As water usage increases worldwide due to economic development and population growth, there are growing global concerns over water risks.
Due to the nature of our business, there are no OMRON products or services that use large amounts of water resources. However, we have set the effective use of water resources as one of the key environmental goals of SF2030, and are working to reduce water withdrawal. We also measure the quality of water to be discharged, and conduct business operations that consider environmental impact.
In addition to setting annual targets for the effective use of water resources, we regularly monitor and analyze the amount of water withdrawn and used, by business site and by water category. Should we detect an abnormal data value, we check for water leaks and other problems, and promptly implement countermeasures to ensure the effective use of water resources.
Reduce water usage at all global production sites by 20% vs. FY2015 result as of FY2024*.
Since fiscal 2014, the OMRON Group has kept track of water resource data based on CDP's water program. In fiscal 2017, the Group set environment-related social issues to address, together with the Group's identified sustainability issues and long-term goals. Accordingly, all of its production sites worldwide have been working to make more effective use of water resources.
In fiscal 2023, water withdrawals at all production sites worldwide were down 48% compared with fiscal 2015 as a result of their reduction efforts.
Most of water resources we at OMRON use are domestic-use water. Therefore, each business site takes its own initiatives to conserve domestic water.
Our Indonesia office, for example, has implemented a system to promptly respond to water leakage. It has sensors that can detect water leaks, and sends alert messages via social media if necessary. They have also introduced an automatic water sprinkling system that can control the amount of water sprinkled at on-site garden, to ensure the effective use of water resources.
We also consider the use of recycled water to be important from the perspective of preventing the degradation and depletion of water sources, as well as from the perspective of achieving cost reductions through reducing external water supply needs. We recycle cleaning water used in the plating process at our production sites.
As for wastewater, we regularly measure for BOD, COD and other indicators in accordance with locally applied laws and regulations. At production sites in Japan, we measure water quality in accordance with the Water Pollution Prevention Act to confirm there are no problems.
| FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | Amount withdrawn | 710 | 622 | 453 | 293 | 296 |
| Amount discharged | 623 | 552 | 384 | 241 | 250 | |
| Outside Japan | Amount withdrawn | 916 | 760 | 755 | 754 | 704 |
| Amount discharged | 773 | 657 | 663 | 702 | 649 | |
| Total | Amount withdrawn | 1,626 | 1,382 | 1,208 | 1,047 | 1,000 |
| Amount discharged | 1,396 | 1,209 | 1,047 | 943 | 899 | |
| Per unit of sales (1,000m3/one million yen) | 0.0022 | 0.0021 | 0.0018 | 0.0012 | 0.0012 | |
[Boundary] All global sites
The OMRON Group assesses and identifies sites with water-related risks by using WRI's Aqueduct, one of the assessment tools accepted by CDP Water security program, together with a water risk analysis service provided by a risk management consulting company. Water risk includes the drought risk due to plant location in an area of high water stress.
There are four sites with water-related risks: one in Dalian and two in Shanghai in China, and one Bekasi in Indonesia, withdrawing 248,000m3 in total in fiscal 2023, making 25% of the Group's withdrawals. These sites have not yet received instructions from administrative authorities to reduce the amount of water withdrawals or to improve quality of discharged water. However, the sites are voluntarily working to preserve water resources, taking preparatory measures for business continuity.
