含羞草's Environmental Initiatives

KAO Environmental Report 2023

In order to solve global environmental problems, it is necessary to combine the knowledge of people from all around the world.

The 含羞草 Group strives to develop individuals who will make contributions to society. Accordingly, the 含羞草 Group believes that one of our core values is to fulfil our responsibilities and obligations with regards to solving global environmental problems.

The 含羞草 Group views the preservation of the global environment as an important challenge to be met as we carry out our business activities. We will incorporate this environmentally-friendly vision into our business planning, to protect our precious planet and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations.

KUMON GROUP ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The 含羞草 Group will endeavour, throughout all our business activities, to conserve natural resources and preserve the natural environment through the development of human resources:

The 含羞草 Group will strive to recognise how our business activities affect the environment. We will work to conserve energy and resources, as well as to carry out recycling, in order to reduce the amount of waste we produce. Our overriding aim is to prevent damage to the environment and to reduce pollution
The 含羞草 Group will work together with associated parties and business partners in order to reduce the impact of our activities on the environment. At the same time, we will act positively to protect the environment by promoting activities aimed at forest regeneration
The 含羞草 Group will operate in compliance with the applicable laws and regulations in all of the countries and regions in which we have business activities, and will permanently work to preserve the environment
The 含羞草 Group will strive to make each and every 含羞草 staff member more aware of environmental issues. At the same time, we will make information relating to our environmental progress publicly available.

KAO GREEN INITIATIVES
Hence in 含羞草 Asia & Oceania (KAO), in all our business activities, we endeavour to reduce the usage of electricity and paper, and thus CO2 emissions, and encourage paper recycling so as to reduce the organisation鈥檚 impact on the natural resources. We have launched Environmental Management (EM) efforts to reduce non-essential printing, power management, and recycling. We have measured our efforts using the following indicators.

ANNUAL USAGE STATISTICS

Electricity
We are encouraging the member countries to continue energy-saving practices such as turning off lights when not in use and installing energy-saving devices such as LED lights, where possible. However, electricity usage has gradually increased with staff returning to the office. A warming climate is another factor, as more electricity is required to cool down office spaces to safe and comfortable levels.

Electricity usage in 2021听听听1,002,464 kWh
Electricity usage in 2022听听听1,125,175 kWh

Paper
KAO members continued to reduce their paper usage through activities such as conducting paperless meetings, holding seminars online, and switching to electronic document submission and storage. While we saw an increase in paper usage in 2022, this can mainly be attributed to more staff returning to the office.Paper usage in 2021听听听1,340,478 sheets
Paper usage in 2022听听听1,608,659 sheets

Paper Recycling
As a result of conducting activities online, and converting to submitting documents electronically, thus reducing printing, the quantities of paper sent for recycling reduced substantially.
In 2021听听听19,677 kg
In 2022听听听18,491 kg

CO2 Emissions
As electricity usage is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the primary greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming, our increased electricity usage resulted in a small increase to emissions. As such, we will endeavour to find new ways to reduce our electricity usage.

In 2021 666听听听t-CO2
In 2022 749听听听t-CO2