In conjunction with climate change, deforestation, population increases, and other issues, the problems of water shortages, deterioration of water quality, and flooding, which are worsening on a global scale, are environmental risks that could severely impact our business activities. With an understanding that the sustainable use of water resources is a key issue, we have made water an explicit part of the Toyota Tsusho Group's Environmental Policy and we are actively working on reducing usage, appropriate wastewater management, and water recycling.
To this end, we have formulated a water management plan within our ISO 14001 environmental management system. We have also set targets for one Group companies with high water burdens and are working to reduce those burdens.
The one out of 569 Group companies that have formulated water management plans account for 0.2% of the total.
Under the supervision of the Board of Directors, Executive Vice President serves as the Environmental management General supervisor, and CSKO serves as the Environmental management representative, and the Toyota Tsusho Group under its management is working on water management.
The Toyota Tsusho Group is cognizant that the sustainable use of water resources is a crucial issue and expressly indicates this in its Group environmental policies. The Group is working to raise use efficiency and reduce usage by optimizing usage and implementing comprehensive re-use. We are working to reduce water consumption by reusing rain water in the washrooms at our Nagoya Head Office.
We evaluated water risks in countries where we operate using the WRI Aqueduct water risk assessment tool and identified regions in India and other countries at risk of severe water shortages, flooding, and so on (water-stressed regions). The Group has no facilities, assets, production, or revenue in water stressed regions of Japan. In addition, we are not in violation of any national or regional licensing standards or restrictions concerning water quality or usage (including legal violations).
We conduct business in these regions with an understanding of the risks. To address the water released by business sites in Japan, we periodically maintain and manage water treatment facilities and conduct thorough management and monitoring of the concentrations of contaminants in waste water in accordance with voluntary standards.
In addition, we have established and standardized procedures for the entire process—from mitigation measures (initial response) at the time of emergencies to recurrence prevention measures—and established rapid reporting standards to ensure coordination within the group, thereby building a company-wide management system.
Toyota Tsusho’s officers participate in various meetings to confirm the impacts that our investment activities have on ESG: The executive vice presidents, CSO, and CFO take part in the Investment and Loan Committee; the deputy CSO and deputy CFO in the Investment and Loan Meeting; and the president & CEO, executive vice presidents, CSO, CFO, and general manager of the Corporate Planning Department in the Investment Strategy Meeting. Projects that meet or exceed certain requirements and are submitted to the Investment and Loan Committee or the Investment and Loan Meeting are required to undergo a preliminary assessment of their impacts on Water Risks, and checks are conducted regarding water impact, water pollutants, water management systems, and other related factors.
Our affiliate, Toyotsu Bharat Integrated Services Pvt. Ltd. (South), operates a technopark business in India. The park provides an optimized business environment for companies entering emerging markets for the first time, enabling them to focus on their core production activities. Specifically, by offering essential corporate functions such as general affairs and accounting, along with domestic wastewater treatment services, we help manufacturing companies establish operations in India more smoothly and support their business expansion.
In this technopark, we are promoting activities to reduce water risks in collaboration with external parties.We work with nearby transportation equipment factories, connecting their pipelines to collect domestic wastewater from each factory.We then centralize the purification process using our own wastewater treatment facilities, achieving efficient water management.
In addition, the treated water after purification is redistributed to each company and reused for gardening and daily activities.Through this collaboration with external parties, we are working to reduce water usage and have put in place a system that prevents wastewater from being discharged outside the site in order to protect environment of surrounding residents.
Since 2017, we have been responding to the CDP water security questionnaire, a global information disclosure program on corporate water risks.
