Environmental Management

Basic Recognition of Environmental Protections

The Idemitsu Group works to reduce the environmental impact of its business activities through more efficient energy use and other measures in order to contribute to the creation of a sustainable society with harmonious coexistence between the economy and environment.

We aim to protect the global environment by conducting appropriate education and awareness raising activities for all employees to enhance their eco-consciousness and actively promoting advanced initiatives to solve such environmental problems as global warming.

To achieve this aim, we have established a policy regarding environmental conservation, both global and regional, as an important value to be prioritized in all our business activities.

Environmental Protection Policy
  1. Make all-out efforts to prevent leaks or contamination, and contribute to environmental protection.
  2. Actively contribute to the prevention of global warming and work to reduce greenhouse gases emitted through our business activities.
  3. Effectively use resources in all our business activities.
  4. Promote green procurement when purchasing material, construction work, services, etc.
  5. Be aware of the importance of biodiversity and actively contribute to its maintenance.
  6. Work to develop and popularize technologies and products that create a better environment.
  7. Set environmental objectives based on the annual basic policies, and facilitate concerted efforts to achieve those objectives via internal and external collaboration.
  8. Continually improve the Environmental Management System to enhance environmental performance.
  9. Actively disclose environmental information and promote communication with parties outside the Company to ensure reliability and improve our corporate value.
出光興産, DFF Inc.

Environmental Management System (Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters)

We have long positioned “Health, Safety and Environment” as the foundation of our management and have established the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters to promote initiatives to secure and preserve this foundation. Members of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters consist of the General Manager and co-head of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters, general managers of related departments, presidents of major affiliated companies, and other managers who are appointed by the General Manager, in addition to the secretariat.

The executive in charge of safety and environment (a director) is appointed by the President and Representative Director to oversee the headquarters as the individual bearing the highest responsibility for health, safety and environment. The Safety, Environment & Quality Assurance Department serves as the secretariat.

The Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters performs the following roles and activities.

  1. Determines the medium-term plan, the annual basic policies*1, and priority issues associated with health, safety and environment
  2. Assesses and evaluates performance through audits
  3. Maintains, reviews and improves the Health, Safety and Environmental Management System*2
  4. Secures the management resources necessary to continually improve for each department and major affiliated company
  • *1 The Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters meeting determines the basic policy for the next fiscal year
  • *2 This is a mechanism to establish policies, goals, and targets to promote health, safety and environmental management activities, and to then formulate, implement, evaluate and continuously improve management plans to achieve those policies, goals and targets

The secretariat prepares drafts based on a review up to the previous fiscal year and consideration of the social situation to determine the medium-term management plan, basic policies for the fiscal year and key challenges. The Safety and Environmental Managers Meeting then deliberates those drafts with the Headquarters meeting finally giving them approval. The results are then reported to the Management Committee.

The Board of Directors receives reports from business executives and oversees environmental issues including climate change issues.

Positioning of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters in the corporate governance system and an outline of the Safety and Environmental Management System
Figure
出光興産, DFF Inc.

Environmental Management System

Our Environmental Management System is presented in the diagram below. It is based on a combination of the groupwide PDCA cycle, utilized by the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters, and the individual PDCA cycles utilized by each business department.

The Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters formulates a medium-term management plan for the entire Company and identifies annual basic policies and priority issues based on that plan.

In line with these annual basic policies, each business department develops its own action plan. Each business department operates a PDCA cycle in which it executes business activities based on its action plan, periodically evaluates and reviews these activities, and identifies matters that must be improved and reflected in the action plan for the next fiscal year. Meanwhile, the secretariat for the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters carries out an annual evaluation and review of group-wide operations of the Environmental Management System. Matters requiring improvement are discussed at Headquarters Meetings in conjunction with reviews carried out by each business department to ensure continuous improvement. Furthermore, a total of 30 business departments and affiliated companies within the Group (17 in Japan, 13 overseas) acquired ISO 14001 certification as of June 30, 2023.

Environmental management PDCA cycle
figure
出光興産, DFF Inc.

Safety and Environmental Audits

In order to confirm and promote the HSE activities of each business department and affiliated company, the secretariat of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters conducts Safety and Environmental audits at our refineries and complexes on an annual basis. At business sites other than those named above, Safety and Environmental audits are carried out at a frequency decided in consideration of the worksite’s safety and environmental risks and safety and environmental management status. Should Safety and Environment related issues requiring improvement be discovered by audits, the secretariat will conduct follow-up monitoring on each case and oversee the entire process from the planning of countermeasures to the completion of their implementation. Furthermore, the General Manager or co-head of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters conducts Safety and Environmental Audit or safety patrols by visiting business sites every year.

