People

The Kuraray plants sponsor the “Chemistry Classes for Boys and Girls”, and participate in outside events and sponsored sports tournaments to foster healthy juniors and teenagers by continuously supporting on-going activities.

Kuraray conducts the “Chemistry Classes for Boys and Girls” program with the goal of enabling elementary school students to experience the fun of chemistry through experimental work. In this program, employee volunteers of Kuraray serve as lecturers and assistants in dedicated classrooms in Kuraray plant premises, as well as in elementary schools and public facilities in the areas. This program has been sponsored every year since 1992 at Kuraray plants in Japan. In fiscal 2019, 347 children and family members participated in fourteen class events. The Tsurumi Plant had a booth at the Bizen Industrial Festa, and showcased experiments with activated carbon. We will continue these events and actively participate in events outside the Company.

The Niigata Plant undertakes the “MIRABAKESSO Forest Creating Activity.” In fiscal 2020, 55 employee volunteers joined the activity. Also all the plants undertake continued volunteer cleaning work. The Group companies also periodically undertake voluntary environmental work such as cleaning of areas around their plants.

At each Kuraray plant, employee volunteers engage in cleaning parks, roads and mowing gardens in childcare centers in cooperation with local governments and NPOs.

The Galveston Bay Foundation is a conservation nonprofit that has served as guardian of Galveston Bay since 1987. Kuraray America, Inc. has partnered the foundation since 2014. Trash Bash® is one of the foundation’s largest cleanup events in Texas for Galveston Bay. Since 2015, Kuraray America, Inc. has participated in the Trash Bash® event each year. In March 2021, Trash Bash® was switched to a “virtual” event in accordance with COVID-19 safety guidelines; participants cleared neighborhood, park, and sewer lines instead of Galveston Bay, and Kuraray employees and their families participated in local cleanup activities.

Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) is an international program to reduce the accidental release of plastic pellets into the environment. PlasticsEurope is the first trade association in the world to make OCS compulsory for its members. EVAL Europe N.V. as an active member has been participating in the OCS program. OCS initiatives are described in progress reports on publically available on PlasticsEurope website and the OCS website. Specific measures at the plant and the warehouses of EVAL Europe N.V. have been taken in line with OCS initiatives to raise awareness of the employees. We also analyze potential pellet outflow risks from our facilities and continue to manage them with new evaluation criteria to improve the situation.

In combined transport (intermodal transport), different modes of transport such as trucks, trains, and ships are combined optimally to handle transport as environmentally friendly and cost-efficiently as possible. When extending the use of such system when possible, EVAL Europe N.V. succeeded in reducing greenhouse gas CO2, related to road transport by approximately 55% in combined transport rail and by approximately 75% in combined transport short-sea shipping, in cooperation with logistics companies in the port of Antwerp.

Aiming to support and continue the employment of people with intellectual disabilities and to undertake the Kuraray Fureai (Rapport) Fund-Raising Campaign, Kuraray’s Kurashiki, Saijo, Niigata and Kashima Plants operate workshops and donate money raised in the campaign. Also, cherry blossom viewing parties are held at the Saijo and Niigata Plants tuned to the cherry blossoming season. Regrettably these events could be carried out due to the COVID-19 crisis in fiscal 2020 but these activities will be continued in the future.

In cooperation with Nakajo Town (currently Tainai City) and Niji no Ie (meaning ""Rainbow House"", operated by a social welfare corporation, Nanaho-kai) , the Kuraray Workshop of Kuraray’s Niigata Plant opened in 1997 for people with intellectual disabilities. The workshop sorts plastic waste generated in the production process for recycling and manufactures supplies and fittings. In 2007, the Himawari Sunflower Workshop opened at Kuraray’s Saijo Plant. In 2011, the Kashima Plant opened its Aozora Blue Sky Works assisted by a social welfare corporation, Kamisu Keiai-en. 13 instructors and 41 workers now work at four of Kuraray’ s plants to accomplish a variety of job assignments, including those employees at Kuraray’s Kurashiki Plant engaged in cleaning of uniforms and labeling on Kuraray products. They mingle with Kuraray’s employees through sports events and other occasions. These workshops and employment of those with intellectual disabilities will be maintained and continued.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that helps to provide housing for disadvantaged people.Their mission is to supply affordable housing for people who are not financially well off but play an important role in their communities. On February 1, 2020, Kuraray America, Inc. employees in Houston volunteered with Habitat for Humanity Baytown to help build homes for disadvantaged people. We were able to build quality, safe, and energy-efficient homes at affordable prices for the people we supported at the event, and everyone who attended had a great time.

MonoSol, LLC made an emergency donation to provide food for people who had lost their jobs because of COVID-19.With support from the Kuraray Head Office, the company secured masks for hospitals and nursing homes and provided no-touch thermometers to local police and fire departments. To better support local charities, MonoSol doubled its employee matching gift program budget.
　MonoSol also provided various forms of support to local businesses. The health and safety team advised local manufacturers on new safety protocols. MonoSol’s finance team made upfront payments to support cash flow for small vendors. In order to assist the operation of local small and medium-sized restaurants, the company launched a “Take Out Takeover” program that provides employees with meals for takeout. Additionally, MonoSol became a founding sponsor of a business recovery fund, which provides microloans to small business owners in the Indianapolis region.

The pandemic affects everyone, but especially those who were already in a precarious position before Covid 19 suffer enormously. In order to ease those effects, Kuraray Europe GmbH (KEG) donated Euro 20,000 to nine different charity organizations, which had mostly been chosen by our employees. The focus was on educational and social projects: for children suffering from severe illnesses and their families, for school kids in Nepal. Colleagues in the Czech Republic produced masks and visors on the 3D printer and provided them to the community early in the pandemic.
In addition, like in many previous years, KEG colleagues again supported “Christmas in a shoebox” by filling and packing giftboxes with toys and sweets and thus treated deprived children to a lovely Christmas surprise.