Sustainability Index
Promoting Steady Business Portfolio Transformation
The DIC Sustainability Index is a tool designed to make its product mix more resilient. From the perspective of building a sustainable society, DIC will clarify the sustainability of its inks, pigments and other products by quantifying social contribution issues (horizontal axis) and environmental impact (vertical axis). Mapping all DIC Group products on the index will make it possible to formulate appropriate measures for the transformation of its business portfolio and at a certain stage elucidate the results thereof. The index will further underpin the Group’s efforts to help realize a sustainable society by ensuring it meets the DIC Vision 2030 target of increasing the portion of net sales accounted for by sustainable products to 60%, thereby ensuring its resilience to various changes in the external environment.
Comprehensive Efforts to Address the Critical Issue of Climate Change
While a broad range of products have enhanced the convenience and affluence of modern lives, it is also true that the production thereof negatively
impacts the global environment. A particularly pressing concern is climate change. It has become increasingly obvious that the earth will not be
sustainable unless decisive steps are taken to achieve ambitious targets. In the DIC Group’s case, these are a 50% reduction of Scope 1 and 2 CO₂
emissions from the fiscal year 2013 level by fiscal year 2030 and the achievement of carbon neutrality—net zero CO₂ emissions—by fiscal year 2050.
The DIC Sustainability Index expresses the greenhouse gases generated in the manufacturing process as emissions per unit of production, measured
as emissions of CO₂ per tonne in kilograms. One trend that became apparent through mapping is that emissions per unit of production are generally
higher for items that require a significant amount of energy during production, such as pigments, than for those that use relatively little energy during
production, such as inks. This process also revealed that there can be significant differences in results for products depending on production facility.
For a particular type of pigment, for example, the difference from one plant to another was as much as 1.5 times. So, even if a product is manufactured
using the same process—in other words, the same amount of energy—as at another production facility, emissions per unit of production can be
lowered by increasing the use of energy with lower greenhouse gas emissions, such as renewable energy. Taking into account various issues, including
the availability of energy with low greenhouse gas emissions, regional differences in access to such energy, and the relocation and consolidation of
production facilities, the DIC Group set ambitious reduction targets and will promote comprehensive efforts to ensure their achievement.
Focus on Products that Demonstrate Unique Competitive Strengths
How much does a product contribute to society? The horizontal axis of the DIC Sustainability Index makes it possible to judge a product’s contribution
to society by determining whether it is a distinctively DIC offering or demonstrates the Group’s competitive strengths. The DIC Group believes that all
of the products it provides around the world contribute to society in some way. In some instances, however, the availability of other similar products
inevitably limits the value—including the degree of its social contribution and the stability and sustainability of supplies—delivered by the Group’s
offerings. As a manufacturer of fine chemicals, the Group believe that it can contribute to a more sustainable society by focusing on products that
demonstrate its unique competitive strengths and by further enhancing such strengths, and has thus related targets under DIC Vision 2030.
Modern life presents a number of complex dilemmas. Climate change is an existential threat that requires urgent action, but in our effort to curb
climate change we cannot suspend activities essential to human health and global civilization. The DIC Group believes that it is best positioned to
demonstrate its competitive strengths in areas that will make society more green, digital and QOL-oriented—in other words, areas that help address
climate change, make technological progress more accessible, and support health and safety. These are the areas in which the Grup can truly
leverage its unique capabilities and make important contributions to the resolution of social imperatives.
The DIC Group’s sustainable products contribute to society in multiple, overlapping ways, but in a general sense they enhance QOL. These include
products that improve the heat shielding and insulating performance of structures will increase accessibility to healthy living environments while at the
same time helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions and products that help ensure safety and availability of water—for example, PPS compounds
used in public water supply pipes, unsaturated polyester resin used in the repair and maintenance of underground pipes, and hollow fiber membranes
used to filter water and extend the life of industrial equipment—support daily life. Going forward, the Group will continue working to provide distinctively
DIC products that are both sustainable and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.
