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Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050

Brother Group Environmental Action Plan

Sustainability

  • 7 AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
  • 12 RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
  • 13 CLIMATE ACTION
  • 15 LIFE ON LAND

Brother Group Environmental Action Plan 2021

Brother Group Environmental Action Plan 2021 (2019-2021)

Basic policy

The Brother Group shall proactively promote the following initiatives with its stakeholders to solve the key issues set in "the Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050" :

  • Create eco-conscious products
  • Reduce CO2 emissions in the entire value chain
  • Strengthen resource circulation in our business activities
  • Reduce the burdens of business operations on the ecosystem and expand conservation activities
  • Address social requirements properly in addition to compliance with environmental laws and regulations

Environmental targets based on the basic policy (2019-2021) and achievements in FY2021

1. Activities at Brother facilities

  1. Reduction of CO2 emissions (Scope 1 and 2)
  2. Reduction of water consumption
  3. Waste reduction
  4. Obtainment of ISO 14001 certification and reconstruction of the environmental management system
  5. Legal compliance and response to social requirements
  6. Assessment of impact on the ecosystem
  7. Biodiversity conservation
  • The numbers in "Environmental targets" in the chart below correspond to the numbers in the text above.
Environmental targets* Achievements in FY2021 Self-evaluation
1-1 Achieved a 12.5% reduction from FY2018. (Absolute value) Significantly achieved
1-2 Achieved a 21.8% reduction from FY2018. (Per unit of sales) Significantly achieved
1-3 Achieved a 14.2% reduction from FY2018. (Absolute value) Significantly achieved
1-4 Started integrated activities for environmental management system so as to obtain multi-site certification together with consolidated subsidiary BROTHER LOGITEC LTD., obtained the multi-site certification in October 2021. Achieved
1-5 Conducted response to legal compliance in accordance with ISO 14001. In addition, deployed various measures and achieved reduction of greenhouse gases that are thought to be the causes of climate change. Achieved
1-6 To identify processes in the value chain where business operations have significant impact on ecosystems, the LIME2 method (second edition of Japan's version of life cycle environmental impact evaluation method based on damage assessment) is used to carry out quantitative evaluation of environmental impact on ecosystems and create a relationship map between biodiversity and business operations. The quantitative evaluation is carried out for typical products in all businesses—except the Domino Business—and the results are disclosed. Achieved
1-7 To expand activities for biodiversity conservation, which is an important theme of the Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050, a new "Biodiversity Conservation 5R Award" was added to "the Environmental 5R Awards" —an internal commendation system—since FY2019 to encourage group companies to undertake activities. In FY2020, the actual state of biodiversity conservation across the entire Group was surveyed, and environmental awards were presented to 15 sites that had implemented especially excellent initiatives.
Supported World Oceans Day and encouraged all employees at all sites to join in "zero ocean waste activities" in FY2021. As a result, more than 21,000 participants from 42 business sites in and outside of Japan took part in the activities.		 Significantly
achieved

2. Activities related to products

  1. Reduction of CO2 emissions (Scope 3)
  2. Promotion of reuse and recycle
  3. Promotion of environmentally friendly design
  4. Legal compliance and response to social requirements
Environmental targets Achievements in FY2021 Self-evaluation
2-1 Brother has set CO2 reduction targets (compared to existing models) for each product in the upstream stages of new product development, and is carrying out product development aimed at those targets. Reduction efforts are being made for the Printing & Solutions Business, Personal & Home Business, Machinery Business, and Network & Contents Business. Achieved
2-2 To further promote the Group's resource circulation activities, the medium-term targets for FY2030 related to resource circulation have been revised with the aim of reducing the use of new resources by expanding the use of secondary resources such as recycled materials and reused items for products. Simultaneously, products are being developed to increase the use of secondary resources such as recycled plastics, and to switch to recyclable packaging materials, and in addition to the reuse of conventional toner cartridges, the reuse of the product itself is being studied and tested in some products. Achieved
2-3 In the product group of Communications and Printing Equipment, environmentally friendly design was promoted from the initial stages of product planning and development, and management complying with environmental labelling standards were carried out. As a result, Brother was able to acquire and register for the standards with the revised and more stringent top-level standards for environmentally friendly product requirements such as "the Blue Angel" in Germany, "the Eco Mark" in Japan, and "EPEAT" in the United States. Brother also addressed the newly introduced social requirement standard of the Blue Angel by establishing the operational standard for conflict minerals survey that conforms with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) "Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas," conducting a research program and quantitatively disclosing the results. Achieved
2-4 Ensured proper compliance with all environmental laws and regulations—including new laws and regulations that came into effect in the respective countries and regions—regarding chemical substances contained in products, laws and regulations on recycling of waste electrical/electronic equipment and packaging materials, and energy-saving regulations on products. Achieved

