Adhering to the OMRON Principles, the OMRON Group is striving to enhance its corporate value by addressing social issues and contributing to enrich the lives of people through its businesses.
As for the environmental aspects, the Group provides products and services that can contribute to protect the global environment, while also promoting environmentally conscious business activities.
At the Executive Council, chaired by the President, overall achievements linked to sustainability goals, including environmental goals are reported annually. In addition, we report, discuss and decide on the introduction and modification of common Group-wide environmental policies and systems, and report material matters to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors, upon receiving the reports, monitors and supervises the progress of sustainability goals and policies.
Starting in fiscal 2021, in order to clarify management's responsibility for environmental initiatives, we have adopted GHG emissions reduction targets and third-party sustainability indicators (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices) as part of evaluation indicators for medium- to long-term performance-linked remuneration (stock remuneration) for internal directors and executive officers.
Besides, with the aim of further strengthening sustainability governance, including environmental initiatives, we appointed a director in charge of environmental management and a Sustainability Executive Officer in fiscal 2023, and established a "Sustainability Committee (which meets quarterly in principle)" chaired by the Sustainability Executive Officer to deliberate on group-wide environmental measures and responses to environmental laws and regulations.
Furthermore, for strengthening environmental management at business sites, we have established a Group Environmental Committee (meets quarterly in principle), consisting of the environmental management departments in HQs and the environmental departments at each business company. The committee discusses environmental goal setting and implementations plans for each business site, and reports on their performance. By sharing the environmental efforts and issues at each site and considering optimal measures, we aim to enhance the level of environmental management throughout the Group.
In order to accelerate group-wide environmental measures, including for products and services, we have launched an Environmental Project, consists of members in functional departments in HQ and each business company. Through the project, we identify environmental issues that have a large impact on the OMRON Group, consider measures, and measure the effectiveness of these measures, while promoting environmental management.
For individual themes such as LCA and CFP, we have made working groups with members own specialized knowledge and experience, and are working on specific measures.
We believe that an environmental management system (EMS) is the best way to engage in PDCA for environmental targets, improvement of environmental performances, prevent pollution, and ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations. In this context, we pursue ISO 14001 certification.
The OMRON Group Rules stipulate that all OMRON Group production sites must acquire ISO 14001 certification. We aim to have all production sites added through M&A acquire certification within three years.
In fiscal 2023, all of our 24 production sites were covered for the certification, and all continued to be certified, with the percentage of certified production sites remaining at 100%.
We will continue to maintain ISO 14001 certification in the future.
| Center Classification | Details | Acquisition rate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | Overseas | |||
| Production centers | 24 | 11 | 13 | 100% |
| Non-production centers | 32 | 30 | 2 | － |
| Total | 56 | 41 | 15 | － |
(As of Mar. 31, 2024)
OMRON strengthens the connectivity between non-financial and financial environmental impacts through our environmental evaluation framework. This framework references environmental assessments of environmental impact and life cycles based on the EU taxonomy, and minimizes negative environmental impacts starting from the product design and development stages. We also identify positive environmental impacts of our products using the life cycle assessment (LCA) and contribute to solving environmental issues and sustainable business growth.
Environmentally contribution products refer to the products and services that help solve the environmental issues faced by our customers. OMRON uses the LCA to assess products with high environmental performance and visualize the added value of these products in a reliable and transparent manner.
Environmentally conscious products refer to products that reduce or mitigate negative environmental impacts and materialities to be addressed during the life cycle of said product. These products must pass the product environmental assessment in the product planning and design stages, ensuring that all new OMRON products are environmentally conscious products.
| Limit to use regulated chemical substances specified at OMRON |
| Energy-saving, such as power consumption and efficiency |
| Resource-saving |
| Reusability & recyclability |
To reduce environmental impact, we consider the followings at the product planning and design stage:
| OMRON’s initiatives | |
|---|---|
| Choice of raw materials or components | We conduct product assessments in accordance with IEC 62430: 2009 " Environmentally conscious design for electrical and electronic products" to evaluate the resources used (raw materials and parts) and their quantities, chemical substances contained, and their energy performances. |
| Production & manufacturing | We have set environmental goals based on the OMRON Environmental Policy and are working to reduce GHG emissions, reduce wastes, make effective use of water resources, and prevent air, water, and soil pollution. |
| Distribution, storage, and transportation | We consider the environmental impact of packaging materials such as individual boxes, trays, and sticks. We are working to reduce these materials by introducing returnable packaging systems, reducing weights of packaging materials, changing packaging methods to reduce cushioning materials, and reviewing transportation systems and part ordering lots. |
| Product use and maintenance | We include "CO2 reduction effects in the society" in our criteria for developing new products. In our environmental businesses, we are working to create natural energy that does not emit CO2, such as power conditioners and storage batteries. |
| End of life management | We include aspects of "reuse and recycling" in our criteria for developing new products. We label the names of raw materials on resin molded parts and metal parts in order that they can be recycled and disposed of in accordance with the laws and regulations of each country. |
In order to establish a CO2 data calculation method consistent with international frameworks such as Catena-X, Omron has developed a common PCF calculation guide as a cross-sectoral standard with reference to ISO 14067:2018 and the Pathfinder Framework issued by PACT, organized by the WBCSD. This was developed with the support of Sustainable Management Promotion Organization. In the electronic components business, PCF was calculated based on the guidelines for the G9KB series of high-capacity power relays provided for new energy equipment such as power conditioners and energy storage systems, and calculated data started to be provided to customers upon their request from May 2024.
