External Partnerships

In 2019, the All Japan Stationery Association launched an SDG 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, the SDG research committee was reconstituted as 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 (PCF), 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 2025, they included establishing rules and example procedures for estimating the PCF of each category of stationery and office supplies, running workshops related to such, and organizing employee briefings and fora to disseminate the information.

In April 2025, KOKUYO launched a product design project with 11 students from Kamiyama Marugoto College of Design, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, as part of KOKUYO’s partnership with the college. The students created two new types of Campus notebooks.

The project was an extra-curricular activity designed to stimulate the students’ curiosity for learning and ultimately contribute to our goal of a self-directed, collaborative society. The project lasted a year and the students took the lead in all stages of the project, from planning to sales (market survey, customer analysis, concept, design, sales strategy).The students also visited retail stores and KOKUYO Shiga Product to test a prototype.

Through this project, the students’ fresh ideas were combined with KOKUYO’s extensive experience in manufacturing, culminating in a product matched to an emerging demand related to study activities by students at elementary or junior high school.The notebooks, as limited edition items, were put on sale in a number of retail stores on February 4, 2026.

For reference: Tsunagleloop! Tsunage Loopa is an experiential education program for learning about the environment. In the program, schoolchildren 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 FY2025, we received applications from 120 schools (with a rough total of 39 thousand students). Employees from seven KOKUYO Group companies visited the first 50 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.

Many paper cartons have aluminum layers and many paper cups have water-resistant coating, making them difficult to recycle. In many cases, the products end often end up being incinerated.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 Co., Ltd.:
Runs Loopa Drink service, collects the wastepaper

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