News
Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Yasuaki Wakui) has recently published the Kuraray CSR Report 2005 (44 color A4-size pages), detailing the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of the Kuraray Group.
This is the second CSR Report that Kuraray has published, although it has published reports on its environmental activities annually since 1998. In response to the rising emphasis on CSR in recent years, it has become necessary for firms to engage in a broad scope of social and economic activities in addition to the environmental, and this prompted Kuraray to establish a CSR Committee and expand its CSR activities in 2003. The following year, the achievements of these programs were published in the Company's first CSR report, the Kuraray CSR Report 2004. The Office of CSR, established in April 2005 to serve as the secretariat of the CSR Committee, played a central role in the publication of this second edition. In response to the comments of the readers of the first edition, the 2005 report contains information on programs that have recently been expanded.
The report is arranged in three sections: the Introduction, Community and Employee Relations section, and an Environment and Safety Activities section, each containing highlights with emphasis on successes achieved and new programs launched.
The Community and Employee Relations section discusses the donation of school bags, which Japanese elementary school students strap on their backs, through the Across the Sea Campaign that collects the school bags of graduating Japanese sixth graders and distributes them to children in Afghanistan. This section also reports on a program Kuraray operates together with the Niji-no-ie, which is certified under the Social Welfare Services Law, to promote the employment of disabled people who desire employment.
The Environment and Safety Activities section discusses Kuraray's efforts to combat global warming through a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions per specific unit of production, and the expansion of biomass power generation and energy development at its Kurashiki Plant (Tamashima), together with the promotion of a modal shift in its logistics operations that reduces environmental impact through the use of ships instead of trucks. Kuraray is also involved in efforts to preserve biodiversity in various regions.
