Reducing Water-related Risks

We formulated SEKISUI Environment Sustainability Vision 2050 in 2019 in line with the belief that sustainable operations and development of our businesses requires us to maintain a sound environment in the areas in which we conduct our corporate activities. To realize societies with abundant access to clean water in all the areas in which SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group and its supply chains operate, we have established the following two goals in line with our vision.

SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group develops a range of businesses related to water infrastructure, such as supply, storage, and drainage of water, contributing to society, not only through technologies and products that help to improve the quality of drainage, such as water treatment systems and drain pipes, but also by creating strong water infrastructure made to withstand natural disasters.
For example, the Cross Wave^* rainwater collection system, one of our products being marketed in Japan, India, China, Taiwan, and other ASEAN areas, reduces water-related risks. Cross Wave is used to contribute to measures against chronic water shortages, recycling rainwater for both the greening of urban areas and disaster prevention, and also contribute to minimizing the damage caused by floods.
With the goal of not only reducing damage from the ever-increasing number of disasters brought on by climate change, but also promoting disaster mitigation in support of recovery efforts after a disaster, we are expanding the peace of mind we can offer to our housing customers by recommending, for example, the installation of a drinking water storage system that uses water infrastructure piping.

SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group draws the water it needs to use in its business activities from public water systems, industrial water systems, underground reservoirs, and surrounding rivers.
With the understanding that water is a precious natural resource shared in the community, we do our best to reduce the amount of water used, such as by reusing cooling water.
We have to date established targets and enacted measures for reducing Water intake volume and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of discharged water at each of our production and research facilities. However, based on local water-related risk conditions and the state of water consumption, we will focus on promoting reduction of water use at business locations where the impact on business is particularly large.

Aim: Maintain water resources

SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group has set the goal of realizing societies with abundant access to clean water by 2050, which is the target year of its SEKISUI Environment Sustainability Vision 2050. By backcasting from this goal, we are establishing specific measures and milestones while promoting initiatives.

In fiscal 2020, the first year of the roadmap for 2050, we conducted assessments of the likely impact on business from water-related risks at all SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group production sites and research institutes.
The Group had conducted a water risk survey in 2013, however seven years have passed. Since then, some business sites have been newly established or closed, and therefore we conducted the survey again.
The purpose of this survey was to identify water-related issues in the areas in which each business site is located (assessment of external factors) and to identify those sites that exhibit major water-related risks and those that have a significant impact on the environment.
We undertook quantitative assessments of the business impact of water-related risks as well as the impact on the environment of our business activities in a bid to identify the water-related issues of the local area. In doing so, we used assessment results drawn from Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas 3.0, a tool for assessing water-related risks in each region of the world created by the World Resources Institute (WRI), an international environmental NGO, and information on water use obtained from individual business sites through questionnaires.
In undertaking assessments, we followed the criteria recommended in the Guidelines for Setting Water Targets for Companies^* issued by the CEO Water Mandate.
In fiscal 2022, we identified initiatives to minimize the impact on business according to the specified water-related risks and set specific quantitative targets at the five domestic and overseas sites that were evaluated as having a large business impact. Moving forward, we will begin implementing these initiatives in fiscal 2023.

In fiscal 2022, Water intake volume at production sites increased by 0.7% compared with results of the base fiscal year 2016 while decreasing by 3.5% compared with the previous year. This reflects the installation of equipment that control the volume of direct water intake from rivers at production sites in Japan that consume large volumes of water and the effects of reduction endeavors.
The COD of water discharged decreased by 16% compared with results of the base fiscal year of 2016, and decreased by 15% compared with the previous year. This is due to improvements in wastewater treatment water quality at domestic production sites, which have a high drainage volume.

At Sekisui Nano Coat Technology Co., Ltd., wastewater with high-concentration COD is discharged from the degluing and refining processes of textile products and, after passing through their in-house wastewater treatment equipment, is discharged into the sea.
In recent years, the amount of wastewater has been decreasing due to changes in business domains. Also, the COD of wastewater has become difficult to eliminate due to changes in the composition of the glue used in raw materials. Accordingly, we have made improvements to optimize the capacity of the wastewater treatment equipment.
Treatment capacity has improved by making the treatment process more compact according to the amount of decrease in wastewater and installing a process in which microorganisms suitable for the treatment of persistently decomposed COD particles are optimized.
In fiscal 2022, COD volume of water discharged decreased by 64% compared with 2016 results.

SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group promotes the reuse of water in its production processes in order to reduce the amount of water it draws from water sources. At the production plants of the UIEP and HPP companies, large volumes of cooling water are recycled and reused in the manufacturing process. In fiscal 2022, at production sites in Japan and overseas, we used 106 million cubic meters of recycled water. This is equivalent to 5.1 times the total Water intake volume.
In Hasuda City, where the Musashi Plant is located, the wastewater purified at the Musashi Plant in accordance with environmental standards is used as the main water source for Lake Kurohama^*, which is designated as a nature conservation area in Saitama Prefecture.