ESG Initiatives

SocialS

ocial

The ENVIPRO Group conducts its business activities inan environmentally safe and clean manner in the aim ofcontributing to create a sustainable society.
We promote diversity, aim to be a disciplined group ofautonomous individuals with emergent abilities, andare actively involved in community revitalization.

Sustainability Strategy

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Establishing a Brand as a Safe and Clean Company

I. The ENVIPRO Group’s Environmental and
Safety Activities
To realize a sustainable society, it is essential to have good environmental
impact and employee safety management. We work to prevent environmental
pollution by introducing measures to prevent potential noise, vibration, dust,
and wastewater, mainly at manufacturing plants. In addition to employee
safety education, risk prediction activities, and other awareness-raising
activities, we regularly patrol our offices and conduct other activities on an
ongoing basis to ensure thorough safety management.
Accidents–particularly serious accidents or those at plants or offices involving
machinery and plant or heavy equipment–have the potential to affect many
stakeholders, including employees and their families, nearby residents,
business partners, and investors.
To avoid such impacts, we give topmost priority to managing the surrounding
environment, maintaining and improving the work environment, and ensuring
the safety of our employees. In this way, we endeavor to ensure stablebusiness activities in accordance with our policies. The ENVIPRO Group iscommitted to preventing harm to people and the external environment.

II. Positioning the Environmental & Safety
Promotion Committee
1. Activities and Role
We have established the Environmental & Safety Promotion Committee,
which is responsible for initiatives across the Group companies. The
committee’s objective is “to establish a brand as a safe and clean company.”
The committee has established the following three policies, which it isworking to fulfill.
Policy 1

ESG Initiatives

Create a Safe and Comfortable Workplace

We conduct hazard protection initiatives before commencing tasks, offer
regularly scheduled education and training, run safety competitions, andengage in risk management and other safety activities. We take regularmeasurements of the working environment, measuring vibration and noise,analyzing water quality, and implementing ongoing improvement activities
to create a comfortable workplace.

Policy 2

Share Information

The Environmental & Safety Promotion Committee emphasizes
information sharing and empathy. We strive to invigorate
committee activities, reporting on individual companies’ efforts
to roll out their activities horizontally within the Group. The
committee also examines causes and shares corrective
measures in the event of industrial accidents, other accidents or
damage, and environmental abnormalities. We work to prevent
recurrence and promote activities in a uniform direction.
Policy 3

Structure of the Environmental & Safety Promotion Committee

Raise the Management Level

Internal Control Committee
Chair: President and Representative Director of ENVIPRO HOLDINGS Inc.

Instruction

Reporting

Environmental & Safety Promotion Committee

Members: One or two people from each company
The Group’s operating companies have acquired certifications
under ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 45001 (occupational
Group Companies• ECONECOL Inc.
• Kuroda Recycle Co., Ltd.
health and safety). In addition, each company promotes activities• SYN ECO Inc.
• Toyo Rubber Chip Co., Ltd.
to ensure the safety and health of its employees and to protect• NEWSCON Inc.
• 3WM Co., Ltd.
the environment through the operation of its management• ASTOCO Inc.
• VOLTA Inc.
system. Activities of the Environmental & Safety Promotion• ARBIZ Corporation• ENVIPRO HOLDINGS Inc.
Committee are reported to full-time directors of ENVIPROOne or two committee members are selected from each company to encourage the bilateral
HOLDINGS and the presidents of Group companies at monthly
sharing of information.
meetings of the Internal Control Committee (chaired by thepresident of ENVIPRO HOLDINGS). Policies and developments
are communicated through the Environmental & Safety Promotion Committee
to individual workplaces of each Group company. The Environmental & Safety
Promotion Committee consists of members appointed from each Group
company, who together with the president actively promote the companies’
environmental improvement and safety assurance initiatives.

2. Activities to Date
By sharing the details of individual Group companies’ discussions andinitiatives, the committee helps each of them efficiently and effectively
incorporate the items they need. The Environmental & Safety Promotion
Committee has rolled out a number of items horizontally across Group
companies. These involve risk prediction activities (operational methods),
methods for operating prediction activities, maintenance of flower beds
at workplaces, installation of drive recorders on forklifts, and theintroduction of fire extinguishers for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and otherrechargeable batteries.

