Environmental Management
The Group’s Vision for the Environment
Environmental principles
Environmental policies
Prevention of global warming | KOKUYO is taking measures to significantly cut the amount of greenhouse gasses it emits in order to realize a low carbon output society. | |
Resource saving & recycling | KOKUYO is taking measures to promote the idea of Reduce – Reuse – Recycle by efficiently using limited resources in order to further the development of a recycling-oriented society. | |
Procurement, development and supply of environmentally friendly products | KOKUYO is taking measures to promote the development of new environmental technologies and green procurement in order to reduce the environmental load of the entire product recycling process. | |
Biodiversity | KOKUYO seeks to reduce its impact on the ecosystem and to maintain a low impact on it by engaging in business activities that give consideration to biodiversity. | |
Legal compliance & preventing pollution | In addition to environmental laws and regulations, KOKUYO seeks to observe the industry guidelines that have been accepted by the company and its own standards, as well as to prevent environmental pollution. | |
Information disclosure & communication | KOKUYO actively discloses environmental information, works on communication with its customers and all external entities, and is fully engaged in environmental preservation activities. | |
Environmental management | AII KOKUYO employees work together and seek to develop new ecological business models, and the company is taking measures to continuously improve its environmental load and to develop the business. |
*Related information: Materiality assessment process
Environmental targets for 2030
Critical challenges | 2030 target | |
---|---|---|
Respond to the climate crisis | Reduce CO2 emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy. Use forests to offset emissions. | Reduce CO2 emissions: Emissions down by 26% from 2013 level* |
Offset CO2 emissions: Forests absorbing at least 6,000 tons of CO2 a year | ||
Contribute toward a circular economy | Promote human rights and resource conservation in supply chains to promote a circular economy | 100% of waste (office, construction, inventory) recycled |
Procurement guidelines applied throughout corporate group | ||
Contribute toward a society that coexists with nature | Protect biodiversity and reduce use of hazardous chemicals to minimize environmental impacts | Promote timber legality compliance |
Forests: Forests thinned at 150 hectares a year | ||
Reedbeds: Reeds trimmed at 15 hectares a year |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >
This is how we performed in 2020
C02 reduction target | CO2 emissions in 2013 | 2030 target | 2020 result | Change from 2013 level |
---|---|---|---|---|
Respond to the climate crisis | 30,683t-CO2 | 22,705t-CO2 | 22,334t-CO2 | Down 27.2% |
Use forests to offset CO2 emissions | ||||
Forests thinned at 150 hectares a year and absorbing at least 6,000 tons of CO2 a year. | Hectares thinned: 111.9 Tons of CO2 absorbed: 5,708 |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >
Three-year environmental strategy
Environmental policy | Action | 2018 result | 2019 result | 2020 result | 2020 target | Met/missed |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fight climate change | Reduce CO2 emissions (from 1990 level) | 13.0% down (Japan) | 20.1% down (Japan) | 32.5% down (Japan) | 30% down (Japan) | Met |
Reduce energy consumption (from 2010 level) * 1% average annual rate of reduction in intensity | 13.8% down (intensity) | 16.1% down (intensity) | 21.1% down (intensity) | 10% down (intensity) | Met | |
Reduce, reuse, recycle | Raise recycling rate of total waste generated (includes construction waste generated by prime contractor) | 95.5% | 94.7% | 94.7% | 100% | Missed |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >
Coverage of three-year targets:
The targets apply to the following companies: KOKUYO, KOKUYO Product Shiga, KOKUYO MVP, KOKUYO Logitem, KOKUYO Supply Logistics, KOKUYO Marketing, Kaunet, Actus, KOKUYO Finance, KOKUYO & Partners, LmD International, KOKUYO K Heart, Heartland
Environmental Management System
Our Environmental Management System (EMS) consists of an integrated accreditation system for planning, R&D, production, marketing, sales, services, storage, and shipment. Since 2004, the system covers all major subsidiaries in Japan.
While keeping the core elements of the EMS consistent across the group, we differentiate according to the scale of the environmental impact. Specifically, operating companies and plants with a relatively large environmental impact get case-specific treatment, while those with less impact get standard treatment.
We also try to give the companies sufficient leeway to manage their environmental impacts in a manner that suits the nature of their businesses. For example, we allow the companies to set environmental targets in line with their business strategies.
Environment-related documents are managed under a system called MELON. In a July 2013 upgrade, MELON’s coverage was expanded and the system was made more user-friendly, efficient, and accurate. We subsequently migrated the data to a new system (the 2015 system). The migration testing was completed successfully in December 2016.

