Sustainability

SDGs-related Initiatives

One of the LINTEC Group’s initiatives under the key themes of its long-term vision, LINTEC SUSTAINABILITY VISION 2030 (LSV 2030), is to contribute to achieving SDGs through its business activities.
Based on the company motto of “Sincerity and Creativity,” we consider SDGs as our corporate responsibility for the next generation, and we will continue to make efforts to achieve them.

What are the SDGs?

Stands for Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The SDGs comprise 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030 as a set of common goals for the international community. To achieve the SDGs by 2030 and thereby realize a better world, various countries and entities around the globe are expected to hold discussions and take action.

Relationship Between SDGs and Materiality

At the LINTEC Group, multiple departments, including the Sustainability Promotion Office and Corporate Strategic Office, worked together to re-identify materiality in 2021 and link them to highly relevant SDGs.
As a result, we recognized the need to expand the areas in which we can contribute toward solving social issues through our business activities, while once again exploring fundamental solutions for their environmental impact.

Concept of Initiatives, Promotion System

The LINTEC Group is working to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society by placing importance on enabling our employees to proactively think and take actions.
As part of our initiatives, in 2018, LINTEC established the SDGs Committee, comprised of cross-organizational members, and since then, the committee has been carrying out various activities.
Members of the committee have been learning and practicing their roles to proactively think and take actions through lectures and group work sessions on SDGs and solutions for social issues.
At our overseas group companies, we recognized the need to start with initiatives to raise awareness of SDGs; therefore, in fiscal 2022, we had discussions on SDGs with LINTEC ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES (TAIWAN), INC., PT. LINTEC INDONESIA and LINTEC (THAILAND) CO., LTD., and considered how their activities are connected to SDGs. Going forward, we will set up similar opportunities with each of our group companies so that they can proactively think and take actions according to their local circumstances and business environment.
In addition, we are promoting various initiatives to disseminate the idea that efforts regarding SDGs are not special actions but ordinary ones, by setting up opportunities to explain SDGs and our initiatives together with our Sales staff in accordance with customer requests.

Activities of the SDGs Committee

Activities of the SDGs Committee have been reported to the Sustainability Committee by the officer in charge of promoting SDGs since 2020, and feedback is obtained to ensure that the committee is operated with enhanced participation of management. In November 2022, the committee held a proposal meeting with management, and committee members who had been active members since the previous year proposed business ideas for solving social issues. In addition, in order to raise awareness of SDGs within the company, the committee reported activities that led to the proposals at each stage to departments to which the committee members belong, and helped to facilitate communication with the members and employees of their departments.
Furthermore, to convey the concept that SDGs are ordinary and not something special, the committee published a wall newspaper in Japanese and English after each meeting and posted it on the internal bulletin board and the Intranet to communicate information on lectures and activities related to SDGs.
A group that has been working to implement a business idea that was specified as an item for ongoing consideration at the proposal meeting in 2020 pursued the feasibility of the idea through market research and demonstrations even though external contact was restricted under the pandemic. Consequently, in the briefing session for management held in December 2022, the group indicated a course of action to explore ways to commercialize the idea by working with an existing department in charge of generating new business.
Starting from the committee, we are expanding our initiatives while reinforcing cooperation with existing departments, and we will continue our activities by recruiting new members.

Expansion of Our Initiatives

Members who served on the SDGs Committee continued working on their business ideas beyond their terms of office, collaborated with other departments within the company as well as external parties, and came up with “paper mixed with Japanese eelgrass,” which was determined to be both a possible solution to issues faced by companies and organizations and a source of new value to be provided by the company.
Japanese eelgrass (Zostera japonica), which is a type of seagrass, has been under protection from the perspective of preserving marine biodiversity and securing marine resources. In recent years, its habitat has been expanding in some areas as a result of improved water quality and other factors. However, because its habitat started to spread excessively to the extent it was difficult to co-exist with fisheries, the seagrass was partially cut down and burned.
To make use of the seagrass slated to be burned and disposed of, we are developing “paper mixed with Japanese eelgrass” by drying and powderizing the seagrass, and applying “mixing” technology, which is one of our technologies for manufacturing specialty paper.

Please see the website below.

Dried and powderized Japanese eelgrass and paper mixed with Japanese eelgrass
Dried and powderized Japanese eelgrass and paper mixed with Japanese eelgrass

VOICE My Next Stage

I have been involved in the operation of the SDGs Committee as a secretariat since 2018. One of our goals is to generate business that contributes toward solving social issues, and I am well aware of how difficult that is. A member who served on the committee for three years from 2018 continued working on his idea after returning to his department in fiscal 2022, gained support and cooperation within and outside the company, and created a prototype “paper mixed with Japanese eelgrass” that could contribute toward solving social issues. Working behind the scenes as the secretariat, I was deeply moved by the fact that he continued working on this project without giving up, and that he cooperated and collaborated with a number of stakeholders to present the proposal.
I will continue to carry out activities to generate more cases like this one and fulfill my role to support the creation of business with greater impact so that we can contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.

Takehiko Nishikawa
Takehiko Nishikawa
Sustainability Management Office