Firefighting drill

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Sustainability Strategy

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ESG Initiatives

Sustainability Report 2022

Financial and Company Data

Industrial Accidents(Number)

30
25
20
15
10
5

Using a full harness to prevent falls

0

FY06/19

FY06/20

FY06/21

FY06/22

Number of Employees and Industrial Accidents per Employee*1(People)Using a drive recorder

Conducting first aid training

Measuring the working environment

Employee measurement of the working environment
Improvement of in-plant stormwater drainage
Installation of oil collection equipment in the plant’s oil/water
separation tank
Addition of in-plant lighting, switch to LEDs
Fire drills (evacuation and rescue drills)

2 Safety activities at Group companies

Use of full harnesses to arrest falls when working at heights
Operation of forklift drive recorders
Installation of safety devices, safety barriers, and emergency stopfunctions at existing facilities
Appointment of people to take charge of safety management at
business sites
On-site inspections in the event of industrial accidents
Holding of safety competition

10

480

8

450

6

420

4

390

2

0

1 Environmental activities at Group companies(%)

Number of employees (left axis)
Rate of industrial accidents (right axis)

510

FY06/19

FY06/20

FY06/21

FY06/22

FY06/20

FY06/21

FY06/220

3. Results in the Fiscal Year ended June 2022
The number of accidents at the ENVIPRO Group has been trending
downward since the fiscal year ended June 2020, following thestrengthening of environmental and safety activities and the establishmentof the Environmental & Safety Promotion Committee. In the fiscal year
ended June 2022, the Group experienced 14 occupational accidents, one
more than in the previous year, and 62 injuries, up five year on year.
Over the three years beginning with the fiscal year ended in June 2019, thenumber of employees at year-end has increased by 80, from 418 to 498.
Accordingly, the number of accidents per capital has been generally flat.

4. Future Initiatives
The Group has established an annual activity plan for each company
based on the three policies mentioned above and with the objective of“establishing a brand as a safe and clean company.” While the ultimate
goal is to achieve zero accidents, the entire ENVIPRO Group is committed
to implementing the planned activities and reducing the number ofaccidents year on year.

Accidents(Number)

70
66
62
58
54
0

FY06/19

Number of Employees and Accidents per Employee*1(People)(%)

Number of employees (left axis)
Rate of injuries (right axis)

510

20

480

16

450

12

420

8

390

4

0

FY06/19

FY06/20

FY06/21

FY06/22*1 Rates are calculated as (number of cases ÷ number of employees) × 100.

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Aiming to Be “A Disciplined Group of Autonomous Individuals
with Emergent Abilities”

As stated in the message from top management, one of the keys forachieving the ENVIPRO Group’s strategy is “investment in human resources
to promote business activities.”
Over the medium term, we intend to create 100 business promoters. To
achieve this goal, we will focus on the three important areas of hiring,training, and retention.

HiringKana Miyamoto
Recycling Raw Materials Department
Non Ferrous Raw Materials Section
NEWSCON Inc.
Joined April 1, 2022

HiringTraining

The first area of focus is hiring. We are looking forpeople who share our corporate philosophy, agreewith our corporate culture, and are willing to work
toward high goals, persevere, and think hard.

The next focus area is training. Each of ourbusinesses are working on a variety of projects.
Each of these projects offer numerous employees
opportunities to participate in training throughpractice and experience.

New graduates who joined in fiscal 2021

I majored in sustainability at university.
I came across ENVIPRO when I focused my job search on the recycling industry.

Hiroki Naka

I decided to join the company because of its sustainable business of

Production Section
SYN ECO Inc.

transforming the world’s ever-increasing amount of waste into commercial
products, and also because of the appeal of being able to work overseas. It has

Joined August 1, 2022 (Scrum hiring)

been six months since I joined the company. Although every day surprises me

My wife has worked for SYN ECO for 10

with the dizzying pace of change in the global situation and fluctuations inyears since graduating from junior college,exchange rates and the precious and nonferrous metals markets, I enjoy myand I wanted to be involved in thework and feel a sense of fulfillment. I hope to keep learning, gain substantial

Resource Circulation Business, which I think will be of increasing importance inknowledge, and grow every day so that I can become like my respected boss.

the future. I am also part of SYN ECO, which aims to be a “community-integrated
recycling company.” When I joined the company and actually got involved in the

Retention

The final category is retention. Taking a long-term
perspective, we promote job rotation and are flexible
about changing positions to help employees gain avariety of experience. We constantly seek to improve
compensation through base salary increases,
bonuses, and equity compensation.

