Our employees are our most important asset. We understand that our people are the key to continued success. For this reason, we pay exceptional attention to the welfare of all employees and they enjoy a wide spectrum of modern social benefits. These benefits are not just an expression of how highly Olympus values them, but they also provide concrete support where needed. Some examples of this are healthcare, childcare during working hours, continued development of individual competencies and professional knowledge, modern and flexible pension schemes.

Olympus is proud of the variety of contributions that our employees make to society. As a company, Olympus strives to play an integral role in society, sharing its values and working to create new value to help people around the world have healthier and more fulfilling lives. Beyond the realm of its business activities, we actively contribute to society in the areas of

Medicine and Health
Science and Education
Road Safety

Our key engagements:

• “Médecins du Monde” – Olympus supports the German branch of the international humanitarian organisation Médecins du Monde. This international humanitarian aid organisation recruits medical and non-medical volunteers, who provide healthcare for vulnerable populations around the world. The organisation is active in over 50 countries throughout the world and delivers much needed medical assistance via more than 90 health projects focused on emergency assistance, rehabilitation and development. Olympus finds it essential to help exactly those people who need it the most. We therefore actively support the long-term engagement of Ärzte der Welt in Cambodia as well as emergency aid following humanitarian tragedies such as the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010.

• Olympus Europa Science for Life Foundation - Founded as a non-profit organisation in  October 1988 the Olympus Europa Foundation promotes science and research in the fields  of scientific photography, endoscopic diagnosis and therapy, microscopy, clinical  chemistry as well as child diseases.Since its formation the Foundation has supported more  than 90 projects. In addition, the Olympus Europa Science for Life Foundation recognises  exceptional accomplishment with the following awards:
- Annual Olympus Award in Pattern Recognition, together with the German Society for  Pattern Recognition
- Annual Olympus Award for best scientific work in medicinal optical technology in  cooperation with the German Society for Biomedical Technology
For further information please contact: stiftung@olympus-europa.com
  
In addition we support a variety of local projects which suit our CSR scope

A sample of projects and organisations sponsored today and in the past are:
• Children’s Museum – Olympus sponsors the interactive exhibition “ich kann das” (“I can do it”). The idea was to support parent-free mobility of children in urban neighbourhoods.
• Caravan of Health – An Anayiafrica social business project aiming to provide medical care and primary health education to those living in rural areas of Togo.
• Clinic Clowns – Professional clowns visit hospital paediatric units in Hamburg bringing laughter and joy to the little patients.
• Sponsoring run for the benefit of “Kinder helfen Kindern” - For years Olympus employees have taken part in a sponsored run to provide children and teenagers of low-income families with the membership to local sports clubs.
• Social Apprentice Day– Olympus apprentices annually decide on a project that they wish to support and commit energy to, such as optimising playground of a local kindergarten.

One of the pillars of corporate social responsibility is the protection of nature and resources.

Olympus has always considered it important to protect and conserve the natural world and the environment that we live in. Since 1992, we adhere to our own environmental protection declaration:

“Olympus Group, respecting nature and the health and safety of mankind, has resolved through its technological development and through adopting ecologically compatible business practices to contribute to the reestablishment of a healthy environment and a society in which a sustainable development is possible.”

In the course of time preventing global warming was identified as the most important issue for all our environmental activities. The overall target for our environmental protection measures became the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions  from all operations controlled by Olympus.

Our challenging target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting form our business activities by half before the year 2020.

This symbol highlights our environmental activities.

To achieve this ambitious goal, a consolidated GHG accounting and reporting tool was established to objectively evaluate the progress.

To achieve the aims of the Olympus environmental protection declaration, we pursue the environmentally relevant activities under the following topics:

• Volume of GHG emissions during product lifecycle.
Direct emissions by using oil, fuel and gas shall be reduced. The design and manufacturing process shall lead to reduced GHG emissions during life cycle. The logistics process shall be optimized thus leading to reduced GHG emissions.
• Products, materials and business procedures at all sites shall be energy efficient. The use of fresh water and the emission of waste water shall be reduced.
• Use of chemicals and the volume of waste disposal.
The waste management follows the hierarchy of avoidance before recycling before disposal. The use of chemicals with high global warming potential shall be avoided.
• Adherence to treatment facility policies that are in accordance with article 11 of the European Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Read more.

For our new sites we use the best available technique to reduce the energy consumption of the buildings by installing efficient insulation and using renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic and thermal solar collectors.