Environmental Management
Basic Approach and Policy
The Nabtesco Group’s Environmental Philosophy, Environmental Action Guidelines
The Nabtesco Group recognizes its social responsibility for realizing a sustainable society. We formulated the Environmental Philosophy and Environmental Action Plan in May 2005 to promote activities in a Group-wide manner.
Environmental issues have recently become more serious. In response to the situation, Nabtesco fully revised the Philosophy and Guidelines to further foster its environmental management in October 2022, after obtaining approval for the revision from the Management Committee and reporting the details to the Board of Directors. The results of the activities conducted based on the Philosophy and Guidelines are regularly reported to the Board of Directors, which thus provides oversight of how the Philosophy and Guidelines are implemented.
Established on May 2005
Revised on October 2022
The Nabtesco Group’s Environmental Philosophy
The Nabtesco Group, based on the recognition that the global environment provides the foundation for all its business activities and that the Group impacts that environment, will give due consideration to the environment across its value chain toward the creation of a sustainable society.
The Nabtesco Group’s Environmental Action Guidelines
Nabtesco regards the protection of the global environment as an important requirement to be met for the creation of a sustainable society and is committed to minimizing the impact of its business activities on the environment as a premise to fulfill its corporate social responsibility. To this end, we will foster environmental management in cooperation with all our stakeholders on a continual basis. Moreover, we will incorporate the Environmental Action Guidelines into the processes to be followed in our business activities, with a view toward achieving the goals of our environmental activities and making continuous improvements in the field.
The Environmental Action Guidelines apply to all directors and employees, who shall understand and support the Guidelines and proactively participate in the initiatives implemented by the Group to achieve its environmental goals.
1. Initiatives for the solutions to environmental issues
- 1.
Initiatives for climate change
For the creation of a carbon-free society, we will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing environment-friendly products as well as by reducing emissions at our own manufacturing facilities. We will also implement anti-climate change initiatives across our value chain, including encouraging and helping our business partners to foster energy conservation. - 2.
Conservation of water resources
For the conservation of water resources in the areas where we conduct business activities, we will strive to reduce our water use, ensure the appropriate management of water quality, and prevent the release of hazardous substances into the environment based on an understanding of local issues. - 3.
Waste reduction and resource saving
To contribute toward building a recycling-based society, we will work to reduce the generation of waste and consumption of natural resources in our business activities in line with the basic principle of promoting the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). - 4.
Prevention of pollution
We will foster the appropriate management of chemical substances, reduce their use and replace more of them with substitutes to prevent air pollution, water and soil contamination caused by wastewater and the discharge of waste containing hazardous substances. - 5.
Biodiversity conservation
For the conservation of biodiversity in the areas where we conduct business activities, we will take appropriate measures and manage the progress of their implementation based on the results of assessing our impact on biodiversity across our value chain.
2. Environmental Management
We will evaluate and specify the environmental risks posed by our business activities and set specific targets to avoid and reduce such risks. We will monitor progress with activities that we conduct to achieve the targets and make improvements as necessary.
3. Reduction of Environmental Impact Caused by Our Business Activities
- We will strive to develop and design environment-friendly products with low environmental impact based on identification of the lifecycle environmental impact of our products.
- For the reduction of environmental impact caused by the manufacture of our products, we will proactively adopt advanced environmental technologies and use them in an effective manner.
- We will request our suppliers and contractors to conduct their business activities in a socially and environmentally responsible manner and support them in implementing improvement measures.
4. Compliance with Environment-Related Laws and Regulations
We will comply with environment-related laws, regulations, social norms and the like in all the countries and regions where we operate and will set our own management standards for environmental conservation at our bases as necessary.
5. Environmental Education
We will provide environmental education to help all directors and employees to understand the impact of our business activities on the environment, thereby raising and enhancing their environmental awareness.
6. Exchange and collaboration with society and disclosure of environmental information
In order to help all our internal and external stakeholders (directors and employees, shareholders, business partners, customers and local inhabitants) to raise their environmental awareness, we will foster exchange and collaboration with society at large and participate in social activities in a proactive manner. We will also enhance the disclosure of our environmental information by clearly showing our environmental goals and indicators and regularly reporting their progress to the public.
