The KOKUYO Group engages in a wide range of business activities, including manufacturing, construction, and transpor-tation. In all these areas, the Group works to ensure “safety, security, and comfortable working conditions” and takes mea-sures suited to the nature of these business activities to pro-mote safety and health. In each of the Group’s workplaces, health and safety committees have been formed and meet monthly to discuss related issues. The Group also presents a diverse range of exhibits during the National Safety Week and the National Health Week to increase awareness among staff of the importance of health and safety.
In Manufacturing
• Meetings of the committees in overall charge of safety in the Group’s manufacturing workplaces are held periodically with the aim of sharing information and know-how.
• More-detailed inspections of manufacturing workplaces were conducted under the guidance of safety consultants.
In Construction
• The Construction Safety and Health Conference was held in June 2013, and more than 600 KOKUYO Group staff from seven Group business locations around Japan and from other cooperating companies participated.
• KOKUYO Furniture Co., Ltd., has organized its Construction Safety and Health Committee and has begun activities in cooperation with affiliated and other cooperating companies to promote safety first.
In Transportation
• To enhance safety on business premises, training programs are conducted periodically, including instruction in the safe operation of forklifts and best practices for work in high places.
• Working with cooperating companies that deliver Company products, measures are taken to ensure safe driving.
Working Days Lost due to Labor Accidents
Number of accidents Working days lost Frequency*1 Seriousness*2
Mie Plant 1 59 1.66 0.098
Shibayama Plant 3 12 5.64 0.022
KOKUYO Product Shiga Co., Ltd. 1 1 2.49 0.002
KOKUYO MVP Co., Ltd. 0 0 0 0
IWAMI Paper Industry Co., Ltd. 0 0 0 0
Total 5 72 2.26 0.032
*1 Number of deaths and injuries due to labor accidents/Accumulated labor hours x one million
*2 Number of working days lost/Accumulated labor hours x 1,000
In Offices
• To prevent staff from working overly long hours, one day a week has been set aside as “no overtime day,” and employ-ees are appointed as monitors to check on whether it is being observed.
Focusing on Fostering Human Resources in Asia
• Program for Training Global Leaders
The KOKUYO Group aims to grow as an “Asian company.”
Therefore, KOKUYO conducts a two-year Global Leader Development Program for global leader candidates who will be responsible for leading business development in Asia. In 2013, the program offered employees at overseas KOKUYO Group companies the opportunity to briefly experience diversity first-hand. Through the assessment of ways to resolve manage-ment issues and communication with local members, program participants expanded their horizons and ability to accept new ideas as global leaders, and offered their solutions to manage-ment in a final presentation.
• Program for Training Global Managers
A program for training global managers is offered to 24 section chiefs and managers from six countries and regions compris-ing Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
A system is also in place for the 24 participants to follow up with each other on future action plans through an alumni net-work linked together on a mailing list. After the training pro-gram ends, the participants return to their home countries, spreading the word about our corporate philosophy and other training program content to members of their own groups, thereby taking a step forward as managers.
Environmental Preservation
To make the sustainable society a reality, the KOKUYO Group thinks of such issues as global warming, the exhaustion of nat-ural resources, and the preservation of biodiversity as global environmental issues common to the whole world. Accordingly, the KOKUYO Group takes initiatives to gather together the wisdom of a broad range of individuals related to its business activities and endeavors to address environmental issues.
KOKUYO Group Environmental Vision
To create a “sustainable society,” it will be necessary to create recycling systems, shift to a low-carbon economy, and bring about symbiosis with the natural environment. The KOKUYO Group Environmental Vision consists of the KOKUYO Group’s
Environmental Philosophy and its Environmental Policy that speci-fies seven environment-related activities. The seven activities are
“preventing global warming,” “reducing resource use and recy-cling,” “procurement, development, and supplying eco-friendly products,” “biodiversity,” “compliance with laws and prevention of pollution,” “information disclosure and communication activities,”
and “environmental management.” Based on the KOKUYO Group Environmental Vision, the companies of the KOKUYO Group have set their own environmental targets based on the nature of their business activities and are working to reduce their environmental footprint.
