Teijin Limited, which treats climate change as one of its greatest concerns, has been taking measures to combat this trend since the early 1990s, longer than most companies in related industries. Teijin’s current medium-term management plan for 2020-2022 positions climate-change mitigation and adaptation as a material and top-priority issue. Teijin has and will continue to initiate important new systems and targets related to climate change under its long-term vision to be a company that supports the society of the future.
Holistic approach to sustainability
Teijin raised the target for reducing its total groupwide CO2 emissions by 30%, from the 20% announced in 2019, as of fiscal 2030versus fiscal 2018. The company also is targeting net zero emissions by fiscal 2050. As to CO2 emissions throughout its supply chain, the goal is for avoided emissions—realized through use of Teijin’s climate-positive products and practices—to exceed the group’s amount of actual emissions, including in its upstream supply chain. Accordingly, the company introduced a groupwide internal carbon pricing (ICP) system that creates economic incentives to reduce CO2 emissions by quantifying them as monetary costs in capital investments. This enables such costs to be factored into investment decisions, ultimately to help reduce the Group’s CO2 emissions.
Also, Teijin has proclaimed its commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an initiative supported by CDP and the United Nations Global Compact. The initiative aims to encourage companies to future-proof growth by specifying how much and how quickly they need to reduce their carbon emissions. The aim is to help meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial revolution levels. In the SBTi commitment letter Teijin submitted on January 25, the company stated its intention to satisfy SBTi criteria within two years.
Teijin also supports the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI), which earlier this year called for Japan to raise its official greenhouse gas emissions-reduction target for 2030 from 26% to at least 45%, and also to increase the country’s ratio of renewable-energy usage to 40-50% (all compared to 2013). And indeed, at the Leaders Summit on Climate this past April, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared that Japan would raise its target to 46%.
Furthermore, earlier this year Teijin established the European Sustainable Technology Innovation Center (ESTIC) to develop technologies for a more sustainable world. ESTIC now operates two sites in the Netherlands for cross-border collaborations, thereby strengthening development initiatives among Teijin’s various business units. ESTIC’s goals include the development of new green materials, reducing CO2 emissions and stimulating hydrogen-based economies.
Such efforts by Teijin have earned the praise of evaluation agencies including S&P, MSCI and FTSE, and this has led to Teijin being included in various sustainability indexes.
According to Shuichi Osaki, Teijin’s Deputy CSRO for SDGs Promotion, “The Teijin Group is constantly on societal challenges as part of pursuing its long-term vision. Implementing all possible measures in this regard is a condition for our survival. As a chemical company, we are taking a thorough, step-by-step approach, but with the intention of achieving our long-term goals as quickly as possible. In 2025, when we plan to review the state of progress toward achieving our 2030 targets, at which time we are likely to implement even more robust environmental measures and further raise targets that we believe are possible to achieve ahead of schedule.”