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Material Issue Materials

Targets/Vision
● Raw material input intensity of below fiscal 2023 target (0.089)

Management and Promotion Method of Materials

[Responsible Departments]

Business divisions
Manufacturing Planning Center

Coordinating office: Planning Department of Manufacturing Planning Center

[Policy/Point of view]

The Group sets forth the preservation of the global environment in the “Group Code of Conduct” and the “Environmental Basic Policy” and strives to save resources and energy and reduce wastes and hazardous substances in each stage of technology development, design, procurement, production, sale, and use of products and services.

[Targets/Vision]

Raw material input intensity of below fiscal 2023 target (0.089)
Use of raw materials without waste

[Measures]

Determine priority issues based on the waste analysis (reduction of loss and defective products) and promote initiatives on the recycling issues

Use of raw materials without waste

The Company’s industrial waste largely consists of rubber and plastics. The Company strives to reduce waste primarily by curbing waste generation at manufacturing sites. As initiatives to reduce wastes related to existing products, we promote manufacturing that does not reduce efficiency even in small batch customization through production planning and process improvement, in addition to reducing loss and defective products through day-to-day improvement activities.
In fiscal 2023, we continued to promote development of products and new production methods considering the waste reduction from the designing stage and launched some products. However, the amount of raw material-related wastes remained the same as the previous year partly due to losses incurred from repeated test production for development. Raw material input intensity increased to 0.109 (intensity: t/t) due to a significant decrease in raw material input. In fiscal 2024, we will continue to work to reduce defective products and loss and expand our product range considering the waste reduction from the designing stage.

Raw material-related wastes, intensity of raw material input (Bando Chemical Industries)

2016 0.087 2,873.3 / 2017 0.089 2,919.7 / 2018 0.096 3,158.0 / 2019 0.102 3,033.8 / 2020 0.111 2,817.9

Material Issue Energy

Targets/Vision
Reduction of energy consumption

Management and Promotion Method of Energy

[Responsible Departments]

Manufacturing Planning Center　
Business divisions

Coordinating office: Company-Wide Environment Committee (Secretariat: Safety and Environmental Promotion Department of Manufacturing Planning Center)

[Policy/Point of view]

[Targets/Vision]

Reduce energy consumption (KL)/Raw material input (t) from the previous year’s level, and decrease the 5-year average reduction rate by 1% or more (consistent with the target of the Energy Conservation Act)

[Measures]

1. Shift to energy-saving equipment
2. Reduce energy loss (investigate details of loss due to steam leak, implement necessary measures, etc.)

Reduction of energy consumption

Our initiatives to reduce energy consumption include conducting energy saving patrols whereby we check the improvement activities and energy usage in the production processes and give guidance to cut energy waste and engaging external energy management experts to get an energy saving diagnosis, based on which we implement systematic measures.
In fiscal 2023, energy consumption decreased slightly (99.6%) due to a slight increase in gas consumption despite a decrease in electricity consumption thanks to an addition of solar power generation systems and renewal of various facilities. A significant reduction of raw material input (91.2% of the previous year) resulted in a decrease in intensity.

Energy consumption per volume of raw material input (Bando Chemical Industries)

Introduction of renewable energy

We are promoting the introduction and utilization of renewable energy, and since fiscal 2010, we started introducing solar power generation systems gradually in our domestic plants. As for overseas facilities, Bando Belt (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. installed a solar power generation system with a capacity of 741kW in fiscal 2023. This is equivalent to about 18% of the total electricity used in the base, and CO²² emissions will be reduced by approximately 541t-CO² per year.
Bando Iberica, S.A also installed a solar power generation system with a capacity of 18.2kW, which is equivalent to about 60% of the total electricity used in the base, and CO² emissions will be reduced by approximately 5.6t-CO² per year. We will continue to actively consider introduction of solar power generation systems.

