The JSR Group developed its Environment Safety Management Policy promotion items with reference to management policies based on our responsibility to stakeholders and the Japan Chemical Industry Association's basic policies on the environment and safety. We are formulating specific activity plans for these action items and engaging in the implementation of RC activities.
RC is an acronym for Responsible Care®. In the chemical industry, each company handling chemical substances is responsible for ensuring that safety, health, and environmental issues are addressed throughout the chemical lifecycle, from development and production to distribution, use and disposal, publishing the results of their activities and maintaining dialogue and communication with society - all voluntarily. This initiative is called "Responsible Care."
Source: Japan Chemical Industry Association pamphlet "Do You Know about Responsible Care?"
When developing new products, the JSR Group evaluates the environmental, safety and health impact at every stage from research and development to production, transport, use and disposal, and makes the utmost effort to provide products that take such evaluations into consideration.
The JSR Group sets in place a system for the management of product-related safety and environmental information, and provides Safety Data Sheets (SDS) to customers and yellow cards to transporters as necessary.
The JSR Group takes a positive approach in its measures for preserving the global environment, facility safety, and protection against major earthquakes, taking into consideration the impact its business activities have on the environment. The JSR Group's objective is to earn even greater trust at its business locations.
The JSR Group conducts studies on the environmental impact of chemical substances and works toward the systematic reduction of emissions. The JSR Group engages in thorough efforts to reduce sources of emissions, reuse materials, and recycle resources in order to reduce environmental impact.
The JSR Group cooperates with cross-border transfers of environmental and safety technologies. Regarding corporate activities overseas, the JSR Group strictly complies with the regulations of Japan and other nations, and makes every effort to assure safety and environmental compliance at each operating site outside Japan.
Constantly at work on the pre-assessment of safety matters related to chemical substances and their handling, the JSR Group is dedicated to improving operations and facilities, and to creating a healthy and safe workplace environment.
Declaration of support for RC Global Charter
The Responsible Care (RC) Global Charter is a voluntary activity policy adopted by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and shared by the chemical industry to enhance and reinforce RC activities around the world. JSR subscribes to this activity policy, and signed a declaration supporting the RC Global Charter in October, 2008. JSR has also signed the revised RC Global Charter in March, 2015. By signing the declaration, JSR has committed itself to making even greater contributions to health, safety, and environmental preservation not just in Japan, but around the world.
The Responsible Care Committee is responsible for establishing project plans as well as project implementation and verification.
When environmental and safety laws are adopted, enacted, or amended, the Head Office distributes information to each business site to keep them fully informed. JSR employees and employees stationed at group companies can view environmental and safety information at any time using the group intranet.
In 1999, all JSR plants acquired ISO14001 certification as an Environment Management System to support environmental management with recertification performed every year. In FY2016, all plants qualified for their continuing inspections. Currently, we are preparing to bring ourselves in line with ISO14001 revisions released in September, 2015. We are scheduled to complete this transition by September, 2018.
Tsukuba Research Laboratory is restructuring its environmental safety promotion system in accordance with ISO 14001 standards due to the launch of JSR Life Sciences Corporation and the reorganization of the research laboratory.
President Koshiba visiting a plant
The JSR Head Office conducts annual audits of its plants and research laboratories with the president acting as head of the auditing team. In FY2016, auditing methods and procedures underwent significant change. Changes included the specific PDCA procedures regarding activities conducted by our offices to prevent workplace and facility accidents, and the dedication of efforts to improve safety awareness. These changes enable us to, as a single entity, more readily verify and have awareness of various challenges. Annual activity plans will be effectively updated in accordance with audit results. For this reason, the audited departments will be expanded in FY2017 in accordance with the auditing methods used in FY2016.
In addition to these headquarters audits, we also annually audit our business sites that have been approved by the government for high-pressure gas operations as well as our approval inspection management department to ensure that both the department and the sites observe government approval requirements.
At JSR, we implement environmental and safety audits at our Group companies in Japan that are involved in production, transportation, and engineering processes in order to achieve integrated Responsible Care activities. In FY2016, audit policies and procedures were changed in the same manner as that for JSR. Efforts were primarily focused on the group companies located near JSR plants. In FY2017, we will continue to implement these audit policies and expand their scope.
Explanatory briefing held at the Kashima Plant
To promote the company's CSR, environmental, and safety activities to all employees, JSR organizes RC & CSR explanatory briefings. Every year, the officers in charge and other managers visit each plant to report the results of RC activities and share upcoming issues.
In FY2016, one the primary focal points of these visits was to report on the status of progress regarding our safety efforts in light of the serious workplace accident that occurred the previous year.
JSR Office | Event date |
---|---|
Yokkaichi Plant | September 3, 2015 |
Chiba Plant | September 30, 2015 |
Kashima Plant | September 1, 2015 |
Tsukuba Research Laboratories | September 16, 2015 |
These CSR explanatory briefings were also conducted at a few other domestic and overseas group companies. We plan to continue conducting these briefings at other locations.