To implement these measures, we will disseminate the strong message that
we expect our employees to foster mutual trust, independent learning, ashared vision, a spirit of challenge, honest effort and respect for others, andthe ability to think and act as a concerned party. (Emergent capabilities)
It is also important to clarify The Envipro group’s significance in the world(purpose) and to foster a bright and open corporate culture and a culture of joy.
To cultivate this corporate culture within the Group, we share the organization’s
rules and regulations to be followed, as well as our desired corporate culture,
in a Management Plan upheld by all employees. (A disciplined group)

Yohei Matsunaga

work, I was surprised at how much waste from our daily lives can be recycled. At

Laboratory
ENVIPRO HOLDINGS Inc.

the same time, I often feel that Japanese sense of “mottainai,” meaning I am

Joined April 1, 2022

dispirited by how much we waste. I am still learning about this industry, but I am
motivated by my desire to understand the importance of resource recycling better

In my job search I was looking for athan anyone else and to contribute to the local community on the front lines.

company that was committed to realizing a

I believe that if we can recycle all the waste the world produces, we can better

sustainable society. I was attracted bypreserve our limited resources for future generations with more care, and we will

ENVIPRO because it handles a wide variety of products through several Group

make the Earth a cleaner place to live. It is very rewarding for me to be involved incompanies, has a consulting business, and is taking on new challenges such as

such efforts through our business, and to know that I am contributing to society.

the reuse of plastics and LIB recycling. The business itself contributes to society.
In graduate school, I studied technologies involving the genetic modification of

Scrum Hiring

plants to help address food-related problems. Since I joined the company, I haveThis phrase refers to “employee-led hiring.” We have adopted this hiring system, inwhich all employees work together as one. In fiscal 2021, four people joined theGroup as a result of scrum hiring of friends, spouses, and family members. To date,
this type of hiring has resulted in the hiring of 17 pairs (38 people) and 30 people
who were re-hired following retirement.

been working on LIB research, and I am motivated by the fact that I can learn newthings from scratch. I hope to learn more, improve, and become better able tospeak up at meetings. I am also motivated by the fact that I am in charge of amachine makes up a key component of my research.

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Sustainability Strategy

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Training

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Sustainability Report 2022

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Retention

Corporate Philosophy Briefing Sessions
Peter Drucker once famously said that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” We
believe in creating a good corporate culture by instilling the most important
ideas; we are convinced that this foundation will drive our growth. In “A deepIn fiscal 2022, the Business School will continue to plan and hold monthly

Evaluation System Study Session

meetings, mainly for managers, with the goal of “enhancing the level ofLecturer: Naoki Takekawa, Director, HR department
ENVIPRO HOLDINGS Inc.

managers.”

attachment to instill our corporate philosophy”, the president himself briefs small

Given our increases in the number of Group companies and personnel, we held a

Employee Satisfaction Survey

groups on our corporate

study session to go back to the basics and cultivate a deeper understanding ofDifferent people define “satisfaction” in different ways. Nevertheless, we

philosophy about three

how the evaluation system works. We have introduced an evaluation system that

conduct this survey each year in the spirit of “sharing benefits and joy with thetimes a month. We plan

clearly differentiates between different types of employees. This evaluation systempeople who we spend time with.” We believe the president and other members

and implement thesedrives higher motivation and employee retention, which in turn leads to the growthof the management team need to maintain a keen interest in the daily thoughts

sessions both for newof the company as employees work together with enthusiasm.

and feelings of our employees through questionnaires and interviews in order torecognize that there are many things we are unaware of and gaps in awarenessemployees and for people
who have attended thesebriefings in the past.

