Global environmental issues constitute one of the most important subjects faced by society and businesses. As a manufacturer, Sekisui Chemical Group was an early mover in efforts to find solutions to the environmental issues of society through its products and services, in addition to lessening the environmental load of its business.
In 1962, to solve the waste processing problems in Tokyo that were a subject of concern in society at the time, we greatly changed the practice of disposing of wastes by proposing the method of having each household place its wastes in polyethylene garbage containers and leave them outside for collection by garbage trucks.
In addition, during the years of the 1960s through the early 1970s, an era afflicted by pollution, we established an environmental management department. Through the 1990s, we strived to lessen our environmental load through voluntarily setting even stricter reduction targets than those required to comply with laws and regulations, for our environmental load including those related to wastes, carbon dioxide, and chemical substances.
Furthermore, incorporating the idea of transforming management along the axle of the environment in the term "Environmentally Creative Organization," in 2003 we moved forward from the concept of environmental conservation to that of environmental management to achieve sustainable growth while pursuing both ecological¹ and economic² goals, positioning this as one important pillar of CSR management.
While environmental issues change with the times, covering subjects including climate change, water use, and biodiversity, Sekisui Chemical Group's approach of contributing to the environment through its products and services remains unchanged, and in the future as well we will continue aiming to be a leader prominent in our approach to the environment.

In 2009, Sekisui Chemical Group established the "Sekisui Eco-Frontier 2030" as a vision to make clear the courses of action and achievement levels of environmental management and serve as a guidepost to sustainable growth. This vision depicts the type of society that Sekisui Chemical Group aims to achieve as a society on the environmental frontier. This refers to a society in which environmental awareness and environment-friendly lifestyles become broadly and firmly established among people and both businesses and governments recognize the environment to be one of their most important values.
To realize this vision, we have identified the three areas of focus of preventing global warming, efficient utilization of resources, and biodiversity and the two targets of achieving negative carbon³, which is common to the first two areas of focus, and preservation of biodiversity.

Sekisui Chemical Group is promoting groupwide, both in Japan and around the world, the Midterm Environmental Plan: Environmental Top Runner Plan SHINKA!, which establishes targets for the current five-year period based on back-casting¹ from the Sekisui Eco-Frontier 2030 goals.
This plan establishes the four key themes of expanding our sales of Environment-Contributing Products and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, two inseparable parts of achieving negative carbon, along with reducing volumes of waste generated, which is connected to effective utilization of resources, and increasing the efficiency of environmental management using the Sekisui Eco Value Index, our own environmental management indicator.

In an effort to carry out environmental management effectively, we have developed our environmental management system (EMS) in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard and are working to expand application of this system throughout the entire Sekisui Chemical Group. As of March 2011, 59 business sites in Japan and 21 sites overseas had obtained ISO 14001 certification. The number of employees at these business sites represents 65% of all Sekisui Chemical Group employees.