Kirin Group named to the 2019 CDP*1 Water Security A List, the highest rank, for the 4th year in a row

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (President and CEO Yoshinori Isozaki) was selected as a Water Security “A List” company by the CDP, a global non-profit organization that provides an environmental information disclosure system, as announced on February 3, 2020 (Monday). This is the fourth year in a row for the Kirin Group to be selected as a Water Security “A List” company. Moreover, in FY2019, the Kirin Group was recognized as an “A List” company for both climate change and water security.

1. CDP is a global non-profit that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. In 2019, over 525 investors with over US$96 trillion in assets and 125 major purchasers with US$3.6 trillion in procurement spend requested companies to disclose data on environmental impacts, risks and opportunities through CDP’s platform and over 8,400 responded.

The Kirin Group has designated Biological Resources, Water Resources, Containers and Packaging and Global Warming as the 4 important themes in the Kirin Group Long-Term Environmental Vision.

Concerning Water Resources, the Kirin Group is actively promoting measures including high-level water conservation activities at the manufacturing locations, cleaning the wastewater before returning it to nature and taking an industry leading role in forestation activities around the water sources used by the manufacturing sites. In addition, because the water risks differ in each region and location, efforts are being made to ascertain the potential impacts of water risk on the business from a long-term perspective, including the assessment of water risk in the watersheds of 44 major manufacturing locations in 9 countries in 2017 and the assessment of water risk in the upstream area of the value chain in the Domestic Integrated Beverages Businesses from 2018. In 2019, the initiatives were further evolved and advanced, such as verifying the water risk in the major agricultural areas related to the company’s business and reflecting the results in the business strategy.

Also, in relation to Global Warming, which has a large impact on the Water Resources, the Kirin Group has set forth the lofty target of “30% reduction compared to 2015 level for combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions groupwide and the same 30% reduction for Scope 3 emissions by 2030,” and this target has been approved by the SBT Initiative^*2. Along with conducting far-reaching energy conservation activities, the Kirin Group is promoting initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions throughout the value chain, including switching the fuels used, shifting to all-electric through the installation of heat pumps, increasing the use of renewable energy such as solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power and biomass power using the biogas generated at the wastewater processing facilities, reducing the weight of containers and joint deliveries.
Also, the Kirin Group was the first Japanese food and beverage company to endorse the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD^*3) and is proactively working to disclose information such as analyses of the scenarios.

1. Initiative established in 2015 by the CDP, UN Global Compact, World Resources Institute and WWF
2. Abbreviation of Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

The Kirin Group intends to proactively address various social issues in an effort to work together with everyone in the value chain to share the spirit of continuously and sustainably enjoying the blessings of nature into the future.

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