Group Personnel Expenses
Corporate philosophy briefings are alsoavailable on video.

between our employees and the people we ask for help from on a daily basis.
¥5(Billions of yen)billion5

Number and Percentage of Directly Hired Employees Attending
Fiscal year

Participants

Directly hired
employees

Percentage
attending

2020

22

562

4%

2021

48

583

8%

2022

235

617

38%

Do you feel the joy of personal growth?

¥4

2018

billion

4

2018
2019

3

2019
2020

¥2

2

billion

2020
2021
2021
2022

1
0

Business School
One-on-One Training (Held Seven Times)
Lecturer: Fumihiko Shimpo, Industrial Counselor, Advisor
ASTOCO Inc.

2022 0%

2013

2015

2017

2019

2021

2023

2025

2027 (Year)

Personnel expenses have doubled over the past decade, rising ¥2 billion.

Organizing Problems and Issues
Lecturer: Yukimi Tsuchiya, Advisor, ASTOCO Inc.

20%

40%

“sometimes” 40%
0% “Always” or
20%“Always” or “sometimes”

80%

100%

“Infrequently”
60% or “never”80%

60%

100%

“Infrequently” or “never”

To what extent to you share the corporate philosophy?
2018

For companies to continue producing results over the medium to long term,

We held a study session themed on “methods of structuring and leading to the

2018
2019

they must first build a foundation of trust. The role of managers is to support

solution of various problems by combining common causes and backgrounds.”

2019
2020

the growth of each individual; this is the purpose of one-on-one training.

Every fiscal year, each department within the Group prepares its own action plan.

Through one-on-one training, we are working to improve the psychologicalParticipants learn how to identify, recognize, and share problems within theirsafety of our employees, foster a culture of retention and build an environment

departments, clarify what issues need to be addressed to make improvements andthat encourages challenge. In other words, we are looking to build a culture

find solutions, and how to take concrete actions and incorporate them into actionthat embraces the will to take on challenges and permits failure.

plans. The implementation plan, which includes a time line and is shared in a

We will continue to conduct one-on-one training in fiscal 2022.

tangible form, also contributes to a shared awareness and a sense of participation.

2020
2021
2021
2022
2022 0%
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

“Greatly” or“to some degree”
20%
40%“Mostly
at all”
60%not” or “not80%“Greatly” or “to some degree”“Mostly not” or “not at all”

100%
100%

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Sustainability Strategy

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Promoting Diversity

The ENVIPRO Group aims to create a psychologically safe organization byembracing and recognizing individual diversity.
By promoting diversity, we strive to build a “platform” filled with goodquality energy where all employees work energetically and provide
opportunities for each employee to maximize his or her abilities, which willlead to “increased productivity” and “retention”.
We grow in an environment where we can share the same goals, see
things from multiple perspectives, and voice different opinions.
The Group will promote diversity in order to expand solutions to social
issues. This is the very essence of the Group’s business.

Director Hiroko Nomura
Holds Two Diversity
Promotion Seminars
The Group held a seminar on diversity
promotion for managers, with Hiroko Nomura,director, as the lecturer. The Gender Gap Index
released by the World Economic Forum inMarch 2021 ranked Japan 120th out of 156 Hiroko Nomura
countries. Although the country is rising in (Appointed director
September 28, 2022)
some categories, its overall ranking is
declining. This result demonstrates the slow pace of change in Japan,
while other countries are accelerating their efforts toward gender equality.
The same is true at the ENVIPRO Group. All employees need to be given
opportunities to grow and build confidence by breaking out of their shelland accumulating experience, regardless of gender, while monitoring andrecognizing their life events (such as growing children).
This seminar provided an opportunity for each participant to rethink about
unconscious biases in individuals, in daily work, and in organizations.
In response, we launched a new initiative. For the first time, we conducteda one-month on-site training program for new-graduate female employees
at one of the Group’s operating companies. We will continue to promote
diversity in the aim of creating a working environment that is comfortablefor everyone.

Non-Japanese Employees
In a new initiative, ECONECOL Inc. has
welcomed three Vietnamese technicalintern trainees.