System
ESH Promotion Framework
The Nabtesco Group has set up the ESH Committee as the promotional organization related to the environment, safety, and health. We promote environmental management under this committee, which directly reports to the President &CEO. (The meetings are held at least once a year. The Environment & Safety Department serves as the secretariat for the meetings.) The chairman and the other members of this committee are selected from among officers including directors.
The ESH Committee collects important information on the environment, safety, accident prevention, health, and others, including climate change-related risks and opportunities; assesses the materiality of related issues; and discusses measures for issues that are deemed to be important. Based on the results of the discussions, particularly important issues that might have a serious impact on the Group’s business are reported to the Management Committee, which discusses important matters related to execution of business, and reflected in formulation of business strategies.
ESH Management Organization
Measures
ESH Audits
The chairperson of the ESH Committee visits each site once a year to carry out an ESH audit that includes checking the results of ESH activities. Instructions are then given based on the results of the audit. Among our business activity processes, we investigate processes and areas that are particularly prone to problems, and we monitor the types of emissions, actual results, and so forth in order to formulate countermeasures and to conduct improvement activities. The ESH Committee summarizes the reports about the results of the ESH activities, including the audit results. They are reviewed at the Management Committee at the end of each fiscal year and reflected in the activities in the following year.
Main audit items
- ESH activity policy and structure at each business site
- Status of compliance with laws and regulations
- Status of regulations and standards
- Status of response to climate change (mitigation: CO2 (emissions and reductions), adaptation: measures against extreme heat and windstorms)
- Water consumption
- Waste emissions
- Pollution control (air, soil, water quality, chemical usage)
Results of the FY2023 ESH audits are summarized below. Key guidance provided based on the audits includes the formulation of more environment-friendly plans.
Results of FY2023 ESH Audits
| Type of audit | Outline | Auditor | Audited organizations |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESH audit I | On-site audit: Check the results of activities conducted in the previous fiscal year and the activity plan for the current fiscal year; check the activities for reducing environmental impact and countermeasures against the impact. | Chairperson of the ESH Committee, President of the in-house company, Manager of the Environment & Safety Dept. | Nabtesco: 6 plants Group companies: 7 companies |
| Follow-up audit | On-site audit: Check the measures implemented in response to the issues pointed out in the ESH audit I | Environment & Safety Dept. (ESH secretariat) | Nabtesco: 6 plants Group companies: 7 companies |
| ESH audit II | Document audit: Check the achievements (to be made by the end of the fiscal year) of the ESH activities. On-site examination will also be carried out as necessary. | Environment & Safety Dept. (ESH secretariat) | Nabtesco: 6 plants Group companies: 7 companies |
Activities for building a system for ESH management of overseas Group companies have also been started. We are creating documents on rules and records and introduction of tools for managing environmental information, with an aim to visualize the operations and improve their efficiency. Furthermore, we conduct ESH audits to prevent noncompliance with laws and regulations and to ensure and increase the effectiveness of our ESH activities. In FY2023, we carried out ESH audits on two Nabtesco Group companies in Thailand and plan to perform the audits on three Group companies in North America within FY2024.
ESH Audits in Overseas Group Companies
| FY | Auditee |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Three Group companies in North America |
| 2021 | Three Group companies in Europe |
| 2022 | Seven Group companies in China |
| 2023 | Two Group companies in Thailand |
Environmental Management System
The Nabtesco Group acknowledges that the ISO 14001 international standard is an effective tool for environmental management and therefore uses it in building and operating our environmental management system. Its major Group companies have become ISO 14001 certified.
With regard to domestic Group companies that have not yet obtained ISO 14001 certification, we check the status of environmental management during the ESH audit. We also carry out similar checks of overseas Group companies including ones in China.
The Nabtesco Group is aiming to establish a system that integrates ecology and economy and is also working to maintain consistency and alignment in our environmental activities across the entire Group by promoting information sharing and collaboration among our sites and Group companies. Moreover, in order to improve the results of our activities in a sustainable manner, we have incorporated the indicator of environmental objective (reduction of CO2 emissions) achievement ratio into the performance evaluation of business departments.
