Responsible Care Management
1. Responsible Care Policy
(1) Policy
Seeing occupational safety, security and accident prevention, environmental conservation, and product safety as key foundations for its business activities, JSR Group conducts all business undertakings under the following Responsible Care® (RC) policy.
- 1.We strive to ensure the safety of employees and local communities, and to contribute to environmental conservation and a sustainable global environment by ascertaining risks associated with our business activities and executing countermeasures.
- 2.We strive to comply with laws, ordinances, and voluntary regulations by gathering information on and ensuring the full development of laws and regulations required for business activity.
- 3.We strive to ensure the safety of our products by developing products with consideration for safety, health, and the environment and providing information about them.
(2) International Initiatives
JSR Signs Declaration Supporting 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 has 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 this declaration, JSR has committed itself to making even greater contributions to health, safety, and environmental preservation not just in Japan, but around the world.
2. RC Advancement Structure
Led by the officer in charge of safety, quality and environmental affairs, the Environment, Safety and Quality Committee meets twice a year. During meetings, the Committee formulates companywide activity policies and action plans based on JSR Group’s Responsible Care Policy, evaluates the results of activities, and deliberates on information disclosures. Contents deliberated on and approved by the Committee are presented to the Sustainability Promotion Committee, of which the President serves as the chairperson, for review. Committee members are in charge of promoting RC activities they are in charge of, through establishment of necessary standards and establishment and holding of various meetings and committees.
With regard to matters related to safety, the environment, and chemical management, the Environment and Safety General Conference, chaired by the General Manager of the Environment and Safety Department at JSR headquarters, meets once a year to share policies, activity results, and action plans with the heads of each business site of JSR and Group companies in Japan in attendance. In promoting specific initiatives, we have established various meetings and committees to act in accordance with the plan.
3. Environment and Safety Management
(1) Compliance
When environmental and safety laws are adopted, enacted, or amended, the Headquarter distributes information to each business site to keep them fully informed. JSR Group identifies laws and regulations requiring compliance based on compliance regulations and conducts annual self-checks to ensure that business departments conform with laws and regulations.
(2) Environmental Management System
By 1999, the three main domestic JSR plants had acquired ISO 14001 certification, an Environment Management System that supports environmental management. We have kept our certifications up to date each year since.
Following the transfer of the Elastomers Business in April 2022, JSR’s lone manufacturing site is the Yokkaichi Plant. This plant renewed its certification in February 2022.
JSR Group companies, mainly manufacturing companies, have also obtained ISO 14001 certification, and are promoting environmental conservation activities using a management system that complies with this standard.
| JSR (1 location) |
Domestic Group companies (5 companies) |
Overseas Group companies (5 companies) |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
(3) Safety Management System
JSR Group strives to minimize risks effectively and efficiently in occupational safety, security and accident prevention by steadily operating the PDCA cycle based on a management system configured according to the circumstances of each business site and company.
To verify the effectiveness of this management system, each business site takes the lead in carrying out internal safety audits and patrols along with management reviews regularly every year in an effort to achieve continuous improvement. We have also compiled a manual that describes appropriate and effective actions should an accident or disaster occur and ways to prevent damages from escalating. With regular training, we have established a system that can take the proper course of action in the event of a contingency occurring.
The following Group companies had obtained ISO 45001 certification, a certification which they have kept up to date.
- ・JSR Micro Kyushu Corporation
- ・Ube Plant of Techno-UMG Co., Ltd.
- ・JSR Micro N.V.
- ・JSR Micro, Inc.
(4) Audits
Headquarters Environment and Safety Audits
The auditing team comprising members from the Environment and Safety Department of the JSR headquarters conducts annual Headquarters Environment and Safety Audits on JSR Group’s plants and laboratories. In these audits, the effectiveness of the management system in each department is verified based on the results of interviews on the status of safety, health, security and accident prevention, environmental conservation, and chemical management of the audited department following the audit plan and check sheet, as well as objective facts (evidence, on-site inspections, etc.).
These audits are also used as a forum for sharing and discussing issues faced by audited departments, and the Group is working as a whole to resolve issues in environmental and safety activities.
In the verification of system effectiveness, we not only point out and provide guidance on areas for improvement, but also highlight strengths. The results are shared with each business site and company as necessary to help increase the safety level of the entire Group.
In audits conducted at JSR, since FY2015, we have been providing opportunities for dialogue between top management and employees to share the thoughts of both management and frontline operations, and to energize environmental and safety activities.
Details of environment and safety audits can be found using the link below.
| JSR Corporation (3 business sites) | Domestic Group companies (7 companies) |
|---|---|
|
|
(5) Environment and Safety Merit Award
Environment Merit Award
At JSR, 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. Six employees received this award for two areas of excellence in FY2022.
| Business site | Description |
|---|---|
| JSR BiRD | Reduction of CO2 emissions from the development of operating conditions for heat pump chillers using geothermal heat |
| Yokkaichi Plant | Streamlining and expanding industrial waste sorting with the development of a waste search system |
Safety Forum
No results for FY2022 as the Forum was cancelled.
4. Stakeholder Engagement
As a responsible member of the local community, JSR Group participates in the Responsible Care Community Dialogue and exchanges opinions with local residents on safety management and the handling of chemical substances.
In FY2022, we participated in the 8th Responsible Care Yokkaichi District Dialogue Meeting held in October 2022.
5. Disclosure of Legal and Regulatory Violations
In FY2022, there were no legal violations by JSR with regard to laws on the environment, safety, quality, product safety and chemicals.
We continue to implement measures to prevent recurrences of past incidents and we strive toward prevention by regularly sharing case studies in legal and regulatory violations including those involving other companies.