studied the effective applications of plant-based resins, the societal problems surrounding plant-based resins, as well as how to turn them into a business product.
	Our primary objective for pursuing the adoption of plant-derived plastic is to break away from petrochemicals. Petroleum is a finite resource, and to put it in clichéd terms, this technological development is an inevitable challenge that must be faced. From another perspective, plant-derived resin provides carbon neutrality. When burned for disposal, the carbon dioxide released from plant-derived resin is almost equal to the carbon dioxide amount absorbed by the plant. This means that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air stays substantially the same. Therefore, plant-based resins are materials that can reduce CO2 emissions and prevent and consequently won’t contribute to global warming. Petrochemical resin is a mature technology, with all kinds of resin able to accommodate any purpose or performance requirement. On the other hand, plant-based resin is still a developing technology. Loosely speaking, it does not share most of the applications covered by petrochemical resin. Then there are also the problems of production yield, challenges of production processes, labeling with respect to environmental impact, and so on. People also tend to confuse biodegradable plastic with plant-derived resin, so we were quite careful when we gave explanations to our clients. The actual development took a two-pronged approach: We supported the development of the materials, and the establishment of technologies to utilize plant-based resin in our products. We created test pieces one by one with the resin manufacturer staff, evaluated them and improved on them. It was an oft-repeated, low-key task. * For information on carbon neutrality, click on the link below. http://pioneer.jp/environment/ecoproducts/prevention.html#3
	Initially, we started by employing plant-derived resin for part of the panel where disks are inserted. Then, when a plant-derived resin with fire-retardant properties was developed, we expanded the area of adoption. The plant-derived resin was applied to all models, including those overseas. Today, a majority of Pioneer brand drives, including DVR-S16J/A16J and BDR-S03J, use plant-derived resins for the entire front part of the drive that is visible to the user.
	The portable drive DVR-XD09, thanks to its world-class compactness and low weight, is shipped with reduced packaging for more efficient resource utilization. In addition, as an indirect effect, the improved transportation load efficiency for logistics reduces fuel consumption, hence contributing to a reduction in CO2 emissions. We are also keen on reducing power consumption, which led to the creation of an eco-friendly USB bus-powered drive. Our exclusive “PureRead” function is also equipped on most of our models, including DVR-XD09, to conduce to reducing waste by being able to read audio data from old or damaged CDs that would otherwise have been thrown away.
	We are pleased to mention that our continued adoption of plant-derived resin for most Pioneer brand built-in drives has been much praised, and that the drives were introduced in the bioplastics MAGAZINE, published in Europe, where many countries are environmentally conscious. Our products were also offered for display at the resin manufacturer’s booths at the environmental exhibition co-hosted at the G8 Toyako Summit. Though they may be subdued, we believe that through such involvements we are producing achievements in and influencing the world of environmentally-friendly resins. Alongside customers, we intend to continue building on our experiences that lead to the development of higher performance environmentally-friendly resins in addition to amassing know-how to use environmentally-friendly resins without compromising the drive performance.