Response to Environmental Risks

Approach and Policy

We handle various chemical substances as products, services, or raw materials in our business activities, and these are also discharged as waste, in order to realize our purpose of "Change society through the power of chemistry." We recognize that it is an important issue to appropriately manage all these chemical substances with Solid Vision ＆ Solid Intergrity for the protection of people's healthy lives and the precious global environment, and to engage in activities to reduce the potential environmental impact risks they may cause. Furthermore, we consider proper waste management essential to preventing environmental pollution.
We engage in "appropriate evaluation of the impact our business has on the environment" and "initiatives to reduce environmental burdens and conserve the global environment based on those results," thereby contributing to the realization of a sustainable society.

Goals and Progress

Key Items (KPIs) Targets and Results

There were no serious environmental accidents in 2024.

• * Serious environmental accidents: Events accompanied by any of the following situations where emissions exceeding legal or agreed values caused harm to human health or the natural environment.
  (1)Cases where individuals were urgently transported by ambulance due to physical irritation or health issues.
  (2)Cases where damage occurred to the lives or business activities of third parties, or to the natural environment.
  (3)Cases where external assistance was requested (other than reports to official agencies).
  (4)Cases that became the subject of media coverage (by nationwide media)

Specific initiatives

Reduction of atmospheric environmental load

As a chemical company, we are committed to reducing emissions of air pollutants such as NOx, SOx, and particulate matter, as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and chemical substances subject 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 Law).
We aim to reduce NOx, SOx, and particulate matter compared to the previous year, and continue measures such as fuel switching from heavy oil to LNG, improving combustion methods, appropriate operation and management of desulfurization and denitrification equipment, and reducing fuel consumption through waste heat recovery. Regarding substances subject to the PRTR Law, we are working on reduction by switching to alternative substances and improving collection and recycling rates.

Prevention of Water Pollution

Our company has established self-imposed control values that are stricter than the regulatory limits set by laws and ordinances, and we are making efforts to monitor and reduce the discharge amounts of water pollutants such as COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), nitrogen, and phosphorus, with the goal of continuously reducing them year over year.
At major domestic production sites, wastewater from each plant is collected and subjected to treatment processes such as neutralization and removal of solid materials. Additionally, for wastewater containing organic matter, activated sludge treatment is carried out using microorganisms to decompose the organic material. For wastewater that is difficult to treat with activated sludge processing, methods such as adsorption treatment, coagulation separation, and combustion treatment are implemented. Discharge channels to public water areas are monitored, and if wastewater exceeding self-regulation values occurs due to malfunction in wastewater treatment, a system is in place to prevent leakage outside by using blocking equipment installed at the discharge outlet.

Waste Management

Our company inspects the contractors handling intermediate processing and final disposal, continuously confirming that waste from our company is being properly processed and disposed of. Since 2020, when electronic manifest use became mandatory for businesses generating 50 tons or more per year of specially controlled industrial waste in order to strengthen measures against improper waste management, the relevant offices of our company have been reporting using electronic manifests.
PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) waste is regularly inspected for storage conditions based on our PCB management checklist. It is stored properly, and we are advancing outsourced processing with the plan to complete the treatment of low-concentration PCB by March 2027. We are also carrying out updates of PCB-containing electrical equipment that is currently in use.