Contributing Solutions to Social Issues through Business Activities

Leverage innovation to address global-scale environmental issues such as climate change and provide solutions for various social issues such as the need to improve the quality of medical care, the need to reduce the burden on medical staff, health maintenance and longevity, and personal safety, thereby helping to build a more sustainable world.

Basic Approach

Global environmental issues continue to escalate, marked by climate change, rising CO₂ concentrations, and population growth-induced water scarcity and resource depletion. The world population is approximately eight billion, a number that is expected to surpass 10 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, developed countries as well as many emerging countries are expected to face rapid population aging, as average lifespans increase and birthrates decline.
In the world of the 21st century, the most critical shared challenges are to resolve global-scale environmental issues and to provide healthcare that helps people lead healthy, independent lives, which involves delivering high-quality medical care that reduces the burden on both patients and medical staff.

As basic strategies of the Medium-Term Management Program, Project AP-G 2019, Toray Group has implemented the Green Innovation Business Expansion Project (Green Innovation Project) and the Life Innovation Business Expansion Project (Life Innovation Project) to expand business in growth sectors. These efforts are directed by the Global Environment Business Strategic Planning Department and the Life Innovation Business Strategic Planning Department, respectively. The progress on the projects has been followed up by company-wide management committees and other bodies. To strengthen the initiatives, in 2018, the Group established and announced the Toray Group Sustainability Vision to clearly outline the world as envisioned by the Toray Group in 2050, and also set KPIs to be achieved by 2030 as long-term targets. To help ensure the achievement of the Sustainability Vision, the Group is strongly promoting the Green Innovation Project and Life Innovation Project group-wide. These projects are led by the president of Toray Industries, under the Long-Term Corporate Vision, TORAY VISION 2030, and the Medium-Term Management Program, Project AP-G 2022, which were announced in May 2020.

In the Green Innovation Project, Toray Group works to achieve “a net-zero-emissions world, where greenhouse gas emissions are completely offset by absorption” (in other words, a net zero emissions, carbon-neutral world), “a world where resources are sustainably managed,” and “a world with a restored natural environment, with clean water and air for everyone,” as outlined in the Toray Group Sustainability Vision. Here are some specific examples of Toray initiatives under this vision. To accelerate efforts to fight climate change, the Group will expand aircraft and automobile applications for its advanced materials and help reduce CO₂ emissions by improving fuel efficiency through vehicle weight reduction. It will also work to help society transition to renewable energy by supplying materials for wind and hydrogen power applications. To enhance sustainable, recycling-oriented use of resources, the Group will promote initiatives for resource recycling and bio-technology. To help ensure safe water and air, it will proceed with initiatives in areas such as water treatment membranes and air filters.

With its Life Innovation Project, Toray Group seeks to build “a world with a restored natural environment, with clean water and air for everyone,” as well as “a world where everyone enjoys good health and hygiene,” as set out in the Toray Group Sustainability Vision.
In working toward “a world where everyone enjoys good health and hygiene”, the Group is focused on “contributing to better medical care and hygiene for people worldwide.” In order to accelerate this initiative, the Group has broadened Life Innovation beyond its conventional definition of products that support people’s health maintenance and longevity and improve the quality of medical care, to include products that support personal safety and help the elderly and home-care recipients to live more independent lives (improving activities of daily living [ADLs]).

Structure

In April 2021, the Group established the Sustainability Committee to serve as a group-wide committee. Headed by the president, the committee is tasked with promoting efforts to achieve the Toray Group Sustainability Vision. Toward this end, the committee draws up the overall medium- and long-term roadmaps and action plans for achieving the Vision and deliberates on the yearly action plans for the three group-wide projects—the Green Innovation Project, the Life Innovation Project, and the Challenge 30 Project¹—and manages the progress on KPIs for fiscal 2030. In addition, the committee further promotes these efforts by overseeing and managing implementation issues and the status of activities. The Sustainability Committee also collaborates with the CSR Committee, Risk Management Committee, Safety, Health and Environment Committee, and Technology Committee to address climate change-related issues for the entire Toray Group. Along with the creation of the Sustainability Committee in April 2021, a Climate Change Subcommittee was also set up to promote initiatives to combat climate change. In addition to Scopes 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, it is also working to reduce emissions from raw materials, which account for the majority of Scope 3 emissions. The subcommittee discusses important policies and agenda items related to climate change, such as reducing the carbon footprint² of Toray products. Furthermore, with the function of developing and promoting group-wide strategies for the implementation of sustainable, recycling-oriented use of resources, a Circular Economy Subcommittee was created in April 2022 under the Sustainability Committee. As a result, the Group is accelerating its resource recycling efforts, including recycling and the conversion of key polymers to biomass-based polymers.
For more information on the Toray Group governance structure related to the issue of climate change, please refer to the Toray Group TCFD Report 2021.

1. 1 The Challenge 30 Project aims to achieve a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and water usage per unit of revenue in production activities by fiscal 2030 (compared with fiscal 2013) by undertaking the following activities.
   ・Implement regular energy-conservation activities with stronger cooperation between sites in and outside Japan, and adopt successful case studies across the Group
   ・Shift to purchasing electricity instead of generating with coal-fired boilers, and increase the usage of biomass fuels
   ・Promote wastewater reuse, etc. with Toray Group’s water treatment technologies
2. 2 Carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas emissions emitted by all the processes of a product life cycle, from raw material procurement to disposal (calculated as CO₂ equivalent and reported with the product information)

CSR Roadmap 2022 Targets

1. 3 Toray calculates the CO₂ emissions reduced throughout the value chain of products in accordance with the chemical sector guidelines of the Japan Chemical Industry Association, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), and the World Business Council For Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
2. 4 Toray calculates water treated with Toray’s water treatment membranes by multiplying the amount of fresh water that its ultrafiltration water treatment membranes can produce per day, including reverse osmosis (RO), ultrafiltration (UF) and membrane separation bioreactors (MBR), by the number of membrane elements sold.

Looking to the Future

In fiscal 2021, the Green Innovation Project generated revenue of 832.2 billion yen on a consolidated basis. This was a year-on-year increase of 120.4 billion yen, attributed to business recovery from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Although sales of carbon fiber for aircraft remained sluggish due to the continued impact of COVID-19, sales of carbon fiber for wind turbine blades and water treatment membranes were strong. On the other hand, the contribution to the reduction of CO₂ emissions from the use of Toray Group products throughout the value chain increased due to business expansion. The Group will continue to help address resource, energy, and global environmental issues through its businesses.
Worldwide issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and resource depletion will become more serious, inducing a transition to more sustainable modes of production and consumption. Initiatives will be implemented for moving to a circular economy where used products are recovered and regenerated to make new ones. This will enable a further transition from a mass production/mass consumption linear business scheme to business models such as PaaS (products as a service), sharing, product life extension, resource collection and recycling, and circulated supply chains. The Green Innovation Project will take advantage of this transition to create new business opportunities and development.

In fiscal 2021, the Life Innovation Project generated revenue of 308.4 billion yen on a consolidated basis, due to increased shipments of sports-related materials and non-woven fabrics for hygiene products. Moving forward, Toray Group will continue to leverage its strengths in advanced materials in Life Innovation fields, while accelerating activities in the Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products Business.

Fiscal 2021 CSR Activity Report

Click below on activity reports for fiscal 2021