Environmental Management

Our Group has specified the following measures in response to the government's 2050 Carbon Neutral Declaration and the 2030 target.
    ● 2050 target: Taking on the carbon neutrality challenge
    ● 2030 target: Reducing CO₂ emissions by 46% or more (compared to fiscal 2013)

The Carbon Neutrality Promotion Committee recaps each year's progress toward medium- to long-term environmental targets at the end of the fiscal year and determines the targets for the following fiscal year. It carries out its activities with the approval of the Sustainability Promotion Committee, which serves as its parent body. Two subcommittees were established within the committee in order to achieve its objectives, and these subcommittees work to reduce our environmental impact.

The Life Cycle Subcommittee aims to establish production systems with minimal environmental impacts through scientific, quantitative, and objective assessments of environmental impacts, from the R&D phase onward.

Each R&D department must decide on a theme and work on it with an awareness of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), from raw materials extraction to final disposal (cradle to grave). We are moving forward with these activities having established the goal of credentialing 25% of all researchers to understand LCA and calculate GHG emissions in fiscal 2022. In fiscal 2022, we reached 25%, as we provided all education and tutoring related to LCA in an online format.

We will continue to enhance educational opportunities again in fiscal 2023.

In addition, we will establish a system enabling us to speedily provide LCA information on all of our Group's products by the end of fiscal 2024, in response to the rapid increase in inquiries from customers regarding LCA since the Japanese government's October 2020 net zero greenhouse gas emissions declaration. In fiscal 2022, we conducted LCA calculations for Akita Sumitomo Bakelite and SB Kawasumi's new standard products, from raw material extraction to factory shipment (cradle to gate), achieving a rate of 73% (planned at 70%) for the end of fiscal 2022 for initiatives in Japan. In fiscal 2023, we will continue working to horizontally deploy LCA evaluations on standard products.

The CN Technology Review Subcommittee has established a system for continuously soliciting and implementing energy conservation ideas, and is promoting voluntary energy conservation activities at domestic sites.

In fiscal 2022, energy consumption successfully reduced by as much as 3,710 kL (143,798 GJ) in crude oil equivalent, or 7,766 t-CO₂, compared with fiscal 2021, primarily by reducing city gas and electricity consumption. Overseas, the subcommittee worked to ensure a similar level of activities as in Japan and continued to promote the rollout of activity methods and best practices. In addition, as part of our efforts to promote CN toward the 2050 target mentioned above, we began switching all purchased electricity at all domestic business sites to electricity derived from renewable energy sources in January 2022, and will continue with contracts moving forward. At overseas Group companies, three European companies, two North American companies, and one Chinese company have currently switched to electricity derived from renewable energy sources.

In fiscal 2023, in line with the objectives of the CN Promotion Committee, the CN Technology Deliberation Subcommittee will formulate a plan and work toward the most recent 2030 target. In terms of energy conservation, we will build on past efforts to set energy conservation targets and also to complete our reduction plans for each business site. In particular, the subcommittee will focus on creating a system across business sites in domestic for sharing energy conservation practices and technical information related to energy conservation in order to improve the level of energy-saving technology throughout our Company; and having the mother plants in domestic provide technical support to their affiliated sites through a tie-up with the Company-wide Energy Conservation Secretariat.

Environmental Vision for 2050 (net Zero)

CDP (headquartered in London)^*1 is an international NGO established in 2000 in partnership with institutional investors from around the world. It carries out projects in which it sends out questionnaires to major companies and municipal governments around the world on issues such as climate change, water security, and forests, and that seek climate change strategies and specific declarations related to emissions of greenhouse gases.

With the CDP's 2022 survey, survey activities were conducted on behalf of 680 institutional investors with net invested assets totaling 130 trillion U.S. dollars. More than 18,700 companies disclose environmental data on their initiatives for climate change programs via the CDP.

From 2022, the number of companies in Japan requested to disclose their information on climate change was expanded to all companies (1,841) listed in the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Upon responding to the CDP questionnaire for fiscal 2022, we received a B rating for climate change and water security in December 2022. Having received requests for responses in fiscal 2023 regarding climate change and water security as well, we have responded.

The TCFD initiative, for which we expressed our agreement in February 2021, is introduced in [Information Disclosure Based on the TCFD recommendations (Response to Climate Change)] (p. 50-53).

As a new initiative, following to express to express our agreement with the “GX League Basic Concept” announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2022, we decided to participate in the “GX League^*2” that will begin operating in full from fiscal 2023, becoming a participating company in May 2023.

Moving forward, our Group will continue to conduct proactive information disclosure regarding risks and opportunities associated with climate change, as we hold ourselves accountable to all of our stakeholders.

We will move forward with environmental information disclosure as we contribute to the response to climate change through environmental impact reduction, resource and energy conservation, chemicals management, and development of products that contribute to the environment.