Toward a Sustainable Society
Toward a resource recycling society
The Nippon Soda Group sees environmental issues such as climate change as one of the important challenges facing the international community.
As society and industrial structures undergo drastic changes to address these issues, we are working to solve social problems through chemistry and related services, while cooperating with local communities to promote environmental conservation efforts.
Our Group has been promoting “Responsible Care Activities” since 1998—business activities that are conducted while voluntarily taking steps to ensure the environment, health, and safety in all processes ranging from development, manufacturing, distribution, use, and final consumption through to disposal and recycling.
On the business front, through the provision of various products and services based on our long-established technologies—including technologies for detoxification and safe treatment of industrial waste, heavy metal removal, resource recycling, and water treatment—we are contributing to pollution prevention, proper treatment and recycling of industrial waste, and effective utilization of water resources, thereby helping to form a recycling-based society. Furthermore, we are engaged in research and development aimed at early social implementation of next-generation technologies to reduce environmental impact through collaboration with external organizations.
Moreover, in cooperation with local communities, we are cultivating forests that absorb CO2 (carbon dioxide), including headwater conservation forests, and contributing to biodiversity conservation through sustainable plant protection measures to protect pine and cherry trees from harmful insects.
We will continue to engage in such environmental conservation efforts to minimize the impact that our business activities have on the environment, while creating new value through the power of chemistry and continuously developing our business in order to realize a sustainable society and increase our corporate value.
Achieving Carbon Neutrality
In April 2022, the Nippon Soda Group established the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Working Group to work across the organization. We support the Paris Agreement, and in September 2022, we announced our endorsement of the TCFD Recommendations, while promoting initiatives aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Specifically, we are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our business activities through the transition to renewable energy, improvement of energy intensity by increasing the efficiency of manufacturing processes, installation of solar panels, and investment in natural gas boiler facilities as a transitional measure. We are also promoting the reduction of energy consumption by reviewing logistics within our business sites, shortening transportation routes, and implementing modal shift.
In the field of research and development, we are working to establish bio-manufacturing and continuous flow synthesis technologies, promoting the transition to sustainable manufacturing processes with low environmental impact that significantly reduce energy consumption compared to conventional manufacturing processes.
As a corporate group, we own approximately 56 hectares of land in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, which has acquired Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification (a forest certified as having appropriate management systems in place for forest conservation). To mark the 100th anniversary of our founding, we also established the Nippon Soda Group Forest within the Joetsu Kuwadori Community Forest in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, the birthplace of our company, and have since continued to make donations to the National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization to help create biodiverse forests and preserve the environment.
Focus on Development of Low-Risk Pesticides and Biological Pesticides
The Nippon Soda Group has been promoting R&D and sales expansion in the global market, mainly for our chemical pesticides. However, in recent years, along with increased awareness of the environment, there has been a growing demand for reduced pesticide use as well as biological pesticides in order to reduce the impact on the ecosystem.
In response to these evolving trends, our Group is working on R&D and sales expansion of biological pesticides and strengthening our systems to prepare for our deployment into the field of smart agriculture.
In Japan, in accordance with the “MIDORI Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems” formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, we are focusing on the search for low-risk pesticides, development of biological pesticides and biostimulants, expansion of IPM (Integrated Pest and Weed Management), and development and registration of pesticides for drone-based spraying utilizing ICT.