Situation regarding obtaining of ISO 14001 certification
| Authentication scope (Japan) | Name of obtained certification standard |
|---|---|
| Accessibility Innovations Company Konan Plant and Nabtesco Headquarters |
ISO14001 |
| Marine Control System Company Seishin Plant (Including part of Power Control Company and Railroad Products Company) |
ISO14001 |
| Railroad Products Company Kobe Plant | ISO14001 |
| Precision Equipment Company Tsu Plant | ISO14001 |
| Aerospace Company Gifu Plant | ISO14001 |
| Power Control Company Tarui Plant | ISO14001 |
| Nabtesco Automotive Co., Ltd. Yamagata Plant | ISO14001 |
| PACRAFT Co., Ltd. Iwakuni Plant | ISO14001 |
Of the manufacturing sites in the Group with 50 or more employees (22 sites), 12 sites have obtained ISO 14001 certification, bringing the acquisition rate to 55%.
Energy Management and Energy-Saving Efforts
We have introduced an environmental information management tool and collected, aggregated and analyzed environmental information reports from branch offices every month. We check the gaps between our target numbers and actual data in the following month to enable quicker action.
Furthermore, we have installed a monitoring system, which allows real-time data verification and aggregation on energy usage, at all six factories of Nabtesco Corporation. The monitoring system has enabled easy detection of abnormalities and easy comparison with past results. The results are shared at monthly meetings (of the Environmental Committee, Energy Conservation Committee, and Energy Study Group) at each factory and used to encourage all employees to participate in energy conservation activities.
These activities and analysis data are reported to the executive board meeting every month, enabling a top-down response when an improvement is needed.
In FY2023, we continued to be involved in energy conservation activities through the visualization of electricity usage by area, the proposal of improvements, the implementation of measures and the horizontal spreading of good practices. In addition, the Nabtesco Group as a whole reduced its CO2 emissions by approximately 1,259 tons per year by upgrading to energy-efficient air conditioning and high-efficiency equipment, switching to LED lighting, and conducting activities to eliminate air leaks.
Environmental Education
The Nabtesco Group provides its employees with diverse environmental education on energy, CO2, water, waste, and chemical substance reduction to raise their environmental awareness. For the environmental education to new employees, we show them the content and achievements of the company’s environmental activities, and emphasize that every small activity of each employee will eventually result in a great stride in the reduction of our environmental impact.
We also organize energy saving committees for ESH managers and those in charge of ESH at each site to share such information as the latest ESH-related trends and revisions of important laws and regulations.
Number of Trainees (Unit: persons)
| FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy conservation | 74 (Held 4 times) |
50 (Held 3 times) |
128 (Held 4 times) |
122 (Held 4 times) |
166 (Held 4 times) |
*Object persons: ESH managers and those in charge of ESH
Compliance with Environmental Regulations
At the Nabtesco Group, we identify, register, and manage environmental laws and regulations applied to our business. In addition, we prevent violation of the laws and regulations by regularly confirming that the registered information is the most recent. We also comply accordingly with various laws and regulations, such as RoHS and REACH regulations, that apply to our products in response to customer requests. For chemical substances used in our products, we evaluate their safety in detail at each of the stages, including product development and manufacturing. In the future, we plan to expand activities to better understand the compliance statuses of other products as well.
If a violation should occur, we report it to the Chairman of the ESH Committee by following specified reporting procedure and format, which enables prompt response.
Environmental and Safety Assessment
The Nabtesco Group conducts environmental and safety assessments from the research and development stage to the production, distribution, use, and disposal stages. With these assessments, we ensure the safety of our products and avoid using hazardous substances. For chemical substances used in our products, we evaluate their safety in detail on each of the stages, including the stages of product development and manufacturing.
Participation in Initiatives
The Nabtesco Group has been participating in various organizational activities related to environmental conservation including the United Nations Global Compact Network Japan's study group on environmental management. In this study group, we collect information from NGOs and experts and share information and have discussions with a wide range of companies, including those in other industries, under the themes of climate change, water-related risks, biodiversity, energy and others.
We have also been participating in the activities of the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI), which is composed of Japanese companies, local governments and NGOs.
Through this type of proactive collaboration and dialogues with initiatives, we collect information about advanced initiatives and other information in order to enhance our own environmental management.
