EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS

In 2019, the All Japan Stationery Association launched an SDGs research committee for the purpose of guiding efforts in the stationery industry to balance environmental and social governance with economic aspects. The committee consists of 17 companies, and KOKUYO has chaired the committee ever since it began. In 2021, the committee established a basic policy on SDG action. In 2022, it established the SDG Committee to promote more practical initiatives. The committee then established a number of working groups. There are currently four working groups: one on CO₂ reduction, one on calculating the carbon footprint of products (CFP), one on reducing plastics, and one on disclosing sustainability information. In 2023, the committee’s main actions included drawing up, and briefing association members about, a manual for the simplified calculation of scope 1 and 2 emissions, a simplified method for calculating product-specific emissions, and guidelines for designing stationery and office supplies that use plastic. In 2024, they included establishing rules and example procedures for estimating the carbon footprints of each category of stationery and office supplies, running workshops related to such, and organizing employee briefings and fora to disseminate the information.

The Co-Design Challenge is a project run in conjunction with the 2025 Osaka Expo. The project brings together a diverse set of stakeholders to think afresh about Japan’s future, co-design future goods and services, and showcase them at the Expo. KOKUYO’s role in the project was to provide benches made from timber grown in Japan. In partnership with three municipalities, we ran workshops to give local young people an opportunity to add finishing touches to the benches. The municipalities were Shimanto in Kochi Prefecture, Itami in Hyogo Prefecture, and Kawachi Nagano in Osaka Prefecture. The workshop was designed to convey the importance of conserving and sustainably using local forestry resources.
The workshop in Shimanto took place at Shimanto High School on November 1, 2024, with the municipality’s endorsement. The workshop involved finishing a bench and formed part of the school’s course on the natural environment.
Alongside the benches was a wooden structure in the form of a Shimanto tree. The students decorated the tree with charms they had made. The carving and coloring represented the scenery of Shimanto.

Tsunage Loopa is an environmental education program in which schoolkids return their used notebooks. The used notebooks are then recycled into materials used in new products. By taking part in the recycling process, the children learn about the relationship between a circular economy and protecting the environment. In FY2024, we received applications from 107 schools (with a rough total of 30 thousand students). Employees from seven KOKUYO Group companies visited the first 35 schools to deliver classes there. The students who attended these classes have the role of spreading the message to their peers, creating momentum for a shift to a circular economy.

Loopa Drink is a service run by Kaunet, a group company that delivers e-commerce services. In this service, Kaunet provides offices with special box for used beverage containers such as waterproof paper cups and paper cartons with aluminum layers. Kaunet collects the boxes and recycles the waste.

Waterproof paper cups and paper cartons aluminum layers often end up incinerated because of the challenges in recycling them. However, Loopa Drink is able to recycle them thanks to Kaunet’s partnership with Corelex Shinei, which specializes in recycling such challenging paper items.

Roles in partnership
Kaunet:
Runs Loopa Drink service, collects the wastepaper

Corelex Shinei:
Recovers the wastepaper and recycles it into toilet paper

• Kaunet Loopa Paper Resource Recycling Service*
• • *Japanese Only