● Energy production in fiscal 2023

Business facilities introduced solar power generation systems	Solar cell capacity (kW)	Annual energy production (thousand kWh)
Wakayama Plant	350	480.1
Kakogawa Plant	160	161.7
Nankai Plant	200	253.2
Ashikaga Plant	1,750	2,584.2
Bando Manufacturing（Thailand）Ltd. (Production base in Thailand)	998	1,338.4
Bando (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Production base in India)	1,000	1,509.3
Bando Belt (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. (Production base in China)	741	219.3
Bando Iberica, S.A. (Sales base in Spain)	18	4.3

*Electricity generated at Ashikaga Plant (BANDO eco moving Ashikaga solar power facility) is sold to the Tokyo Electric Power Company Group through our group company using the FIT system for renewable energy.

Solar panels at the BANDO eco moving solar power facility

TOPICSApproach to environmentally-friendly office

As part of our group-wide initiative to switch to LED lighting, in fiscal 2020, we switched the lighting of the office building at Head Office to LED lighting, reducing annual power consumption by 91,110kWh. Since fiscal 2019, the Head Office has participated in “Kansai Eco Office,” an activity organized by Union of Kansai Governments which registers offices engaging in environmental activities such as energy saving as “environmentally-friendly offices.” Our efforts include using recycled water for toilet, dissolving paper waste such as unnecessary documents (recycled as toilet paper) and collecting/recycling cardboard boxes and used paper. In addition, all employees made a united effort to promote eco-office initiatives including the “Cool/Warm Biz campaigns” which maintain the room temperature at 28℃ in summer and 19℃ in winter with employees working in comfortable clothes throughout the year and the movements to automatically turn off the light and let in external light from windows during lunch break and to use stairs instead of elevators. In local community, we participated in a “Social experimentation of common boarding pass,” which encourages to use bus instead of Port Liner to mitigate congestion of Port Liner, by Kobe City in order to avoid the three C’s (closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings) amid the COVID-19 pandemic.	LED lightening of the office building at Head Office

As part of our group-wide initiative to switch to LED lighting, in fiscal 2020, we switched the lighting of the office building at Head Office to LED lighting, reducing annual power consumption by 91,110kWh. Since fiscal 2019, the Head Office has participated in “Kansai Eco Office,” an activity organized by Union of Kansai Governments which registers offices engaging in environmental activities such as energy saving as “environmentally-friendly offices.” Our efforts include using recycled water for toilet, dissolving paper waste such as unnecessary documents (recycled as toilet paper) and collecting/recycling cardboard boxes and used paper. In addition, all employees made a united effort to promote eco-office initiatives including the “Cool/Warm Biz campaigns” which maintain the room temperature at 28℃ in summer and 19℃ in winter with employees working in comfortable clothes throughout the year and the movements to automatically turn off the light and let in external light from windows during lunch break and to use stairs instead of elevators. In local community, we participated in a “Social experimentation of common boarding pass,” which encourages to use bus instead of Port Liner to mitigate congestion of Port Liner, by Kobe City in order to avoid the three C’s (closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings) amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

LED lightening of the office building at Head Office

TOPICSSwitch to high-efficiency equipment and LED lighting system

At Ashikaga Plant, we employed the Ministry of the Environment’s ASSET* to switch to a power generator that uses city gas instead of heavy oil and air conditioning equipment that uses waste hot water from the generator, and also introduced LED lighting. The subsidy is granted for CO₂ emission control measures subject to the introduction of certified products using leading and low-carbon technology. We started to work on the concept in 2015 and it took us three years to evaluate profitability and finalize the plan to apply for the subsidy and finally complete the plan.
The new power generator provides most of the electricity used by the plant (half in the summer and two-thirds in the spring, fall and winter). In fiscal 2018, such equipment replacements and shift to LED lighting reduced CO₂ emissions by 1,606.9t-CO₂, or over 19.5% of the annual CO₂ emissions at Ashikaga Plant.

* ASSET: Advanced technologies promotion Subsidy Scheme with Emission reduction Targets

Improvement of Energy management technology

We have energy management training for energy managers to learn about equipment and design energy saving equipment for manufacturing.