Measures to reduce environmental impact

Overview of environmental impact

We’re striving to ascertain and lessen the environmental impact of production activities as a whole.

The data shown below are for the four plants (the Osaka Plant, Nara Plant, Tokyo Plant, and Ibaraki Plant) and the headquarters and sales groups.

CO₂ emissions intensity

CO₂ emissions intensity refers to the volume of CO₂ emitted from a fixed amount of business activities. We calculate CO₂ emissions intensity based on processing at domestic plants, for headquarters, and for all plants and sales operations in Japan. This is used as a general indicator of energy conservation because it is unaffected by changes in sales or production volume.

Four plants (per yen of processing)

Companywide (per yen of processing)

（g-CO₂/yen）
	2019	2020	2021	2022
Four plants (per yen of processing)	1.80	1.99	2.02	2.08
Companywide (per yen of processing)	3.02	3.11	3.10	3.08

Quantitative changes

The headquarters, sales group, and the four plants are striving to reduce CO₂ emissions in various ways, including energy conservation activities and the adoption of high-efficiency equipment. They’re also working to reduce industrial waste and boost recycling rates.
CO₂ emission increased in FY2022 due to increased processing. As a result of efforts to improve efficiency in the logistics division, company-wide CO₂ emissions intensity has been lowered. Industrial waste emissions have also been reduced, and our recycling rate was maintained at 99.7%.

CO₂ emissions

（t）
		2019	2020	2021	2022
Four plants	Osaka Plant	7,791	7,349	7,166	9,744
	Tokyo Plant	4,462	4,091	4,435	4,869
	Nara Plant	4,310	4,248	4,478	4,204
	Ibaraki Plant	1,575	1,429	1,402	1,543
	Total	18,138	17,117	17,481	20,360
Headquarters and sales as a whole		463	430	445	445
Logistics		11,872	9,259	8,952	9,220
Companywide	Total	30,473	26,806	26,878	30,025

Electricity use

Excludes power generated from solar power equipment installed by the Company itself.

(Thousand kWh)
		2019	2020	2021	2022
Four plants	Osaka Plant	11,229	10,400	10,330	11,784
	Tokyo Plant	7,084	6,514	6,993	7,771
	Nara Plant	3,932	3,716	3,893	3,782
	Ibaraki Plant	2,423	2,237	2,213	2,405
	Total	24,668	22,868	23,429	25,741
Headquarters and sales as a whole		834	776	803	802
Companywide	Total	25,503	23,644	24,232	26,543

Recycling of industrial waste

The total recycling rate for all four plants in FY2022 was 99.7%

Totals may not match due to rounding of component figures.

Volume of industrial waste recycled

（t）
		2019	2020	2021	2022
Four plants	Osaka Plant	5,775	5,729	5,430	5,605
	Tokyo Plant	4,922	4,433	4,845	4,546
	Nara Plant	7,351	6,998	7,681	7,381
	Ibaraki Plant	480	433	388	381
	Total	18,528	17,592	18,344	17,918

Recycling rate

（%）
		2019	2020	2021	2022
Four plants	Osaka Plant	99.0	99.1	99.1	99.1
	Tokyo Plant	100	100	99.9	99.9
	Nara Plant	99.9	99.9	99.9	99.9
	Ibaraki Plant	99.9	99.9	99.9	99.9
	Total	99.7	99.7	99.7	99.7

Final waste treatment volume

（t）
		2019	2020	2021	2022
Four plants	Osaka Plant	55	53	48	49
	Tokyo Plant	0	0	7	4
	Nara Plant	7	7	7	7
	Ibaraki Plant	0	0	0	0
	Total	63	61	63	60

Appropriate management of chemical substances

The chemical substances we use in manufacturing processes are suitably managed pursuant to the Act on Confirmation, etc. of Release Amounts of Specific Chemical Substances in the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management.Thereof (PRTR Act). In addition, in bag and carton production, we are making steady progress on switching to safe adhesives free of restricted chemical substances. In FY2022, we reduced the volume of substances subject to the PRTR Act by 13%.

Volumes of Type I designated chemical substances under the PRTR Act (total for all four plants)

（t）
Subject chemical substances	Material in which included	2019	2020	2021	2022
Toluene	Adhesives	0.8	0.8	0.0	0.0
Xylene	Adhesives	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Phthalates	Adhesives	0.5	0.2	0.0	0.0
Boric acid and compounds thereof	Adhesives	1.7	1.6	1.6	1.4
Monochlorobenzene	Adhesives	0.8	0.8	0.0	0.0
Dichloromethane	Offset-printing cleaning solution	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1,2-Dichloropropane	Offset-printing cleaning solution	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Total		3.8	3.4	1.6	1.4

Putting water resources to more effective use

The water used at the Tokyo Plant for washing printing ink, paint, and adhesives in the manufacturing process is recycled using a water treatment facility for use as toilet flushing water. This helps conserve tap water and counters water shortages by making more efficient use of our limited water resources.

The Tokyo Plant water treatment facility

Eco-friendly printing ink

We offer a full lineup of eco-friendly printing ink for use with packaging materials. This makes it possible to contribute to a carbon-zero society by switching from ordinary inks, made using petroleum-based compound resins and organic solvents, to inks made from biomass materials and water-based inks that use no organic solvents.

Eco-friendly printing plastic bags

To reduce use of petroleum-based compound resins in plastic bags, we’re expanding our lineup of biomass materials. We currently offer 13 types of products that have earned biomass mark certification from the Japan Organics Recycling Association.
In 2020, we sold 109,699,707 biomass mark certified plastic bags.

Participation in CLOMA

There are calls worldwide to promote efforts to identify solutions for the issue of ocean plastic waste, a new issue recognized on a global scale. In response, the Japan Clean Ocean Material Alliance (CLOMA) was launched in January 2019 to promote innovation by strengthening joint efforts among a wide range of parties across industry boundaries and by pooling their technologies and expertise. Since then, we’ve participated in CLOMA’s activities as a core member, mainly by proposing use of paper materials as alternatives to plastic products. We plan to maintain our efforts in related areas, including developing new eco-friendly packages and building systems to help realize a circular economy by exchanging information and working with other CLOMA members.