CSR POLICY

Fulfilling our Responsibilities to Society

The Kurita Group defines CSR as “The Kurita Group’s responsibility for its impact on society.” The Group conducts business in water-related areas, which are indispensable in enabling the customers who support society to stay in business. Therefore, the Group recognizes one of its CSR initiatives to be to continue providing products and services to customers while ensuring employee safety and health, even under the impact of COVID-19.

COVID-19 has transformed the way we live and work. Given the reality of having to coexist with this virus, sustainably developing social and economic activities demands that companies dismantle preconceived ideas and shift to new ways of doing business. In the Kurita Group as well, all Group employees are seizing the current crisis as an opportunity to strive together to transform our business processes and models in ways that are not constrained by time or place, all while ensuring quality and safety.

Helping to Solve Social Issues

Initiatives based on the Kurita Group’s CSR Policy started in fiscal 2019, the same year as the launch of the medium-term management plan Maximize Value Proposition 2022 (MVP-22). The following year, from the perspective of further enhancing the effectiveness of the seven priority themes laid out in the policy, the Group evaluated activities taken to date and their outcomes, and revised targets for some of the themes. In fiscal 2021, the position of Quality Control Manager was newly created to reinforce initiatives in quality and safety that are an essential basis for the Group to continue doing business. In terms of environmental improvement activities that are closely connected with its business activities, the Kurita Group is enhancing and accelerating the development of “CSV businesses,” which are products, technologies, and business models that contribute significantly to water-saving, CO2 emissions reduction, and waste reduction, and help achieve the action plans and targets outlined in the SDGs. A priority measure of MVP-22 is to develop and enhance CSV businesses that create shared value with society. From fiscal 2021, the Group will continue to focus on generating new CSV businesses and extending these businesses across the Group. At the same time, as the scale of the Kurita Group’s overseas operations has expanded with the acquisition of new companies in recent years, the amount of environmental impact generated by the Group has also increased. Particularly with regard to CO2 emissions, we must pursue responsible initiatives in response to the global issue of climate change, as a company active in the environmental field. Through AI, IoT, and other digital technology and information analysis, the Kurita Group will build more efficient production systems that significantly reduce energy use, as well as shift towards lower carbon solutions by incorporating smart technologies in the water treatment methods that accompany customer production processes and in our water supply bases. The international crisis engendered by COVID-19 has accelerated the digitization of life and work, and brought about irreversible changes in society. The Kurita Group is recapturing the vision expressed in its corporate philosophy “Study the properties of water, master them, and we will create an environment in which nature and man are in harmony,” striving to realize this vision as we work to create shared value with society.