Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.

Water Resources Conservation

Policy and Basic Approach

Environmental Policy

Our Group has established the Environmental Policy as a policy related to environmental issues pertaining to our Group (including water resources conservation). Our Group's Environmental Policy is described on the following page.

Structure (Governance)

The structure for supervision and management of environmental issues pertaining to our Group (including water resources conservation) is described on the following page.

Risk Management

The identification, assessment, and management of risks and opportunities related to environmental issues pertaining to our Group (including water resources conservation) are carried out in accordance with the risk management system and risk management process described on the following page.

Assessment of Water-Related Risk in Fiscal 2023

We continuously assess water risks in the regional watersheds where our domestic and overseas group sites are located, and are disclosing information on 17 domestic and 27 overseas sites.

In addition to the results of the WRI* Aqueduct survey, we also conduct our own surveys for water risk assessments that factor in our water consumption. This also adds a water consumption factor based on the scale of each location’s operations, and clarifies the risks by region where our Group operates.

Overseas, there are no sites with high overall water consumption rates, but there is a significant regional increase in water risks in the Southeast Asia and China areas, which will require continued attention. In light of these results, we will undertake more highly effective water resource conservation moving forward.

  • * A tool providing information on water risks developed and published by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Assessment of Water-Related Risk in Fiscal 2023

Region Risk level Total
Extremely high High Medium to High Low to Medium Low
Japan Number of bases 3 3 11 17
Water consumption
(thousand m3)		 3,752 37 456 4,246
China (including Taiwan) Number of bases 2 3 1 1 7
Water consumption
(thousand m3)		 74 124 49 22 269
Southeast Asia Number of bases 3 1 1 2 7
Water consumption
(thousand m3)		 346 49 48 25 468
North America Number of bases 2 8 10
Water consumption
(thousand m3)		 298 100 398
Europe Number of bases 1 1 1 3
Water consumption
(thousand m3)		 53 3 54 110

Metrics and Targets

Water Resources Conservation

When it comes to the water used at our Group’s locations, in Japan a large share of the water used comes from groundwater, while overseas a large share of this comes from waterworks. The water used in our plants in Japan accounts for 78% of the water used by the entire Group.

While we have been continuously striving to reduce our water consumption, we have accelerated our activities by establishing a medium- to long-term target for water use reduction from fiscal 2020, calling for a 25% reduction from the fiscal 2017 level by fiscal 2030.

We are engaging in activities to achieve targets at all business sites. In particular, we are taking a proactive approach to measures at our Shizuoka Plant, which accounts for a large percentage of the Group’s water usage in Japan, and have been achieving gradual reductions. While company-wide water consumption increased slightly in fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2023 due to increased production, reduction efforts at each site resulted in a current reduction rate of 24% from fiscal 2017 for Japan and overseas as a whole over the six years, with progress exceeding original plans.

We will continue to implement steady reductions to achieve our goals.

Water Usage Volume

Water Usage Volume
Water Usage by Source in Fiscal 2023

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