  • * The implementation status of these audits (Hokkaido Refinery, Chiba Complex, Aichi Complex, Tokuyama Complex) in FY2022 is presented here.
出光興産, DFF Inc.

Environmental Compliance (Number of Environmental Abnormalities)

In 2022, our Group business sites recorded 2 environmental compliance violations* as listed below. We will identify minor compliance violations that are not classified as serious compliance violations and investigate their causes to prevent recurrence in an effort to step up our environmental protection initiatives.

  • Fluorocarbons leakage: Fluorocarbons were disposed without being collected from containers using fluorocarbons.
  • Discharge of oil-containing wastewater into the sea: Oil-containing wastewater overflowed from a manhole due to heavy rain, mixed in with a rainwater drainage line and then flowed out into the sea.
  • * Environmental compliance violations :Compliance violation refers to one or more of the following cases that exceeded the regulatory standards that are stipulated in environmental laws and regulations (including local regulations and agreements)
    1. A. Events that were determined to require “countermeasures in the accident” based on environment-related laws and regulations
    2. B. Cases in which reports were submitted to government bodies regarding corrections taken after receiving administrative punishment, instruction, or guidance from said bodies
    3. C. Cases resulting in damage to the bodies, lives, property, etc., of neighboring residents, etc., and compensation paid to them.
出光興産, DFF Inc.

Environmental Education & Awareness-Raising Activities

We provide environmental education for the entire Group under the leadership of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters. We are also engaged in activities like holding lectures and distribution of materials to raise awareness of environmental protection in line with the Environment Month promoted by the Ministry of the Environment.

Summary of activities
FY 2023  *As of November 2023 2022 2021 2020
Education Let’s Find Out About Circular Economy Let’s Find Out About Biodiversity Let’s Find Out About Carbon Neutrality Let’s Find Out About Climate Change
  • Distributed environmental educational materials
  • Published an interview with the General Manager of the Safety & Environmental Protection Headquarters in the Group’s newsletter
  • Distributed environmental educational materials
  • Conducted environmental quizzes
  • Distributed educational materials
  • Conducted environmental quizzes
  • Included an interview with the General Manager of the Safety & Environmental Protection Department in the Group Newsletter
  • Distributed educational materials
  • Conducted environmental quizzes
Activities
  • Environmental lectures (The Future of Circular Economy)
  • Environmental lectures (Biodiversity - From global trends to life & work -)
  • Environmentally friendly vegetables (Cool veg) offered at the Head Office cafeteria (Cool veg week)
    * Cool veg: Short for “cool vegetables,” crops grown on farmland using biochar that contribute to CO2 emissions reduction
Environmental lecture (carbon neutrality) Tokyo Bay environmental survey
- -
Training Environmental management capability enhancement training (Conducted in July 2023 : 102 people, Conducted in November 2023 : 65 people) Environmental management capability enhancement training (283 people) Environmental management capability enhancement training (265 people) Environmental management capability enhancement training (54 people)
Past initiatives (cleanup activities)
Dates Implementing organization Place Participant Notes
December 2020 Idemitsu Plantech Aichi Shin-Maiko coast (Aichi Prefecture) approx.100 people (including Aichi Complex,Idemitsu Retail Marketing, and associated companies) Implemented since 2010
December 2019 Tokuyama Complex Shunan City (Yamaguchi Prefecture) 64 people Participation in Shunan City's community cleanup
August 2019 Idemitsu Lube Vietnam (ILV) Coast of Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) 267 people (employees, volunteers from the Ha Long City Youth Union) Second time after 2014
August 2019年 Chugoku Branch The Peace Memorial Park (Hiroshima Prefecture) Approx.60 people (volunteers from employees, Hiroshima Idemitsu-kai) Participation in Hiroshima City's community cleanup
June 2019 Aichi Complex Shin-Maiko coast (Aichi Prefecture) 27 people Conducted as an environmental study session
April 2019 Solar Frontier Kunitomi Occice Aoshima (Miyazaki Prefecture) 100-200 people (employees and their families) Rhododendron sprouting also conducted at Kunitomi Hokedake Park (Miyazaki Prefecture)
Photo

Cleanup event at the Shin-Maiko coast (Aichi Prefecture) (December 2020)

Photo

Beach cleanup on the coast of Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) (August 2019)

出光興産, DFF Inc.