Environmental Education

Education/training category | Number of attendees | ||
---|---|---|---|
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
General environmental education | 2,152 | 1,891 | 2,708 |
Briefings on environmental targets and legislation | 233 | 367 | 162 |
Accident/emergency response drills | 169 | 232 | 211 |
Training for internal audit team | 21 | 56 | 96 |
Other training | 322 | 192 | 7 |
Total | 2,897 | 2,738 | 3,184 |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >
First-, second-, and third-party audits
First-, second-, and third-party audits are performed to ensure conformity across our corporate group. In first-party audits, the auditee (a group company) performs the audit on itself. In second-party audits, our ISO Promotion Office performs the audit on the auditee. In third-party audits, an independent body performs the audit in compliance with the requirements of ISO 14001. The audits focus most of all on legal compliance. In 2020, first-party audits were performed from July 1 to 31, second-party audits were performed from August 31 to September 14, and third-party audits were performed from November 30 to December 4. The first- and second-party audits identified 48 issues, many of which concerned compliance. For example, 12 concerned waste and seven concerned hazardous materials. The third-party audit found no issues as such, but it did highlight some “opportunities for improvement.” In light of the feedback, we recognize the need to improve education on legal matters.
As was the case in the previous year, the third-party audit identified as an “excellent aspect” the fact that our ReEDEN Project and Yui-no-Mori Project have earned plaudits for promoting biodiversity. The third-party audit in 2020 was a surveillance audit.
Year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Sites audited | 75 | 118 | 74 |
First-party audit | 60 | 61 | 59 |
Second-party audit | 15 | 16 | 15 |
Extraordinary audit | - | 41 | - |
Issues identified | 28 | 83 | 48 |
Minor nonconformity | 8 | 25 | 13 |
Corrective action | 20 | 58 | 35 |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >
Year | 2018 (recertification audit) | 2019 (surveillance audit) | 2020 (surveillance audit) |
---|---|---|---|
Sites audited | 29 | 17 | 20 |
Excellent aspect | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Good aspect | 8 | 5 | 2 |
Minor nonconformity | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Opportunity for improvement | 21 | 21 | 26 |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >






Third-party certification
Year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Excellent aspects | 9 | 12 | 8 |
Opportunity for improvement | 6 | 11 | 11 |
Issue requiring corrective action | 32 | 38 | 42 |
Aspect requiring better transparency | 30 | 17 | 13 |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >



Consolidated subsidiaries | Affiliates | |
---|---|---|
Japan | KOKUYO Co., Ltd. | KOKUYO K Heart Co., Ltd., Heartland Co., Ltd., IWAMI Paper Industry Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Hokkaido Sales Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Tohoku Sales Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Kitakanto Sales Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Tokai Sales Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Hokuriku-Niigata Sales Co., Ltd. , KOKUYO Sanyo-Shikoku Sales Co., Ltd. |
Kaunet Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Marketing Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Supply Logistics Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Logitem Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Product Shiga Co., Ltd., KOKUYO MVP Co., Ltd., LmD International Co., Ltd., Actus Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Finance Co., Ltd, KOKUYO & Partners Co., Ltd. | ||
Overseas | KOKUYO Vietnam Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., KOKUYO (Shanghai) Management Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Commerce (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Furniture (China) Co., Ltd., KOKUYO Design Consultants (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., KOKUYO International Asia Co., Ltd., KOKUYO International (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., KOKUYO Vietnam Trading Co., Ltd., KOKUYO CAMLIN Ltd. | KOKUYO-IK (Thailand) Co., Ltd. |
SWIPE TO VIEW MORE >