ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Environment Environmental Management

KOKUYO Group Environmental Policy

Building a sustainable society will require the creation of a decarbonized and recycling-oriented society that can coexist with nature. The KOKUYO Group Environmental Policy defines the following seven items as the specific activity items to achieve that: response to the climate crisis; contribution to a recycling-oriented society; contribution to a society that coexists with nature; procurement, development and supply of environmentally friendly products; legal compliance and pollution prevention; information disclosure and communication; and environmental management. Each operating company sets targets in line with the characteristics of their business based on this KOKUYO Group Environmental Policy. They then strive to improve their environmental performance.

KOKUYO Group Environmental Policy We recognize that global warming, depletion of resources, biodiversity conservation and other global environmental problems are perpetual issues shared by the whole world to achieve a sustainable society. Accordingly, the KOKUYO Group will assume the lead in taking action to resolve these issues by bringing together the wisdom of various people involved in our business activities.
Response to the Climate Crisis	We will take measures to significantly cut and absorb the amount of greenhouse gases we emit to realize a decarbonized society.
Contribution to a Recycling-oriented Society	We will strive to thoroughly save resources and reduce waste materials as far as possible and then effectively utilize them as resources to develop a recycling-oriented society.
Contribution to a Society That Coexists with Nature	We will promote the conservation of biodiversity and the reduction in harmful chemical substances through our business activities to minimize our environmental impact on ecosystems.
Procurement, Development and Supply of Environmentally Friendly Products	We will reduce our environmental burden over the entire product life cycle and will work on the development of new environmental technologies and green procurement.
Legal Compliance and Pollution Prevention	In addition to environmental laws and regulations, we will seek to observe the industry guidelines we have accepted and our own standards, as well as to prevent environmental pollution.
Information Disclosure and Communication	We will actively disclose environmental information, work on communication with our customers and all external entities, and will fully engage in environmental preservation activities.
Environmental Management	We will strive to continuously improve our environmental performance and to solve social issues through our business activities to realize a sustainable society.

Challenge goals for 2030 and commitment goals for 2024

Our materiality assessment has identified three critical challenges: respond to the climate crisis, contribute toward a recycling-oriented economy and contribute toward a society that coexists with nature. We started considering the state we want to achieve in 2030 and then established indicators (KPI) for that when promoting activities. We have set ambitious targets for 2030 as challenge goals and targets we are aiming to realize in the Medium-Term Plan as commitment goals to serve as a milestone for that.

SBT：Science-Based Targets

Environmental Management System (EMS)

Our Environmental Management System (EMS) consists of an integrated accreditation system for planning, R&D, production, marketing, sales, services, storage, and shipment. Since 2004, the system has covered KOKUYO and all major subsidiaries in Japan. While keeping the core elements of the EMS consistent across the group, we differentiate according to the scale of the environmental impact. Specifically, operating companies and plants with a relatively large environmental impact get case-specific treatment, while those with less impact get standard treatment. We also try to give the companies sufficient leeway to manage their environmental impacts in a manner that suits the nature of their businesses. For example, we allow the companies to set environmental targets in line with their business strategies.

Previously, our environmental initiatives were led by the Environment Committee. This committee coordinated efforts to address environmental issues and monitored socioenvironmental trends. However, we later decided that a more group-wide approach was necessary to deal with the increasingly diverse and complex environmental issues in Japan and around the world. In 2022, we reorganized the committee into a subcommittee (Environmental Subcommittee) of the new Sustainability Committee and increased its membership to include Actus (our interior retail business) and Heartland (a special subsidiary—a company focused on employing people with disabilities). The Environmental Subcommittee has three taskforces for leading cross-organizational efforts to accomplish the goals for the three material issues: the Climate Crisis Taskforce, the Recycling-oriented Society Taskforce, and the Taskforce for Coexistence with Nature.

