Our daily lives depend greatly on plentiful global resources. MC believes it is important to simultaneously generate three kinds of value: economic value, societal value, and environmental value - while benefiting in a sustainable manner from limited resources within our planetary boundaries. MC’s Environmental Charter positions this as a key consideration in business activities by clarifying that we will promote the sustainable use of natural resources including energy, minerals, food stocks, wood and water throughout our global business operations. Specifically, MC strives to recycle, reuse, and efficiently use resources, reduce the ecological footprint of our business activities, maintain healthy stocks in fishing activities, and otherwise efficiently utilize resources in accordance with our business operations.

Reference:Mitsubishi Corporation Environmental Charter

Reference:Diagram of the Sustainability Promotion Framework

Risk Management

When reviewing and making decisions on loan and investment proposals, MC conducts a comprehensive screening process which considers not only economic aspects, but ESG factors as well. This includes considering measures to address recycling and closed-loop businesses, waste management and related matters. Besides screening new investment and exit proposals, MC also strives to make improvements to existing business investments by monitoring their management practices.

With regard to waste emissions in its Head Offices, in principle, MC aims to reduce emissions by 1% from the previous fiscal year, and targets are set based on the previous fiscal year’s results. In addition, with regard to recycling rates, MC has set a goal of achieving zero waste emissions offices^＊, with the aim of recycling at least 95% of the waste produced by MC.

＊ MC defines “zero emissions” as cases where vendors are contracted to recycle 95% or more of waste produced by its Head Offices. MC also promotes waste reduction, reuse, and recycling, and manages Head Office activities with waste emissions targets.

Scope of aggregation (non-consolidated): Mitsubishi Shoji Building, Marunouchi Park Building, and certain other offices in Tokyo

＊ Waste volume figures exclude waste resulting from internal construction service tasks

Recycling and Closed-Loop Business Initiatives (Chuo Kagaku)

MC consolidated subsidiary Chuo Kagaku Co., Ltd. has been voluntarily collecting used plastic food containers from consumer co-ops, supermarkets and other organizations since 1990. Working closely with local service providers, MC promotes recycling at the regional level by selecting the most effective method after analyzing various options, and thus reducing its environmental burden. In chemical recycling, collected used containers are thermally decomposed into basic chemical raw materials utilizing steelmaking equipment, and some of the raw materials are recycled into new food trays. In thermal recycling, containers are broken down and solidified to produce alternatives to fuels such as coal, and used as boiler fuel for power plants, paper companies, etc. In materials recycling, containers are broken down, melted and otherwise processed, then turned into recycled products such as benches.

MC is also focusing on environmentally-friendly materials that can be used safely in all food products. CHUO A-PET GREEN (C-APG), an ECO MARK certified product, makes effective use of resources by using recycled PET as the raw material for plastic containers. Its safety has also been ensured by meeting voluntary industry standards that comply with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The product epitomizes MC’s drive to address social issues pertaining to the environmental and safety.

Going forward, Chuo Kagaku will continue striving to reduce and avoid waste, as well as reduce the use of raw materials. These include high-performance gas barrier containers that are sealed with freshness-preserving gas to inhibit the oxidation of food and the growth of bacteria, thereby reducing food waste; containers that contribute to reduced use of plastic by using talc for more than 50% of their raw material; and research into heat-resistant materials that improve the efficiency of cooking.

Furthermore, Chuo Kagaku has formulated environmental impact reduction plans every five years since 2006 and is forging ahead with environmental initiatives. In 2017, MC established the Third Five-Year Plan to Reduce Environmental Impact (2017–2021).

Chuo Kagaku Co., Ltd.’s Third Five-Year Plan to Reduce Environmental Impact (2017–2021)

(2) Promoting collection and recycling of used plastic food containers from stores

With the cooperation of consumers, retailers such as supermarkets, and packaging material stores, Chuo Kagaku collects used plastic food packaging at stores and employs a variety of recycling processes to transform such materials into usable resources again. Chuo Kagaku also fulfills its obligations as a manufacturer of plastic food containers under Japan’s Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, with regard to recycling used plastic food containers collected by municipalities nationwide. The amount collected over the past 30 years has been 915.57 million tons, or 22.9 billion sheets (1 sheet equals 4 grams ).

Nosan Corporation, a consolidated subsidiary of MC, uses Eco Feed^＊ as a raw material for its formulated livestock feed, with the aim of helping to increase the food recycling rate and enhance the livestock feed and food self-sufficiency rate. Currently, Nosan Corporation uses approximately 7,000 MT per year of dried Eco Feed recycled from discarded by-products of food production, unsold food products, leftovers from cooking etc., and approximately 20,000 MT per year of by-products from bakeries and confectionery factories (bread crumbs, cake flour). These are used as raw materials for livestock feed.

＊ A livestock feed manufactured using by-products of food production (by-products obtained from the food production process), unsold food products (bread and boxed lunches, etc.) leftovers from cooking (cut vegetable scraps and other leftovers from cooking) and residual farm products (imperfect farm produce, etc.).

Recycling and Closed-Loop Business Initiatives (Livestock Business)

Japan Farm Holdings Inc., a consolidated subsidiary of MC, is a large-scale livestock company which won the Fiscal 2016 Eco-Feed Award from the Japan Livestock Industry Association for its work building a closed-loop recycling model. The model is centered on reusing waste generated from a primary industry, specifically the lees left over from producing the distilled liquor shochu. Japan Farm is located in Kagoshima Prefecture, which is famous for sweet potato shochu manufacturing. The by-product waste known as lees from shochu manufacturing had been an ongoing issue. Japan Farm worked in collaboration with local distilleries for over two years to develop feed that reuses the shochu lees. The feed is used for breeding pigs for “Brand Pork.” Along with reducing waste disposal costs and CO2 emissions, a closed-loop model has been established in such a manner where the manure from the pigs given the feed is recycled into fertilizer sold by vendors such as local agricultural cooperatives.

Reference:From the Japan Livestock Industry Association website page providing eco-feed information (Japanese only)

http://ecofeed.lin.gr.jp/excellent/uploads/files/jirei2016_japanfarm.pdf

Paper Consumption (Non-Consolidated)

Scope of aggregation: Head Offices, six Japan-based branches and offices under each branch’s jurisdiction

Scope of aggregation: Consolidated (Main Japan-based subsidiaries)

Reference:Water Withdrawal, Water Recycling Volume and Rate

ESG Data marked with a star (⋆) for the year ended March 2021 has received independent practitioner’s assurance from Deloitte Tohmatsu Sustainability Co., Ltd.

Reference:Independent Practitioner’s Assurance Report