Environmental Policy
Nifco's vision for the future is a prosperous and sustainable society, and manufacturing environmentally friendly products is a strong driving force to achieve this.
Nifco Group Environmental Policy Basic Policy
Nifco* recognizes that environmental conservation is one of the most important issues for realizing a sustainable society and is committed to biodiversity and global environmental conservation throughout its value chain, including business activities and products.
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Nifco: All companies belonging to the Nifco Group Action Guidelines
Code of Conduct
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We will share this environmental policy with all employees in order to implement and maintain it. We will also present this policy to our suppliers and ask for their cooperation in protecting the environment.
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We will comply with environmental laws, ordinances, agreements, etc.
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We will establish and implement environmental targets to the extent technically and economically feasible, review them periodically, and strive to continuously improve our environmental management system and prevent environmental pollution.
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We will promote energy conservation and resource recycling and strive to prevent global warming and realize a recycling-oriented society.
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We will strive to reduce all waste generated in our business activities.
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We will thoroughly manage chemical substances contained in products.
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We will promote the development of clean and comfortable products that are environmentally friendly and strive to reduce environmental impact.
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We will promote environmental awareness among all employees and strive to participate in and support environmental conservation activities.
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We will disclose information on our environmental preservation activities as appropriate and communicate with society.
Environmental Management System
We have established an Environmental Management System (EMS) based on the international standard ISO 14001. Since obtaining ISO 14001 certification in March 2001, we have been developing systems, establishing mechanisms, and promoting environmental activities as an EMS linked to our business activities.
In particular, we plan, implement, evaluate, and improve activities on a PDCA cycle on a division-by division basis, with a focus on contributing to society through our products and reducing the environmental impact of our business activities.
The effectiveness of the EMS is confirmed through periodic internal audits and management reviews, and improvements are made to address issues in order to raise the level of our efforts.
System for promoting EMS
Environmental activities managers have been appointed at all sites to which the EMS is applied and are working on a management program that takes into account the characteristics of their operations. In addition, reviews are conducted by management as a summary of annual activities to evaluate conformity, appropriateness, and effectiveness.
73.3% of our Group companies have obtained the ISO 14001 certificates, including three companies (nine sites) in Japan and 19 companies overseas.
Compliance with environmental laws and regulations
We regularly check the status of compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations at each domestic business site, and there were no violations of environmental laws and regulations in FY2023.
Toward the development of expert personnel
We conduct training for EMS practitioners to enhance the expertise of employees who promote environmental activities. The program is designed to be useful in practice, with participants learning how to integrate operations and EMS and implement PDCA and related regulations, etc. In FY2023, 94 employees participated in the program.
In terms of internal auditors, we have focused on improving the skills of existing auditors, but in light of the need to develop new human resources, we plan to conduct training for new internal auditors and certify them as internal auditors in FY2024.
Supply chain collaborations
Nifco promotes environmental initiatives together with its suppliers, who are important business partners. We have long agreed on environmental preservation standards and have asked each of our suppliers to comply with them.
In FY2023, as in the previous year, we audited 10 suppliers on site, mainly from the perspective of compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and 79 suppliers were asked to conduct voluntary audits.
In addition, we have issued a "Sustainability Procurement Policy" and "Sustainability Procurement Guidelines" for all primary suppliers in Japan, and more than 90% of our suppliers have agreed to them.
Through our "Sustainability Procurement Policy", we aim to achieve sustainable growth, fulfill its social responsibility, and contribute to building a better society.
Introducing IT tools for substances of concern (SOC) management
We have been actively using IT tools for SOC management since 2004, which is ahead of other companies in the industry. And in 2018, we revamped them as “N-SOC” and introduced them to all of our sites in Japan. In 2018, we renewed them as “N-SOC” and introduced them to all domestic bases. By linking the system with our core system, IMDS, a reporting
tool for the automotive industry, and chemSHERPA, a reporting tool for all industries, we are now able to respond promptly to environment-related regulations, which have recently been tightened, especially in Europe.
The "N-SOC Overseas Project" was kicked off in January 2024, with plans to introduce the N-SOC system to five sites in the China region (DNC, NHB, NTJ, SHN, and NJS) by the end of 2024.
Results of SOC-related surveys in FY2023
In FY2023, the number of survey requests from suppliers remained at 15,887 product numbers, 43.9% of the previous year's total, due in part to minor revisions to major SOC-related regulations such as REACH. Of these, the largest number of requests was for surveys related to supplier guidelines, totaling 7,057 items.
Publication of NCSL: Nifco Chemical Substances List Rev 7.0
In addition to the chemical substances that are required to be banned or reported by environmental regulations, Nifco also deals with chemical substances that suppliers are required to ban or report on their own as customer-specific requirements. Every year, we prepare the Nifco Chemical Substances List (NCSL) and distribute it to all suppliers, requesting that they prohibit and report these substances.