Environmental Management

Basic Approach

The Daifuku Group recognizes the growing global environmental problems as a significant challenge in the business environment facing the Group. In 2011, we established the Daifuku Environmental Vision 2020 and have been focused on three themes: promoting environmentally friendly activities in business operations, expanding environmentally friendly products and services, and strengthening our environmental management platform. In 2021, to address these increasingly serious problems, the Group created the new Daifuku Environmental Vision 2050, which outlines our ideal vision for 2050, aiming for a world where material handling systems have zero environmental impact. We have designated climate change and energy as well as resource recycling as critical issue areas, and have set targets for each of these areas. We will contribute to the creation of a sustainable society through Group-wide efforts under the leadership of the management team.

Group Code of Conduct (extract)

6-1. Environment

  • We will contribute to the preservation of the global environment through our business operations.
  • We will develop environmentally friendly products and services, and offer them widely to society.
  • Each and every one of us will conduct business with a high environmental awareness.

Daifuku Environmental Vision 2050

The Group has formulated the Daifuku Environmental Vision 2050, an environmental vision looking ahead to 2050 to help create a sustainable society. We have set our critical issue areas and targets through 2030, aiming for a world where material handling systems have zero environmental impact by 2050. The Sustainability Committee, chaired by the CEO, is at the center of this Group-wide effort, which runs from fiscal 2021 to 2030.

Daifuku Environmental Vision 2050 （PDF : 335KB）

Crucial issue areas for 2030

Accelerating climate change and energy responses

We will strive to reduce CO2 emissions in our value chain by reducing the energy use of our products operated at customer sites and by working together with our suppliers.
We will work on CO2 emissions reductions compliant with the Paris Agreement by promoting energy conservation and introducing renewable energy sources throughout the Daifuku Group.

Building a foundation to promote the resource recycling

To promote resource recycling throughout the product lifecycle, we will enhance the recyclability rate of our products.
We will build a resource-recycling framework at all our production sites.

2030 targets

Crucial issue areas Target
Climate change and energy 70% or higher sales ratio of projects that include environmentally friendly products*1
Overall avoided CO2 emissions*2 of 300,000 t-CO2 or more
25% or more reduction in total CO2 emissions by Daifuku (from FY2018 levels)
50% or more corporate participation in supply chain CO2 reduction program*3
Resource recycling 90% or higher recyclability rate for new products
99% or higher recycling rate of waste
  • *1Projects that have contributed to customers in terms of environmental consideration through cerfilied Daifuku Eco-Products, etc.
  • *2CO2 emissions produced from our products/services provided to our customers are subtracted from the CO2 emissions produced from our products/services in FY2011—the base year for environmental performance.
  • *3Daifuku's own framework on efforts (sharing of goals and supporting measures to reduce emissions, etc.) to reduce CO2 emissions at suppliers

Promotion System

The Group-wide Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by the CEO and comprises the Global Business Heads of each business unit as members, has been formed, and the Environmental Management Subcommittee* has been established under the auspices of the Sustainability Committee. The Subcommittee’s discussions are focused on one of the themes of the Sustainability Action Plan: contributing to the environment through our business. We have set targets for keeping business operations environmentally friendly and expanding environmentally friendly products and services, which we have identified as materialities, and we continue to advance these activities and monitor their progress. Beginning in fiscal 2022, we will also launch the Environmental Impact Reduction Project to promote energy and resource conservation and the adoption of renewable energy in our business operations, as well as the Product Evaluation Project to discuss Daifuku Eco-Products certification, PR, and a review of the certification standards.

  • *This Subcommittee is a merger of the Eco-Products Subcommittee and the Environmentally Friendly Operations Subcommittee, which had existed until fiscal 2021.

Contribute to the Environment Through Our Business

FY2022 promotion system

Environmental Management Subcommittee

Members Business units (manufacturing, sales, design), Human Resources and General Affairs Department, Assets Administration Department, Sustainability Promotion Department
Main agenda
  • Adoption of renewable energy
  • Implementation of energy and resource saving
  • Product sustainability assessment, and more

Environmental management system certification

We promote certification at all production sites and primary locations in Japan, and all main production sites overseas of the ISO 14001 international standards for environmental management systems. Production is carried out at all four of the ISO-certified Japan locations, and at the 14 overseas locations that have been ISO certified. 67% of production facilities have obtained certification.

Certification standards Production sites（consolidated） Number of certified locations among total Proportion of certified locations
ISO 14001 27 18 67%

ISO Certified Locations

Daifuku Japan Environmental Action Plan

Daifuku Co., Ltd. has developed an Environmental Action Plan in Japan for non-KPI issues for each materiality defined in our Sustainability Action Plan.