Environmental Management
Since 2004, the KOKUYO Group has been expanding the scope of its operations in Japan that have qualified environmental man-agement systems to include all major consolidated subsidiaries and creating a unified verification system that covers compre-hensive planning, R&D, manufacturing, sales and service, and storage and shipping. In actual operation, by classifying Group companies and plants that have a relatively large environmental footprint as “individual departments” and companies that place a small burden on the environment as “joint departments,”
KOKUYO has structured an environmental management system appropriate for varying sizes of operations. In addition, in line with the business plans of each of these companies, environ-mental targets have been established. Through these activities, the Group has promoted environmental management appropri-ate for the nature of the companies’ businesses and made efforts to allow for the special features of differing businesses.
Internal audits are administered in two stages. The first is conducted by the Company itself, and the second is under-taken at the initiative of KOKUYO’s ISO Promotion Secretariat.
Particularly close attention is given to checking compliance with laws and regulations.
Annual Report 2013 33
Medium- to Long-Term Environmental Action Plan with Targets for 2020
Environmental Policy Target Items Actual Levels in 2013 Target for 2020
Preventing global warming
Preventing global
warming Reduce CO2 emissions (compared with 1990) 7.6% reduction (in Japan) 30% reduction (in Japan) Energy
conserva-tion measures
Reduce energy consumption (compared with 2010)
7.5% reduction compared with the previous year
Reduce 10% annually (spe-cific energy consumption) Resource saving
and recycling measures
Resource saving and recycling measures
Increase ratio of recycling of total emission vol-umes (Including materials thrown away at plants) (prime contractor)
92.7% 100%
Efforts to Prevent Global Warming
KOKUYO has put in place an environmental management system befitting an Asian company. The KOKUYO Group has taken the first step toward helping to realize a low-carbon soci-ety by broadening the scope of its environmental reporting in order to greatly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
• Emissions in Fiscal 2013
In fiscal 2013, the KOKUYO Group’s emissions of CO2 totaled 26,626 tons*, an increase of 866 tons from the previous fiscal year. Based on our calculations, improvements in operations and facilities reduced CO2 emissions by 768 tons and 281 tons, respectively, for a total real reduction of 1,049 tons, while production and scrap-and-build activities added 1,915 tons of CO2 emissions. Excluding production activities, the KOKUYO Group achieved a 4.1% year-on-year reduction in CO2 emis-sions, exceeding its target for a 2.8% reduction.
In order to improve the efficiency of energy consumption, the KOKUYO Group also manages usage on a per-unit basis, where energy consumption is the numerator and sales is the denominator in the equation. On this basis, a reduction of 0.9% compared with the previous fiscal year was achieved in fiscal 2013.
* This figure was calculated using 0.378kg-CO2/kWh as the electric power emissions coefficient, obtained from the Federation of Electric Power Companies as the average for all electricity sources in 2000.
• Major Increase in CO2 from Worsening in Emissions Coefficient
The CO2 emissions coefficient for electrical power in Japan is based on the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures (Fiscal 2013 is based on the actual emis-sions coefficients in 2011 and 2012 for each electric power company.). Overseas, electrical power CO2 emissions coeffi-cients are based on the emissions coefficoeffi-cients of each country listed on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol website operat-ed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resource Institute (WRI). Based on
the GHG Protocol, the KOKUYO Group’s CO2 emissions totaled 33,804 tons, which is 7,178 tons higher than when applying the emissions coefficient used in Japan.
Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in 2013
(Tons) 35,000
0 15,000 10,000 5,000 30,000 25,000 20,000
Electric Power Emissions Coefficient (Fixed)
Emissions Coefficient (By Company and by Country)
33,804 33,804 26,626
26,626
Energy Consumption Units per Billion Yen of Sales
(Gigajoules (GJ)/¥ billion)
0 5 15 10 20
25 24.0924.09 23.2323.23
22.47
22.47 22.2722.27
2010 2011 2012 2013
• Expansion of Reporting Scope
Until fiscal 2011, the KOKUYO Group reported its CO2
emissions for 17 companies (reporting group A*1). In fiscal 2012, reporting was expanded to include all of its consolidated subsidiaries (a total of 36 in fiscal 2013; reporting group B*2).
As a consequence, CO2 emissions totaled 44,777 tons, includ-ing 1,800 tons from non-consolidated sales companies. The environment surrounding the KOKUYO Group has changed considerably, as shown by the worsening in the emissions coefficient and requests for the disclosure of CO2 emissions along the supply chain. In light of these circumstances, the KOKUYO Group believes it must examine making revisions to its medium-term targets.
*1. A: KOKUYO Co., Ltd., 13 consolidated subsidiaries and 3 affiliates
*2. B: KOKUYO Co., Ltd., 24 consolidated subsidiaries and 11 affiliates