Environmental Education

We provide training opportunities to raise employees’ awareness about environmental conservation, learn the knowledge necessary for accomplishing our environmental goals, and gain the expertise to deal with emergencies. These opportunities include briefing sessions about environmental law, which are provided by the ISO Promotion Office, workshops for training the auditing team, and an assortment of training provided by each corporate division. In fiscal 2023, we saw an increase in employees attending general environmental training as a result of organizing an internal event called Sustainable Academia Weeks. This event was designed to deepen employees’ sustainability awareness and it focused on five themes: enhancing wellbeing, transforming to a management system for creating social value, responding to the climate crisis, contributing to a circular economy, and contributing to harmony with nature. Attendance of accident and emergency drills increased too. This increase was the result of including in the total the business continuity planning training and evaluation meetings run by Actus.

The venue for Sustainable Academia Weeks
(Shinagawa office)

Sustainable Academia Exhibition
(Shinagawa office)

Emergency drill (for discharge event)
at Kokuyo MVP

Internal (first- and second-party) auditing and third-party auditing

Internal audits (first- and second-party audits) are performed to ensure conformity across our corporate group, with a focus on legal compliance. In first-party audits, the auditee (a group company) performs the audit on itself. In second-party audits, our ISO Promotion Office performs the audit on the auditee. In 2023, first-party audits were performed from July 1 to September 7, second-party audits were performed from August 1 to September 11, and third-party (ISO 14001) audits were performed from November 27 to 30. The first- and second-party audits identified 20 instances requiring corrective action. One of these was a serious non-conformity: During an internal audit, the manager of the audited site failed to provide the records as requested in a timely fashion. Corrective action has been taken. For example, the manager has received training to improve their discernment and the site’s recordkeeping methods have been improved. The first- and second-party audits also identified a record 12 issues of non-conformities related to operational management.

On the other hand, the third-party highlighted examples of sustainability initiatives that were well integrated with business management. These included Loopla (a scheme for recycling office plastic waste), Tsunage Loopa (an environmental education program), and other initiatives illustrating our organizational commitment to environmental sustainability.

The third-party audit in 2023 was a surveillance audit.

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  ISO14001 audit
  (Kokuyo’s Osaka Umeda office)

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  ISO14001 audit
  (Kokuyo’s Shibayama plant)

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  ISO14001 audit
  (Kokuyo Supply Logistics’ Ibaraki distribution center)

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  ISO14001 audit
  (Kokuyo Marketing’s Yamaguchi office)

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  ISO14001 audit
  (Kokuyo MVP’s Aoya plant)

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  ISO14001 audit
  (Kokuyo Logitem’s Saitama distribution center)

Overview of Third-party Reviews of Environmental Performance Data

Our environmental reporting was independently reviewed and certified by Bureau Veritas Japan for the purpose of receiving independent feedback on the accuracy, transparency, consistency, validity, and completeness of the reporting. In its third-party review, Bureau Veritas Japan reviewed environmental performance data and scope 3 emissions data pertaining to the 41 organizations that make up Kokuyo Group.^*1 It also visited workplaces to see how data was being measured and managed. Four Japanese workplaces were visited: Kokuyo Tohoku Sales’s Ichibancho office, Kokuyo Mie plant, Kokuyo’s Shibayama plant, and Kokuyo Logitem’s Komono distribution center. One overseas workplace was visited: KOKUYO Camlin’s Patalganga plant). The review identified eight excellent aspects and nine opportunities for improvement. It also identified 31 issues requiring corrective action and 23 opaque aspects requiring better transparency. During the review period, we rectified the issues and clarified the opaque aspects.
The review mentioned that the primary documentation serving as evidence was filed appropriately and the data was transparent. It also mentioned certain areas for improvement, such that certain data items were aggregated or inputted inaccurately.
In light of the issues raised, we will continue working hard to improve the accuracy and precision of disclosures both internally and throughout our supply chains.

Third-party audit certificate

Year	2021	2022	2023
Excellent aspects	8	11	8
Opportunity for improvement	10	12	9
Issue requiring corrective action	43	38	31
Aspect requiring better transparency	0	7	23

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  Third-party audit of environmental performance data at Kokuyo Tohoku Sales’s Ichibancho office

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  Third-party audit of environmental performance data at Kokuyo’s Shibayama plant

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  Third-party audit of environmental performance data at Kokuyo Logitem’s Komono distribution center

The review covered data reporting from the following organizations