Asahi Kasei holds Sustainability Briefing
November 29, 2021
Asahi Kasei Corp.
The Asahi Kasei Group is advancing business management focused on sustainability with a Group Mission of “contributing to life and living for people around the world.” The Sustainability Briefing is held to gain better understanding among stakeholders of Asahi Kasei’s approach to sustainability and relevant efforts.
1. Basic stance for sustainability
The Asahi Kasei Group aims to achieve two mutually reinforcing aspects of sustainability as “contributing to sustainable society” and “sustainable growth of corporate value.” Based on the Asahi Kasei Group Sustainability Policy, business management is advanced to address global issues such as climate change, human rights, and COVID-19, while meeting market expectations.
2. Value creation contributing to sustainable society
Regarding climate change, the Asahi Kasei Group strives not only to reduce its own GHG emissions but also to contribute to reducing GHG emissions throughout society. With a goal of being carbon neutral in 2050, Asahi Kasei is reducing its GHG emissions through existing technologies until 2030 while developing new technologies and advancing business portfolio transformation for further reduction with a view to 2050. At the same time, the Asahi Kasei Group has a variety of technologies and businesses that facilitate reducing GHG emissions in society, and further opportunities will be pursued from various perspectives leading to business growth.
The circular economy is also regarded as an important issue. The Asahi Kasei Group is exploring how its businesses and products can advance sustainable utilization of resources for society to have essential products and materials for living without unnecessary disposal or waste. In addition to leveraging established value chains, efforts are focused on creating new value chains.
3. Foundations for value creation
To achieve sustainability, Asahi Kasei considers digital technology, intellectual property, and human resources to be the foundations for new value creation leveraging diversified technologies and businesses, and efforts are focused on strengthening each of these. Digital technology is being deployed incrementally to enable innovation and value creation to be interwoven with business management, while venues for internal and external co-creation are provided, and digital personnel are nurtured group-wide. Intellectual property analysis is leveraged in the formulation of business strategies and business models, and to generate new ideas, with enhanced connections among diverse personnel. For greater empowerment and engagement of diverse human resources, organizations are enhanced while highly specialized skills are nurtured, along with promotion of health and productivity management, and heightening awareness of sustainability.
The diversified technologies and businesses of the Asahi Kasei Group present various possibilities to contribute to the world’s sustainability, and concrete measures will continue to be advanced toward this objective.