Environment

Today, global warming, the industrial waste problem, and other forms of environmental destruction have become apparent and threaten to become more serious. Greater effort is needed in order to make sustainable development possible in the 21st century. These issues are accompanied by a variety of legal developments aimed at establishing a recycling-oriented society and greater environmental awareness, including the achievement of carbon neutrality, companies that release zero emissions, eco funds, and the spread of green procurement.

Amidst such social trends, the Hagiwara Electric Group recognizes that it is our social responsibility to continuously and systematically promote environmental conservation activities as a company that takes on the challenge of creating a hopeful future society in which nature and mankind coexist in harmony through the realization of an advanced information society and extensive communication brought about by advanced electronics technologies such as IT and networks. Currently, we are actively promoting EMS activities centered on the ISO 14001 environmental management system.

When it comes to chemicals that are harmful, not only to the human body but also to the global environment, it is important to manage the chemicals contained in components that go into customer products, in addition to managing toxic chemicals included in our own products and used in manufacturing processes, so that we are promoting the development of a system for smoothly disclosing and communicating the chemicals contained in products throughout the supply chain.

Through its business activities, the Hagiwara Electric Group will continue to act in good faith to conserve and improve the global environment with the aim of achieving a sustainable society along with our contributions to society itself.

Based on the concept of sustainability, the Hagiwara Electric Group has acquired ISO 14001 management system certification for its main offices with the goal of reducing environmental risk and contributing to the environment.

In July 2022, we at Hagiwara Electric Holdings established our Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by our President and Representative Director, in order to cross-sectionally promote sustainability management among all companies of our group. As subordinate organizations of the Sustainability Committee, we have established various committees that promote and manage internal control, risk management, the SDGs, and ESG, and have been moving forward with strengthening group management through systematic and effective management systems.

Our Sustainability Promotion Committee (which meets quarterly) is chaired by our executive who supervises management strategies. This committee formulates policies regarding sustainability (which include environmental issues related to addressing climate change and promoting carbon neutrality), discusses and decides upon measures regarding important issues, and monitors the progress of such measures. Based on the policies and important measures of the Sustainability Promotion Committee, and centering on our Environmental Promotion Working Group, we deploy concrete initiatives regarding environmental issues targeting the relevant departments of group companies and the structures of environmental management systems, and we work to promote activities in this regard.

The chairperson of the Sustainability Promotion Committee reports to the Sustainability Committee (held quarterly and chaired by the President and Representative Director), which is composed mainly of members of the management meetings, on the status of major activities and important matters relating to the promotion of sustainability, and receives instructions from the Sustainability Committee. Then, based on examination and judgement by the Sustainability Committee, important matters are discussed and decided upon at management meetings and meetings of the Board of Directors. Thus, our operating system is designed to ensure appropriate supervision and guidance by the Board of Directors.

Centering on the Sustainability Promotion Committee, we at Hagiwara Electric Holdings specify and analyze risks and opportunities related to climate change. We sort out the risks through scenario analysis in which we refer to external scenarios and so on of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and International Energy Agency (IEA). Then, we move forward with appropriately addressing such risks based on identifying levels of impact regarding businesses and specifying risks that are of particularly high importance in light of industry trends.

The chairperson of the Sustainability Promotion Committee participates in our Risk Management Committee (which meeting quarterly), and thus we have a structure in which perspectives on climate-related problems are reflected in the company-wide risks and business risks of our group. This chairperson regularly and appropriately gives reports to, and holds discussions with, the Sustainability Committee (which meets quarterly and is chaired by the President and Representative Director), which carries out integrated management, and management meetings and meetings of the Board of Directors (which are both chaired by the President and Representative Director), which provide supervision and guidance, and as such, the Board of Directors recognizes the company-wide risks of our group.
Going forward, we will strengthen processes for managing climate-related risks, and strengthen structures for integrating climate-related risk management and the comprehensive risk management of our group, and we will work to apply such structures to management strategies regarding climate-related risks.

The Hagiwara Electric Group has conducted a quantitative scenario analysis based on a 2°C scenario that concerns the period up to 2050. We comprehensively analyzed the short, medium, and long-term risks and business opportunities of the Hagiwara Electric Group related to climate change, and selected the following.

We set matters that we believe will have a large impact on our businesses and corporate activities as “important matters,” and extracted these. As a result, in the area of transition risks, we extracted matters such as the effects of the introduction of carbon taxes and other changes to various laws and regulations on costs, and unaddressed risks related to information-disclosure needs. Furthermore, in the area of physical risks, we extracted matters such as supply-chain disruptions caused by the intensification of abnormal weather, and risks regarding declines in sales caused by the effects of a rise in average temperatures and so on.

Going forward, based on that analysis, we will identify risks and opportunities that apply to a 1.5°C scenario, reevaluate their degree of impact, consider various countermeasures, and then incorporate them into our management strategy.

We calculated Scope 1 and Scope 2 (for FY2020 onward) and Scope 3 (for FY2021 onward) in order to achieve our medium-to-long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. On the basis of those results, we have set reduction targets for FY2027 for Scope 1 and Scope 2 and have launched specific initiatives in order to achieve those targets.