Sustainability Management

Toyobo group has strengthened its sustainability initiatives since fiscal 2021, and has achieved definite results over these past three years. In Sustainable Vision 2030, the long-term vision we announced in May 2022, we identified five social issues that we can solve through our contributions, given the society we envision for 2030, including climate change, biodiversity, and human rights.

Regarding measures against climate change, we revised our GHG Emissions Reduction Plan, raising the fiscal 2031 reduction target for Scope 1 and 2 from 30% of the fiscal 2014 level to 46% or higher, and also setting a new reduction target for Scope 3. Our reduction target has been recognized as adhering to the levels stipulated by the Paris Agreement, and was also certified by the global Science Based Targets initiative in December 2022. As we work to reduce GHG emissions throughout our supply chain, we will strengthen our collaboration with our diverse stakeholders.

Our biodiversity conservation efforts include joining the 30 by 30 Alliance for Biodiversity in November 2022, an initiative to conserve 30% or more of land and sea as healthy ecosystems by the year 2030. We also applied for OECM international certification for forests owned by our group. We are implementing activities toward the (nature-positive) goal of stopping biodiversity loss and effecting restoration.

Regarding business and human rights, in October 2020 we laid out Toyobo Group Human Rights Policy, and have stated our “respect for human rights throughout our supply chain” at the top of Sustainable Vision 2030. Having begun practicing due diligence in human rights from fiscal 2023, we place priority for our group on gaining a thorough understanding of the operational status of non-Japanese technical trainees. After starting the effort in Japan, we will implement a phased expansion to other countries in the future. Regarding our supply chain, we have established CSR Procurement Guidelines for all suppliers, and are advancing efforts to ensure our policies are understood, including through dialogue with suppliers that have issues.

Corporate sustainability consists of solving social issues through our business.

We have numerous products and solutions that contribute directly to solving social issues, and while expanding those products, we will generate new businesses by evolving and integrating our stock of technologies accumulated in the past. We could, for example, expand our products that bring about a reduction in carbon footprint through a combination of Scope 1 and 2 reductions and the use of recycled and biomass raw materials, thinning of components, etc. We will expand products and solutions that contribute to measures against climate change and to preservation of biodiversity, such as seawater desalination using less energy and renewable sources of energy, reuse of water, power generation using membranes, and devices that collect and reuse the volatile organic compounds used in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries.

Genetic test reagents for PCR tests are helping with measures against the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Biomanufacturing, which combines polymer technology and biomedical technology, the core technologies involved in genetic test reagents, can create businesses that solve issues in both climate change countermeasures and biodiversity conservation. We have, for example, started conducting basic research on uses for unutilized biomass. Future potential is thus hidden in such raw materials as those produced by thinning our group-owned forests.

We have been operating businesses that contribute to solving the social issues of the times ever since our founding in 1882, and our business portfolio has therefore been changing. One of the mottoes of our company’s founder, Eiichi Shibusawa, was “Jun-Ri-Soku-Yu (Adhering to reason leads to prosperity).” With this as our corporate philosophy, we aim to be a group that continues to create solutions needed by people and the earth.

Being oriented toward sustainable growth means becoming a company that achieves sustainable growth through its contributions to the sustainability of society. Spreading and promoting this awareness is my duty.

In January 2020, we became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and joined the Global Compact Network Japan, which comprises Japanese companies and organizations that are UNGC signatories. We have done so because we agree with the principle of solving global issues and achieving sustainable growth as a responsible corporate citizen. Moreover, through participating in subcommittees of the Global Compact Network Japan (on ESG, supply chains, environmental management, Kansai, reporting research, etc.), we gather information that we apply in our day-to-day activities.

Moving forward, we will strengthen our efforts in keeping with the Ten Principles of the UNGC as we contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.

Recognizing the scale of the impact of climate change on our group and stakeholders, we have identified a “decarbonized society and circular society“ as one of our materialities. In January 2020, we announced our support for the recommendations made by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and have been working on initiatives and disclosures that follow them.

Based on the below 2℃ scenario and the 4℃ scenario, we identified climate change-specific risks and opportunities for the group. While we focused on the films business in the previous fiscal year, we expanded the scope to include all of the group’s businesses in the current fiscal year. We compiled the identified risks and opportunities and rearranged themin view of changes in society and then explored measures to address each of them.