Ipek Öztürk Ortalan
Senior Marketing Manager
As Kurita Group, Our Water Knowledge is our Strength
Through diverse customer touchpoints, we strive to show accurate savings to our customers quickly and keep the promise to deliver them. In this way, we target sustainable growth and building a sustainable society through our business activities. This approach is “Kurita’s value creation story,” which also covers the Kurita Group definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): “Kurita Groupʼs responsibility for its impacts on society.”
Today, CSR has become integral to many companies’ strategies and operations. Businesses are increasingly expected to demonstrate social and environmental responsibility and contribute positively to the communities and ecosystems in which they operate.
The modern CSR movement gained significant momentum in the late 20th century. For instance, the triple bottom line concept gained prominence in the 1990s, emphasizing the need for businesses to consider three aspects: economic, social, and environmental performance. This approach suggested that companies should measure their success not only by financial profits but also by their impact on people and the planet.
The United Nations’ adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 provided a framework for businesses to align their CSR efforts with global priorities. The SDGs encompass various social and environmental objectives, such as poverty eradication, gender equality, climate action, and responsible consumption and production. Kurita’s accumulated technologies and expertise can make a difference and address the global issues indicated by the Sustainable Development Goals.
Step into Kurita Group's CSR Actions
Kurita Group has developed a business model whose goal is to significantly contribute to water & energy conservation, CO2 emissions reduction, and waste prevention and to make a decisive impact compared to previous levels. This holistic approach to business helps achieve the SDGs and their targets while complying with each country and region’s environmental laws and regulations applicable to the Group’s business activities, thus contributing to a sustainable society.
The Kurita Group has set as a KPI “Customer impact reduction – Kurita Group impact” to achieve a reduction of environmental impact through its business that offsets and even exceeds the ecological impact generated by its business. To this end, it is compiling data on actual reductions and impact.
When collecting and disclosing data on the environmental impact of its business activities, the Kurita Group refers to two international standards – the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol and the GRI Standards -. We also make disclosures based on The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards.
Themes for growth opportunities and their indicators
Kurita contributes to achieving relevant goals through the following environmental improvement activities:
- Solve issues related to water resources:
- Indicator: Water savings at customers – Amount of water intake used in our business activities
- Realize sustainable energy use
- Indicator: CO2 emissions reduction at customers – CO2 emissions from our business activities
- Reduce waste
- Indicator: Waste reduction at customers – Waste generated from our business activities
- Advance industrial production technologies
- Indicator: Product development – Contribution to the improvement of the production process
Amount of water intake used in our business activities:
The Kurita Group will strive to reduce the amount of water intake for use in its business activities while using its water savings, purification, and reuse technologies to provide the optimal quality and volume of water required for people’s lives and industrial development.
The water intake used in our business activities is compiled based on an approach established in 2018 when the target was set; it is not equivalent to water intake under the GRI Standards.
Achievement in FY2022: 113 million m3
Carbon dioxide emissions from our business activities:
The Kurita Group recognizes abnormal weather and natural disasters due to global warming and other climate change issues as major social challenges to be addressed globally. One of the ways we are responding to climate change is by reducing our CO2 emissions by lowering our in-house per-unit energy consumption. At the same time, we are working to optimize energy use at our customers’ plants and business sites and to promote the spread of energy-creating technologies.
The scope of the Groupʼs emissions compiled for this indicator includes data corresponding to Scopes 1 to 3 as defined in the GHG Protocol. The data here is compiled based on an approach established in 2018 when the target was set and differs from ESG data compiled and disclosed based on the GHG Protocol.
Achievement in FY2022: 91 tons
To carry out initiatives in line with the Paris Agreement, the Kurita Group has set long-term targets aligned with the well below 2℃ indicated by SBTi*, starting from the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 as the baseline year, and are working to reduce Scope 1, 2, and Scope 3 emissions.
* An initiative encouraging companies to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with scientific knowledge to limit global average temperature rises due to climate change to well-below 2℃ compared to pre-industrial levels.
Waste generated from our business activities:
The Kurita Group needs to use limited resources effectively to conduct its business activities sustainably. Therefore, the Group is working to reduce the amount of waste (including hazardous or toxic waste) generated by its business activities, while making efforts to convert it into valuable and recycled material. For our customers, we propose technologies for using waste as a resource and reducing the amount of waste generated. Through these activities, we aim to minimize waste for society in general. To this end, we have set targets for the “Waste reduction at customers – Waste generated from our business activities.” We will continue to measure these actual values going forward values.
Achievement in FY2022: 316 000 tons
Contribution to the improvement of the production process:
The Kurita Group conducts basic research on water treatment in the form of analysis and fluid and process analysis, which forms the foundation of its products and services. We are also working to develop products and technologies that contribute to solving issues such as water savings and energy savings for customers and society.
Achievement in FY2022: 28% (Proportion of themes falling into “Contribution to improvement of production process” to product development themes).
Business Action on Water
The Company participated in the Water Resilience Coalition (“WRC”) as a Leadership Committee
member. The WRC is a new organization established under the CEO Water Mandate, a United Nations Global Compact initiative. It will launch industry-driven initiatives for the preservation of water resources in water-stressed basins all over the world. Through its participation in the WRC, the Kurita Group works with other companies and organizations to preserve and restore world water resources to achieve the SDGs and realize its corporate philosophy.
The Kurita Group is launching a campaign for solving issues related to water resources, “Impact Together – Colorado River Basin Project” in the Colorado River Basin in the U.S. In this basin, efforts for water conservation are urgently needed because the water shortage has become more severe due to historic droughts.
Please retrieve further information about Kurita Group´s CSR policy here.
We all have a responsibility to contribute positively to society and the environment. The Kurita Group aims to reduce environmental impact through its business that offsets and even exceeds the ecological impact generated by its business. Kurita places CSR at the core of its management strategy, aiming to realize its corporate philosophy – “Study the properties of water, master them, and we will create an environment in which nature and humanity are in harmony.”
