Global Warming Measures

NICHIAS Group Carbon-Neutral Declaration

In October 2020, the Japanese government announced its carbon neutrality declaration at a time in which it was the end of the era where responding to climate change issues caused by global warming was seen as a constraint on companies’ economic growth and source of costs. Today, society has entered an era in which carbon neutrality initiatives are now seen as an opportunity for growth.To prevent maritime pollution from plastic and the loss of precious natural minerals and biological resources due to excessive fishing, regulations for recycling resources and biodiversity conservation are being formulated around the world.

Under such circumstances, the NICHIAS Group decided to aim for carbon neutrality by 2050 in its business activities.Furthermore, to continue manufacturing products that contribute to a carbon-neutral society in a way that has minimal negative impact on the environment, NICHIAS set out medium-term environmental targets to be achieved by fiscal 2030 at its manufacturing sites (green factories) and in its product development (green products).

Carbon Neutrality Efforts

The NICHIAS Group carries out initiatives with the target of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 30% compared to fiscal 2019 (reference fiscal year) by fiscal 2030.The NICHIAS Group undertakes three main initiatives: (1) shifting to manufacturing practices that lead to decarbonization, (2) thorough energy saving at all business establishments, and (3) actively using reusable energy.
 

1. (1) Shifting to Manufacturing Practices That Lead to Decarbonization
   NICHIAS sees products that have particularly large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing process as a major issue toward achieving carbon neutrality and strives to reduce emissions throughout the Group, beyond the boundaries of business departments, research and development departments, and manufacturing departments.While shifting to energy with few carbon dioxide emissions is NICHIAS’ main goal, the Group is also examining manufacturing methods that enable manufacturing with low amounts of carbon.NICHIAS is also developing and shifting to products that are low in carbon throughout their life cycle.
2. (2) Thorough Energy Saving at All Business Establishments
   While NICHIAS has always implemented energy saving activities, from this fiscal year, as efforts at all business establishments under the slogan “Tombo Eco Challenge 30”, NICHIAS has restarted its efforts to fully carry out each of the following: (1) using NICHIAS’ energy-saving technologies and products, (2) introducing various energy-saving equipment, updating facilities, and shifting to eco-friendly fuels, (3) reducing wasted energy by reducing failures and improving productivity in all manufacturing lines, and (4) thorough day-to-day energy saving as a result of the awareness and behavior of all employees.
   To promote such efforts, in fiscal 2021, NICHIAS formulated Guidelines for Investing in Energy Saving Facilities.By adopting internal carbon pricing and crediting it, NICHIAS promotes investment in facilities that lead to reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
3. (3) Actively Using Reusable Energy
   To reduce CO₂ emissions by 2,000 tons across all its business establishments in Japan, NICHIAS is actively installing solar panels on the roofs of its manufacturing buildings.NICHIAS is also facilitating the purchasing of electric power derived from reusable energy locally as well as environmental certificates.

Addressing Recommendations by Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

With the problem of climate change impacting the world negatively in various ways, NICHIAS Group has used its “Insulation and Protection” technologies to contribute to reducing CO₂ emissions through heat-retaining, thermal insulation, and cryogenic insulation materials, and their installation.To ascertain greenhouse gas emissions in the entire supply chain, which must be disclosed to TCFD, NICHIAS started calculating emissions from corporate activities (Scope 1, 2) and emissions from the activities of suppliers and customers (Scope 3).In fiscal 2022, NICHIAS finished calculating the emissions and continues efforts to be able to disclose climate change-related information in line with TCFD.