Sony Europe Substantiates its Commitment to Climate Saving Through Energy Efficiency

BERLIN, August 9 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of Sony's (NYSE: SNE) commitment to energy efficiency, Sony reduced power consumption within 90% of its product categories during the FY06. With energy efficiency as one of its core commitments towards the creation of a sustainable society, Sony is continuously striving to make products that use less energy in homes and offices.

Issued on 30th July 2007, the new Sony CSR Report details highlights of Sony's successful engagement to maximise the energy efficiency of its products. Key examples include:

- BRAVIA TVs: As of February 2007, all Sony BRAVIA LCD televisions sold in Europe achieved a standby power consumption below 1 watt, while most models are below 0.3 watts - substantially below the industry average. In addition, many BRAVIA models consume less in on mode when the set's innovative power-saving ambient light sensor is activated.

- VAIO PCs: For all of its VAIO notebooks, Sony has introduced its own 'Advanced VAIO Power Management' function to enable users to temporarily turn off devices (optical drive, i.LINK, audio, network) to save energy. In addition, a new White LED backlight has been introduced to certain VAIO screens, which significantly reduces power consumption.(1)

- Walkman: Thanks to energy saving 'Stamina' engineering, the Walkman S series NW-S706F provides up to 50 hours continuous playback. Energy consumption is reduced by as much as 25% compared to previous models.

- DVD Players: All Sony DVD player products operate at under 0.1 watts in standby mode to reduce power consumption.

- Camcorders: The compact High Definition Handycam HDR-HC3 camcorder incorporates the latest in CMOS sensor technology which has reduced power consumption by approximately 45% compared to an earlier, larger model (HDR-FX1) utilising CCD technology.

- Home Audio: The latest Home Audio range features a standby power consumption of just 0.3 watts and can achieve over 85% power efficiency of the amplifier block, with the full digital S-Master amplifier.

These efforts have not gone unrecognised: In February 2007, Sony became the first consumer electronics and entertainment company to win the Sustainable Energy Europe Award from the European Commission. This prestigious award recognised Sony for its voluntary commitment and efforts to improve the energy efficiency of its products as well as its disclosure of information to consumers.

"Sony is committed to continually developing new innovations and technologies that will further improve the energy efficiency and minimise the environmental impact of our products," says Serge Foucher, Executive Vice President Sony Europe. "We are proud that our efforts are awarded by renowned European organisations and that we work with strong international partners to promote energy efficiency and environmental awareness."

In July 2006, Sony signed an agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the global environmental conservation organisation, to join its Climate Savers Programme. Under this programme, Sony commits itself to cut CO2 emissions by 7% by 2010 (from the year 2000 level) and reduce energy consumption of major Sony products year on year.

"The WWF Climate Savers Programme is designed to encourage companies to be proactive and ambitious in reducing their carbon footprint," commented Oliver Rapf, Head Business & Industry Engagement Climate Change Programme WWF International. "By joining the programme in 2006, Sony has taken responsibility to do its share in helping to solve the climate change problem."

Climate change is one of Sony's global priorities that are specifically featured in the Sony CSR Report 2007. For more details on Sony's CSR activities and to download the CSR Report 2007, please visit http://www.sony.net/csr.

(1) Applies to Vaio TZ Series, some SZ and UX series and G series

For further information please contact: Nicola Mertens, Sony Corporate Communications Europe, Tel: +49-(0)-30-2575-5314, email: Nicola.Mertens@eu.sony.com Sylvia Shin, Sony Corporate Communications Europe, Tel: +49-(0)-30-2575-5156, email: Sylvia.Shin@eu.sony.com