The YKK Group has established the YKK Group Environmental Policy Promotion Committee to draft environmental policies for the entire YKK group, and propose them to the Management Strategy Meeting. Upon receiving the proposals, the YKK AP Environmental Policy Board Committee drafts and carries out environmental policies from a management perspective and ensures compliance with various environmental regulations and agreements while also ascertaining business risks and opportunities. Additionally, to raise environmental awareness among our employees, we conduct self-checks that utilize case studies on risk inside and outside the company. We have also set up plant wastewater management standards, established a list of items that are subject to risk monitoring and organized emergency equipment in an effort to discover wastewater risks at an early stage and reduce overall risks.

With the aim of enhancing environmental compliance and our environmental management system, we conduct internal environmental audits in both areas every year. For compliance, we created a checklist consisting of legal compliance points based on the laws that apply to YKK AP. We use it for internal environmental audits at each of our facilities and mutual internal environmental audits conducted by the entire company – essentially a double-check system. Finally, we have external auditors conduct inspections to raise our level of environmental management. Currently, our whole company in Japan and 10 locations abroad have acquired the ISO 14001 certification. In March 2019, an external auditor conducted a periodic inspection of the entire YKK AP Group in Japan according to ISO 14001:2015. The auditor looked at areas of our operational management that fit the standard, as well as the formulation and state of action plans regarding risks and opportunities within our business activities. These included social demands, compliance, and communication with local communities, society and our employees. The assessment concluded that our system is functioning as an effective environmental management tool.

Since FY 2013, we have been publishing our supply chain's CO² emissions accounting (purpose, utilization, accounting method, accounting results) on the Green Value Chain Platform page run by the Ministry of the Environment. A look at the categories shows that in “Category 1: Purchased goods and services,” the procurement of raw materials accounts to close to 90% of our CO² emissions in Scope 3. In particular, the procurement of aluminum (from mining to refining to overseas transportation), which we use to make aluminum window frames, is significantly affecting the numbers. Going forward, we will work to increase the use of secondary aluminum and promote the use of vinyl windows to continuously reduce CO² emissions throughout our supply chain. In addition, we are also actively promoting the diversification of product transportation methods. Under the Eco Rail Mark system organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Railway Freight Association Eco Rail Mark Office, we have been recognized as an Eco Rail certified company. For transportation over land, we have introduced double-trailer trucks, which enhances loading efficiency by increasing the amount of cargo to 1.8 times the original load. With an efficient and flexible transportation system, which includes modal shifts and the implementation of large-capacity trailers, we will aim to continuously reduce CO² emissions linked to distribution.

The Science Based Targets (SBT) is gaining traction as an international initiative that encourages companies to set their long-term CO² reduction goals to be in line with the 2°C goal set by the Paris Agreement. YKK AP participated in the Project to Support SBT Formulation organized by the Ministry of the Environment in FY 2017. Within two years, we announced our SBT and received certification in January 2019. We will work to achieve our goals, which are to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by our company (Scopes 1 + 2) by 30% by FY 2030, and to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in our supply chain (Scope 3) by 30% by FY 2030. We plan to fulfill these by promoting long-term measures centered on conserving over 1.3% of energy use a year, converting fuel sources, and introducing reusable energy.

Our company's definition of “zero emission” is to maintain a recycling rate of over 97% for the waste produced in our business activities. We studied the state of industrial waste that we produce, and used to dispose until now, in an effort to convert to recycling. In FY 2018, we worked on figuring out how to recycle plastic waste (vinyl remains, shredded offcuts, composites), which used to be disposed, and managed to determine ways to recycle all industrial waste. Our recycling rate in FY 2018 was 99.9%, making it the 14th continuous year since FY 2005 of achieving zero emissions.

We reduced the amount of industrial waste we produced in FY 2018 by 337 tons compared to FY 2017. Compared to our base year, FY 2013, this is a 17% reduction (the FY 2018 goal was 51.1 thousand tons and a 14% reduction from FY 2013). In FY 2018, we studied the contents of our composite waste, selected what could be reused and converted them into valuables, thereby further reducing our waste output. Going forward, we will work to manage waste in an environmentally appropriate manner by improving the yield of our production process, reusing packaging materials, and enhancing our products' lifecycles. We will also aim to increasingly suppress the amount of waste we produce to minimize negative influences on the environment.