Reducing total amount of waste

【Main efforts】
  • Reduce defects in manufacturing process
  • Reduce packaging materials
Management indicator Target Results
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2021
Percentage of total amount of waste per basic unit of net sales (%) (compared with FY2018) 94.0 92.0 90.0 80.6

Improve recycling rate of waste

【Main efforts】
  • Thoroughly sort waste
Management indicator Target Results
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2021
Waste recycling rate (%) 95.0 96.0 97.0 99.4

Reduce water use at production sites

【Main efforts】
  • Water conservation efforts at production sites and offices
Management indicator Target Results
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2021
Percentage of water use per basic unit of net sales (%) (compared with FY2018) 90.0 85.0 80.0 59.1

Revitalizing Daifuku Eco-Action

【Main efforts】
  • Expanding scope of efforts from environmental actions to CSR actions
  • Planning and holding new events and training sessions
Management indicator Target Results
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2021
Number of employees that participated (non-unique) 7,100 people 7,400 people 7,700 people 11,608 people

Advancing conservation of biodiversity

【Main efforts】
  • Studying, monitoring and conserving local ecological conditions of Shiga Works
  • Advancing conservation of biodiversity through outside partnerships
Management indicator Target Results
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2021
Implementing biodiversity conservation efforts Yui no Mori forest
maintenance		 Yui no Mori
embarking on reforestation		 Yui no Mori
planting and caring for trees		 Laying wood chips along roadside in Yui no Mori

Material Balance (FY2021)

Monitoring the environmental impact of its business operations, Daifuku strives to minimize its environmental burden. Shown below are the energy and resource inputs and environmentally-impactful outputs generated through the operations of Daifuku Co., Ltd.

Environmental Accounting

Daifuku Co., Ltd. conducts environmental accounting by quantitatively monitoring costs and the effectiveness of its environmental conservation activities.

Costs of environmental conservation activities (classified by business activity)

(Thousand yen)

Category Investment Cost
FY2020 FY2021 FY2020 FY2021
Incurred in business areas Pollution prevention 1. Preventing air pollution - - 52,160 42,600
2. Preventing water pollution 33,228 9,350 73,924 119,379
3. Preventing soil contamination - - 0 0
4. Preventing vibration and noise - - 0 0
Environmental conservation 5. Saving energy 93,444 229,259 206,037 225,946
6. Controlling chemical substances - - 1,226 1,224
Resource recycling 7. Effectively utilizing resources - - 1,007 1,007
8. Processing industrial and general waste 4,200 0 28,744 34,730
Upstream/downstream 9. Difference between costs of regular and green purchasing - - 1,920 1,920
Management activities 10. Environmental management system operation - - 42,631 44,172
11. Environmental information disclosure and advertisement - - 4,195 4,214
12. Environmental impact monitoring 2,720 0 6,956 9,668
13. Environmental education for employees 0 0 9,298 16,962
R&D 14. Environmental conservation out of R&D - - 183,300 214,700
Social activities 15. Nature protection, greening and beautification 21,202 0 53,051 57,597
16. Donation to and support for nature conservation groups - - 5,080 4,520
Environmental damage response 17. Covering environmental damage - - 0 0
Total 154,794 238,609 669,530 778,638

Economic effects of the environmental conservation measures (actual effects)

(Thousand yen)

Effects FY2020 FY2021
Sales of valuable resources 56,200 141,130
Energy cost saving 69,592 ▲ 70,347
Waste disposal cost saving 2,985 3,725
Total 128,777 74,507

Effects of environmental conservation

Item FY2021 Reduction relative to the previous year
(▲ Increase)		 Amount generated per basic unit of net sales relative to the previous year(%)
Energy cost (Thousand GJ) 297.7 ▲ 28.7 99.3
CO2 emissions (t-CO2) 11,826.8 ▲ 1,320.8 101.0
Total waste generated (t) 5,751.0 ▲ 1,196.0 113.3
Final disposal (t) 38.0 3.0 83.2
Total drainage (Thousand m3) 104.1 0.1 89.7

Responding to Water Risks

The Daifuku Group has used Aqueduct, an assessment tool developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), to assess water risks in the countries and regions where we have major operations in Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The results indicated that all areas surveyed were not at a risk level higher than High. We will continue to assess risk on a regular basis.

In addition, while painting processes use a particularly large amount of water in production, we do not believe that there is currently a high risk concern at all of our production sites. We will continue to monitor water consumption at our production sites, reduce the total amount of water used, and take appropriate measures regarding water risk.

The results of the water risk assessment (Overall water risk*) for our main sites is as follows.

Water risk level No. of sites
Low (0-1) 0
Low-Medium (1-2) 7
Medium-High (2-3) 14
High (3-4) 0
Extremely-High (4-5) 0
  • *A comprehensive water-related risk assessment, as defined by Aqueduct, based on all factors including physical water quantity, water quality, regulatory and reputational risk.