SustainabilityEnsure a Thriving Global Environment for Future Generations

We are actively working to conserve the environment for future generations. As part of this commitment, we aim to decarbonize our company, including the value chain.

Having incorporated priority environmental issues from the perspective of their impact on the sustainability of society and on the Group’s business in its FY2021–2025 Medium Term Business Plan, Kyowa Kirin is setting targets for each fiscal year and implementing measures accordingly. In particular, we have positioned climate change mitigation and adaptation and water resource management as core environmental issues. As well as our annual targets, we have set medium- and long-term targets, developing a range of measures to achieve these.

We have established and are operating a governance structure for Kyowa Kirin’s environmental management. The Executive Vice President has been appointed as its chief executive officer.

In our daily environmental management activities, we operate all of our domestic plants and research laboratories in accordance with the ISO 14001 environmental management system.

The Kirin Group, of which Kyowa Kirin is a member, has formulated the Kirin Group Environmental Vision 2050. In its vision, the Kirin Group has set a goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its entire value chain by 2050 as a “Society that has overcome climate change,” a society in 2050 that we want to create together regarding climate change.

Kyowa Kirin has also adopted the target of reducing CO₂ emissions in 2030 by 55% from the 2019 level. As specific commitments related to climate change, we are committed to “Promoting early reduction of CO₂ emissions” through “Energy conservation” and “Expansion of renewable energy” including capital investment, and “Promoting energy conversion.” Having created a road map for achieving the 2030 target, we have also set a short-term target (FY2024 CO₂ emissions: 51% reduction compared with 2019). Utilizing the Kirin Group as a network, we will contribute to the realization of this vision by actively developing climate change measures that leverage our business characteristics.

In the meantime, we have been gradually introducing RE100-compliant renewable energy at the Takasaki Plant and Fuji Research Park since 2020, switching 100% of the electricity at each plant to renewable energy. In April 2023, we introduce this system at the Ube Plant, and switch 100% of the electricity used at this plant to RE100-compliant renewable energy. By introducing these renewable energy projects, of the approximately 70,900,000 kWh of annual power consumption of the Kyowa Kirin Group, approximately 60,300,000 kWh will be switched to renewable energy with zero CO₂ emissions, and the plan is for the Group’s annual CO₂ emissions to be reduced by approximately 53% (27,300 t).^*1 In 2021, RE100-compliant renewable energy was also introduced for the electricity (100%) of the head office.^*2

Going forward, the plan is for us to have switched to 100% renewable energy at our major business locations in Japan by 2025, and to all of our group business locations, including overseas sites and domestic branch offices, by 2030. In addition, we are considering the introduction of solar power generation facilities at our domestic plants and research laboratories as well as at our overseas plant.

Each plant and research laboratory^*3 sets its own energy intensity reduction targets for a single year, implementing measures to improve production efficiency. Although we implemented various measures to improve production efficiency, unit energy consumption in FY2022 was 2.2% higher than the previous year due to the effects of production facility enhancements and production volume increases.

Kyowa Kirin conducts water risk assessments (such as water shortage/water stress, flooding, and water pollution of water sources risk assessments by WRI Aqueduct and WWF Water Risk Filter) at each plant in Japan and overseas.

As a result of the assessments, we identified that the Ube Plant has a higher risk of flooding due to droughts and storm surges and that at Kyowa Kirin China Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Shanghai) the risks of water shortages and flooding were greater than at other plants. In the latest local flooding simulation published by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, it is assumed that the Takasaki Plant would suffer flood damage.

In response to these results, alongside soft measures such as reviewing or formulating plant BCPs for large-scale natural disasters, we are also implementing hard measures such as flood prevention measures at facilities to avoid or minimize these risks.

Under the Kirin Group Environmental Vision 2050, Kyowa Kirin is working to conserve water and protect water resources in accordance with the Kyowa Kirin Group Environmental Policy. In 2021, we reviewed our previous 2030 water consumption (water withdrawal) reduction target and set a new 2030 water withdrawal reduction target of a 40% reduction from 2019 levels. We are also setting short-term targets to achieve the 2030 target. To reduce water withdrawal, we will systematically decommission and reorganize facilities while making effective investments in equipment such air-cooled refrigeration units. As of the end of FY2022, we have achieved a 33% reduction from the 2019 level^*1 against our 2030 water withdrawal reduction target. Furthermore, to improve the efficiency of water use, each year, each plant and research laboratory sets and manages its own water consumption intensity. In 2022, our water consumption intensity was 9.7% lower^*3 than the previous year.

In our research, development, and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, we have established an in-house committee to ensure compliance with the Act on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity through Regulations on the Use of Living Modified Organisms (“the Cartagena Act”) and to conduct appropriate management. At the 2022 Genetically Modified Organism Committee meeting, we shared the results of audits that focused on countermeasures against leaks of experimental applications in each department.

The Kirin Group is advancing a range of initiatives in this area, including the Kirin Group Declaration of Support for Biodiversity Conservation, formulated in 2010, and the Kirin Group’s Guidelines on Sustainable Sourcing of Biological Resources, formulated in 2013.

Since announcing our endorsement of the TCFD recommendations in 2021, Kyowa Kirin has identified the risks and opportunities that climate change poses to our business, as well as the impacts of these risks and opportunities. We have organized our findings into four areas: governance, strategy, risk/opportunity management, and indicators and targets in line with TCFD recommendations.