To reduce any adverse impact and promote environmental improvement, the Sumitomo Corporation Group sets annual environmental objectives and targets on a calendar-year basis.
At Sumitomo Corporation, the Eco Leader of each Business Unit identifies the environmental aspects of each department and evaluates the seriousness of these aspects on the environment every October and November, before setting each year's objectives and targets. Based on the results, EMS Promoters specify significant environmental aspects for each Business Unit and the Environment & CSR Department reviews these aspects for the entire company. Significant environmental aspects for the entire company identified in this review are discussed at the Global Environment Committee meeting held every December, and after reviewing the achievement level for the current year, new environmental objectives and targets for the following year are discussed and resolved.
1. Achievement of Environmental Objectives and Targets for 2011
| Management area | Objective | Target | Achievement level (January to December 2011) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Environmental business | Improve the environment through business operations and expand environmental business. | 1. Promote projects to save energy and reduce greenhouse gases. | - Targeted nine projects for UN registration. - Continued to organize and develop new projects. |
| 2. Expand business utilizing renewable energy sources. | - Promoted geothermal and hydroelectric power projects in Asia and Oceania and expanded wind power generation business. - Conducted solar power generation business and sales of systems and materials for solar power plants. - Purchased surplus electric power from municipal solid energy-from-waste plants and promoted wind and biomass power generation businesses in Japan. |
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| 3. Promote business operations that help create a recycling-oriented society. | - Promoted household appliances recycling business in China. - Expanded PET bottles recycling business in Japan. |
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| Management of environmental impact | Reduce environmental impact of business operations. | 1. Monitor and reduce electricity, gas consumption, and waste emissions in all Japan offices. | - Expected to achieve the fiscal 2010 target of the voluntary environmental action plan for reducing electricity consumption, while expecting to reduce this fiscal year's electricity consumption by over 20% year-on-year (fiscal 2010 result: 11.04 million kWh). |
| 2. Assess environmental impact caused by business operations. | - Carried out environmental impact assessment and soil pollution surveys appropriately in a timely manner. | ||
| Hazardous substance management | 1. Prevent accidental spills or leakages of hazardous substances during transport or storage. | 1. Ensure safe transportation and storage of hazardous substances in corporation with consigned companies. | - Conducted monitoring in accordance with applicable laws, including the revised Chemical Substances Control Act, the revised PRTR Act, and the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act. |
| 2. Comply with chemical substance regulations. | 2. Increase the level of chemical substance control. More actively encourage suppliers and consignees to participate. | - Ensured proper management of ledgers on the transportation and storage of poisonous/hazardous materials and high-pressure gas. Confirmed issuance and receipt of MSDSs. | |
| Logistics management | Promote energy conservation in logistics. | 1. Establish and implement a specific energy conservation plan for transportation as a cargo owner. | - Worked to improve energy consumption efficiency as a "specified consigner," defined in the Act on the Rational Use of Energy. We were placed in this category because our total domestic cargo transportation in fiscal 2010 amounted to 248 million ton-kilometers for 2.164 million tons of products. - Our energy consumption during fiscal 2010 was 2.30 kl/thousand tons (crude oil equivalent), an improvement of 8.3% from the previous year. |
| 2. Encourage domestic carriers to achieve efficient transportation and evaluate their performance. | - Improved energy consumption efficiency by encouraging carriers to use larger trucks and ships and increase load efficiency. | ||
| Legal compliance | Proper disposal of waste in accordance with the Waste Disposal and Public Cleaning Act. | 1. Improve employee training on the Waste Disposal and Public Cleaning Act. | - Held joint waste management seminars with Sumisho Global Logistics Co., Ltd. in Tokyo and Osaka, which were televised in Sapporo, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Fukuoka, in January and February (attended by 190 participants). - Held a waste management seminar inviting an external consultant in November (180 participants). Also held a site inspection conduction training session for industrial waste intermediate treatment operators (45 participants). |
| 2. Improve management systems within group companies often disposing of waste materials. Carry out stricter site inspections, and share information with other group companies. | - Improved waste management system by conducting ISO activities to ensure appropriate management and raised awareness. Shared documents and records. - Conducted on-site inspection of waste disposal companies. |
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| Environmental education | Raise employees' environmental awareness | 1. Raise employees' environmental awareness through seminars on environmental conservation and other programs. | - Held an in-house seminar and invited Shoji Onogi, an environmental consultant, to attend. "Overview of environmental policy and regulations, and regulations of chemical substances management in China" - Held an in-house seminar and invited Masahiro Sato, Associate Professor at Kyoto University, to attend. "Challenges for sustainability and global summit: Rio+20" |
| 2. Disseminate related information by the ISO Office (Environment & CSR Department). | - Proactively collected environment-related information from the media, organizations, corporations, and others and disseminated to employees. |
2. For 2012, the following items are added to the existing targets.
