Decarbonization and Circular Economy
Realizing a Decarbonized Society
Metrics and Targets
We set the target for FY2021 of “Reducing CO2 emissions from our business activities by 50% by FY2030 compared with FY2019 and achieving carbon neutrality by FY2050.”
The result for FY2024* was a reduction of 24% compared with the 380,000 t-CO2 for the base year of FY2019. We have already developed a road map for reduction by FY2050 and are now working on its implementation.
* Recalculated results for the past fiscal year following the acquisition of Thai Stanley Electric Public Co., Ltd. (THS), as a consolidated subsidiary in FY2024
Targets related to climate change (base FY2019)
| Metric | Target | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope1,2 Amount of CO₂ emissions from our business activities | FY2030 50% reduction | FY2050 Achieve carbon neutrality |
Roadmap for reducing the amount of CO₂ emissions from our business activities (Scope1, Scope2)
<Basic approach of reducing CO2 emissions>
We are focusing on reducing CO₂ emissions at our production sites, which account for more than 90% of the Group’s CO₂ emissions. One measure in particular that we are focusing on is to improve manufacturing for reducing manufacturing that uses heat. With this, we are aiming to achieve our targets by further accelerating reductions from FY2027 onwards. To reach our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by FY2050, we will dedicate 50% of our R&D efforts to development towards carbon neutrality, and will further advance the practical application of new technologies from 2030 onward.
Carbon-neutral initiatives for the supply chain
Monitoring Scope 3 emissions in business activities
Our Group’s initiatives toward becoming carbon neutral have thus far focused on reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO₂ emissions from our business activities. Looking ahead, there will also be a need to address Scope 3, which refers to CO₂ emissions generated from the flow of all processes, including raw materials procurement, logistics and waste. When we calculated our emissions of Group’s Scope 3, we realized that CO₂ emissions from Category ❶ raw materials were the highest. Moreover, out of the raw materials, we first focused on controlling the resin materials that make up 80% of lamps, our core products. The amount of CO₂ emissions for resin was around 500,000 t-CO₂ (in FY2019). Thus, our Group views reducing CO₂ emissions at the resin manufacturing stage a priority issue, and started looking at the practical application of recycled resin as one way to reducing CO₂ emissions. Working together with our suppliers rather than independently is crucial, and we will be focusing on promoting activities for reducing CO₂ emissions to suppliers that have a high level of CO₂ emissions in our supply chain.
Scope3 category
“Green Value Chain Platform” (Ministry of the Environment)
Created using images available on (https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/supply_chain/gvc/estimate.html)
●figures are Scope3 category
Requesting cooperation throughout the supply chain and for the future
In response to these results, we recognized reducing Category ❶ raw material CO2 emissions for the Group, particularly from resins, as a material issue, and have begun investigating reduction methods, including switching to resins with lower CO2 emissions. This series of activities is not an effort that we are undertaking entirely on our own, but instead relies upon collaboration with our suppliers, which is why we have prioritized advancing CO2 emission reduction activities starting from those suppliers with the highest CO2 emissions along our supply chain. We therefore hold briefings for our major suppliers on our Purchasing Policy, which urges the necessary cooperation in business activities involving human rights and risk, as part of the Group’s purchasing policy and sustainable procurement. Through these opportunities, we request their understanding of and cooperation in these efforts to achieve carbon neutrality throughout our supply chain. Moreover, each business site holds informal supplier social gatherings, through which we explain this policy to other suppliers, and encourage all, regardless of language or transaction volume, to broadly promote systems for reducing emissions.
Circular Economy
Basic approach
To ensure the continuation of our business activities while reducing our impact on the global environment, we consider it imperative to transition to a circular economy (CE)*. In this model, resources are recycled and nothing is wasted.
Given that most of the materials used in the Group’s lamp products are petroleum-based resins, we aim to establish a circular resource system in which used materials are recovered after fulfilling their purpose and reused to produce new lamps without extracting additional resources. For this purpose, together with our supply chain, we have laid out and arranged a scheme intended to achieve a recycling-oriented society that minimizes our impact on the environment. Similarly, we will work to develop technologies and products that use sustainable resources to achieve closed-loop recycling.
- A recycling-oriented framework that maximizes the value of existing things by minimizing as much as possible the amount of new resources input or consumed, while designing things and services from the creation stage of economic activities on the premise that they will be recycled and reused.
Workshop for a circular economy
In the spring of FY2024, we held a workshop toward building a circular economy that also leads to action on climate change. Breaking through organizational barriers, this workshop brought together those from different divisions, who held discussions with the aim of building a closed-loop cycle for our automotive lamps, and began developing materials using sustainable resources with no environmental impact.