3. Environmental communication

  1. Information disclosure
  2. Collaboration with suppliers
  3. Environmental education 
Environmental targets Achievements in FY2021 Self-evaluation
3-1 Revamped the special website on the environment (brotherearth.com) into the SDGs special site Brother SDGs STORY. Made clear the achievement of which SDG is being contributed to by the environmental activities conducted by the Brother Group and worked to improve engagement with stakeholders.
Worked to enhance "the Brother Group's environmental activity report" from the perspective of ESG information disclosure, such as response to TCFD recommendations and announcement of ESG information indexes.		 Achieved
3-2 Collaborated with suppliers to promote green procurement.
Conducted audits on suppliers in Japan and overseas—which number more than 150—regarding their management systems for chemical substances contained in products with a focus on the control of phthalate esters. For suppliers with issues pointed out as a result of the audits, follow-up audits were conducted on corrective and improvement measures after they have been implemented.
With the growing momentum for environmental responses around the world, the Brother Group issued a new Environmental Supplier Guideline on September 24, 2021 to clearly communicate the environmental initiatives to be achieved together with its suppliers.		 Achieved
3-3 Continued to promote "the Brother Eco Point Program" within the Brother Group.
Continued to implement measures to improve the environmental awareness of employees using the internal commendation system, information dissemination via the intranet and email newsletters, e-learning, seminars and workshops.		 Achieved

Brother Group Environmental Action Plan 2024

Brother Group Environmental Action Plan 2024 (2022-2024)

Basic policy

To realize the Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050, the following initiatives will be actively promoted together with stakeholders.

  • Reduce CO2 emissions in the whole value chain
  • Expand sustainable business by promoting resource circulation
  • Reduce the business impact on the ecosystem and increase biodiversity conservation
  • Create eco conscious products
  • Comply with environmental laws and regulations

1. Activities at Brother facilities

  • Reduction of CO2 emissions (Scope 1 and 2)
    1. Reduce CO2 emissions by 47% from the FY2015 level (9%* reduction over the three-year period from 2022-2024)
  • Reduction of water consumption
    1. Reduce quantity of water intake more than previous year at manufacturing facilities (based on sales)
  • Waste reduction
    1. Reduce waste volume more than previous year at manufacturing facilities (based on sales)
  • Biodiversity conservation
    1. Evaluate environmental load and restoration/conservation efforts of all business activities on ecosystems by using a biodiversity assessment method that meets leading international standards
    2. Expand biodiversity conservation activities for the entire group based on the international guidelines for biodiversity
  1. From FY2015

2. Activities related to products

  • Reduction of CO2 emissions (Scope 3 — C1, C11, and C12)
    1. Implement measures to reduce CO2 emissions by 150,000 tons*1
    2. Promote comprehension and reduction of CO2 emissions by suppliers
  • Circular economy (resource circulation)
    1. Achieve a ratio of virgin materials used in products of 81% or less*2 by FY2024 (recycled resources ratio of 19% or more)
    2. Expand circular economy business
  • Strengthen eco conscious product development
    1. Provide eco-conscious products that meet higher environmental standards in each market region
  • Rebuild risk management system
    1. Rebuild foundation of activities to ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations related to products
  • Contribute to reducing CO2 emissions for society at large
    1. Establish a process to calculate the contribution toward reducing CO2 emissions for society at large, and calculate/disclose the amount of contribution toward reducing the CO2 emissions of the entire Brother Group.
  • Promote innovation
    1. Identify promising new environmental technologies and implement them in business
  1. Applies to Printing & Solutions Business, Personal & Home Business, Machinery Business, Nissei Business.
  2. Applies to Printing & Solutions Business, Personal & Home Business, Machinery Business.

3. Environmental communication

  • Information disclosure
    1. Strengthen engagement with stakeholders through the Integrated Report and disclosure of sustainability information
    2. Promote global branding through the special SDGs website "Brother SDGs STORY"
  • Environmental education
    1. Maintain/increase group employees' environmental awareness through eco point activity which is a participatory initiative
    2. Strengthen environmental education for employees for the promotion of group-wide environmental efforts

Brother SDGs STORY

Brother SDGs STORY

This is a special website which introduces Brother's SDGs activities.

Click for the Earth

Click for the Earth

Brother SDGs STORY "Click for the Earth" is an environmental conservation activity that Brother conducts together with you.

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