*The Mitsui Chemicals Group has identified "Circular Economy" as one of its material topics. Please see here for details.
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Endeavor to Create a Circular Economy
Management System
Basic Approach
The Mitsui Chemicals Group has contributed to improving convenience in people’s lives and helped solve challenges in society through the supply of chemical products and high-performance plastic products. At the same time, our business activities require the substantial use of fossil resources and energy, which emits large volumes of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Also, there are concerns over environmental pollution caused by plastic waste flowing into the oceans and other areas.
Against this backdrop, we treat climate change and the plastic waste problem as interconnected issues and have identified them as particularly important social challenges for the Group. Alongside our carbon neutral strategy, we are advancing biomass and recycling strategies to help realize a circular economy. We aim to achieve carbon neutrality by reducing the Group’s GHG emissions while also contributing to the transition from a conventional linear economy based on mass consumption and disposal to a circular economy that enhances environmental and social sustainability.
*Please see the message from the executive officer in charge (See p. 69.)
System and Responsible Officers
ESG-related issues such as climate change and plastic waste, as highlighted in the SDGs, are discussed within the Corporate Sustainability Committee, which is coordinated by the officer in charge of the Committee. The Committee meets four times a year to discuss Group-wide policies, strategies, and plans. The results of the Committee’s discussions and activities conducted are reported to the Management Committee. Furthermore, particularly important matters are determined and supervised by the Board of Directors after deliberation at the Company-wide Strategy Committee and the Management Committee.
To bolster circular economy initiatives, we have established the Circular Economy Center of Excellence (CoE) as a subcommittee under the Corporate Sustainability Committee. The Circular Economy CoE comprises the Steering Committee, three working groups on biomass, recycling, and climate change, and GHG reduction subcommittee. The Senior Executive Advisor serves as the supervisor, and the Green Sustainable Chemicals Division serves as its secretariat. Through participation in each working group and subcommittees by related departments and information sharing and discussion, it is working to efficiently promote both projects run individually by departments and cross-organizational projects. The contents of discussions conducted by the Steering Committee are reported to the Corporate Sustainability Committee. Moreover, the policies discussed at the Steering Committee are fed back to working groups to ensure consistency with the Group-wide strategy.
Risk Management and Business Strategy
The Mitsui Chemicals Group is committed to addressing “climate change” and “circular economy” as our material topics. We quantitatively evaluate and analyze the business impacts of climate change and the circular economy in terms of both risks and opportunities, reflecting them in our medium- and long-term business strategies.
We identify risks and opportunities on a Group-wide basis under our risk management system. In fiscal 2024, climate change and natural capital were designated as key Group-wide risks. We ensure the implementation of the PDCA cycle within our business plan system to address these key risks effectively.
To accelerate the promotion of various strategies towards a circular economy, we introduced internal carbon pricing (ICP) in fiscal 2019. By adding IRR (c-IRR), which takes ICP into account as a factor in decision-making for large-scale investments, we have a system that discusses the necessity of investments not only from an economic standpoint but also from the perspective of reducing environmental impact. In fiscal 2022, we revised the internal carbon price from 3,000 yen/t-CO2e to 15,000 yen/t-CO2e. This system supports the consideration of lower-carbon investments from the planning stage of investment projects.
Goals and Results
| Metric | Scope | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2030 (Medium to Long-term) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goals | Results | Goals | Goals | ||
| GHG emissions reduction rate (Scopes 1 and 2)* *compared to FY2013 | Mitsui Chemicals Group | 28% | 28% | 28% | 40% |
| Blue Value™ products sales revenue ratio | Mitsui Chemicals Group | 28% | 30% | 29% | 40% |
* Calculated based on adjusted emissions that exclude temporary factors such as fluctuations in ethylene operating rates.