Group company | Event date |
---|---|
JSR Micro Kyushu | December 16, 2015 |
JSR Micro, Inc. (USA) | November 19, 2015 |
JSR Micro N.V. (Belgium) | February 5, 2016 |
On October 6, 2015, we discovered waste that was being stored by customers was moved before the establishment of the contract to outsource the collection, transport, and disposal of industrial waste. We have reported and consulted with the government on this incident and its resolution once it was discovered that the waste had been moved. This incident has been resolved in accordance with government instructions. To prevent such an incident from reoccurring, we have conducted training to provide employees with a review on waste management. We have also reconfigured internal waste management systems.
FY | No. of trainings (times) | No. of participants (persons) | Content of training |
---|---|---|---|
1991 - 2014 | 65 | 569 | Water quality management technology, industrial waste disposal/management technology, odor control technology, environmental management systems, Responsible Care activities, environmental facility tours |
2015 | 2 | 17 | |
Total | 67 | 586 |
Training conducted as the Yokkaichi Plant
As part of our international RC efforts, we have provided cooperation and support to the International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT), a Public Interest Incorporated Foundation established to assist in the development of environmental and safety engineers from around the world.
1995 | Chiba Plant | Minister of Labor | Award for Excellence (in the safety category) |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | Kashima Plant | Minister of Labor | Award for Effort (in the safety category) |
1999 | Chiba Plant | Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) | Safety Award |
2002 | Chiba Plant | Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare | Award for Effort (in the health category) |
2003 | Yokkaichi Plant | Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry | Award from the Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award for Excellent Energy Management Plant (Thermal Sector) |
2006 | Tsukuba Research Laboratories | Commissioner of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency | Fire Defense Award |
2007 | Yokkaichi Plant | Japan Responsible Care Council (JRCC) | Responsible Care Award |
2010 | Chiba Plant | Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) | Safety Award First Prize |
2012 | Yokkaichi Plant | Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) | Safety Award Grand Prize |
2013 | Chiba Plant | Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) | Responsible Care Award |
2013 | JSR Optic Tsukuba Co., Ltd. | Commissioner of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency | Fire Defense Award |
2013 | JSR Micro Kyushu Co., Ltd. | Commissioner of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency | Fire Defense Award |
2013 | JAPAN COLORING CO., LTD. | Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry | Award from the Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award for Excellent Energy Management Plant |
2015 | JSR Micro Kyushu Co., Ltd. | Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry | Award from the Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award for Excellent Energy Management Plant |
2015 | JSR Optic Tsukuba Co., Ltd. | Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) | Responsible Care Award for Effort |
JSR Micro Kyushu Co., Ltd. received an award from the Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry in recognition of their achievements in energy-saving. JSR Micro Kyushu Co., Ltd. has always focused on the rational use of energy as one of their priorities. Reports of actual activities were presented at the awards ceremony held in Fukuoka on February 15, 2016 and at the Rational Energy Use Symposium held on the same day.
Awards Ceremony
Presentation of Actual Activities
To further encourage environmental protection activities, we created the Environment Merit Award for employees who have made important contributions to environmental protection through a range of activities that include environmental product and technology development, environmental impact reduction, and assisting local communities with environment-related issues. Eleven employees received this award for four areas of excellence in FY2016.
Subject | Description | |
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Yokkaichi Plant | Creation of a Plant Operation Support System | We have developed a system to visualize total plant energy consumption and manage energy-saving efforts. Environment information and operation status management has also been incorporated into this system in support of plant operations. This system was configured by utilizing existing systems and internally developing new system configurations. The result is a highly effective system developed at low cost. |
Yokkaichi Plant | Establishment of odor sensory evaluation technologies in compliance with odor index regulations | We have established an evaluation system that complies with the odor index regulations that come into effect next year in Yokkaichi City. Previous evaluation methods were ineffective, inaccurate, and insufficient. Because of this, we collected publicly available information and consulted with experts in the field to establish an evaluation method and system compliant with the new regulations. |
Chiba Plant | Reduction of toxic gas produced by catalyst deactivation | Toxic gas is produced when catalyst is deactivated using ARTON. Previous processing methods resulted in low reactivity. By adding alcohol to the process; however, we were able to significantly improve water solubility and reactivity of the catalyst. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the production of toxic gases. |
Chiba Plant | Reduction of waste containing PCB through stabilizer sorting | Stabilizers likely containing PCB are stored at the Chiba Plant. Disposal of these stabilizers has been delayed due to constraints with off-site treatment facilities. This resulted in long-term internal storage. For this reason, we have utilized technical evaluation criteria to separate initial stabilizers containing PCB from stabilizers that do not contain PCB. This has helped reduce the number of stabilizers stored internally. |