Non-Japanese:employees

26

Employment of People with Disabilities
The Group has received a special exception for affiliated subsidiaries.
Group company SYN ECO Inc. promotes
Employees with:the employment of people with disabilities disabilities
throughout the Group. This includes
making some tasks more conducive to Employment
:
%
ratio
handling by people with disabilities.

20

3.84

Number and Percentage of Employees
Taking Childcare Leave:

Women :

Naoko Horikawa
Manager, Legal Section
ENVIPRO HOLDINGS Inc.

Vietnamese trainees Nam, Hoan, and Thi

Men

Rewarding Work That I Can Do with My Own
Discretion

2 (17%)

Percentage of female employees
returning to work after taking
childcare leave:

3 (100%)

Number of employees using theshorter working hour system forchildcare:

I am excited to be assigned to managerial
position and to have a much wider range oftasks. Of course, the more discretion I am
given, the more responsibility I have, but I am
able to make more of my own decisions andproceed with work based on my own initiative, which makes my job moreenjoyable. I believe in the importance of autonomy and openness in teambuilding within my division. The legal department must use its expertise tosupport the company, and each member of the department needs to takeresponsibility for the matters entrusted to them. That being said, there is alimit to what an individual can do, so we need to create teams that benefit
from active communication, which in turn generates better ideas.
Being in a managerial position has brought my work closer to the core of
the company, putting me in closer contact with the management team anddepartmental managers. I find it very rewarding to use my expertise andexperience to provide support in important matters such as business
partner contracts, disputes, and new business.

Percentage of Female Managers

80%

Permanent
employees

100%:

Targets
Fiscal year ending June 2024

Female :managers

1.5 times(Compared with end-June 2021)

Men*As of end-June 2022

In the Group, 17% of eligible men were taking childcare leave at the end ofJune 2022, below the percentage for women. We are working toencourage male employees to take childcare leave.

393 (79%)
Women : 105 (21%)
Men:Managers
Women :*As of end-June 2022

74 (93%)
6 (7%)

Fiscal year ending June 2026

Female :managers

2.0 times(Compared with end-June 2021)

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Working Actively to Contribute to the Community

Mamafes MatsumotoSponsoring the Shimizu S-Pulse Elementary
School Children’s Invitational Program

SYN ECO Inc. supports the activities of the Mamafes Matsumoto Executive
Committee. This committee is a voluntary organization consisting of people
in the city of Matsumoto who are working and raising children. At thecompany’s head office and SYN ECO Plaza Azumino, we collect usedpicture books, books on childcare, and children’s books from members of
the public and distribute them to people who need them at a Mamafes
event called the Picture Book Giveaway. In fiscal 2021, we collected andgave away more than 2,200 books during the event period. In fiscal 2022,
the collection period will not be limited; we will be collecting books on an
ongoing basis.

As part of its sports promotion efforts, ENVIPRO HOLDINGS Inc. has become
the top partner of the Shimizu S-Pulse Elementary School Invitation Program in
Eastern Shizuoka Prefecture. This program led to the invitation of five hundredpairs of children attending elementary school and their parents (1,000 people)
in the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture, as well as one parent or guardian
per pair, to a Shimizu S-Pulse home match. We will continue to support theactivities of Shimizu S-Pulse, thereby encouraging the dreams of local children
and contributing to community development in the region.

Interviews with Students from Fujinomiya
Higashi High School
we collect waste from boxes set up by our corporate sponsors and at
Mottainai BOX stations in Nagano Prefecture. Some of the profits are
returned to the community and Matsumoto Yamaga FC. The company also
donates some of the proceeds from the Mottainai BOX in Azumino, Nagano
Prefecture. For each specified home appliance (refrigerator, washingmachine, air conditioner, or TV) brought to SYN ECO Plaza Azumino, we
donate ¥50 to the Nagano Prefectural Children’s Hospital every December.

Creating an Environment to Provide Local
Employment of People with Disabilities andTraining People with Disabilities.
Providing a Cooperative Structure toContribute to Local Communities
Mottainai BOX and Giving Back to theCommunity
SYN ECO Inc. is working with the Yamaga Supporters’ Association on the
YELL Project. YELL stands for Yamaga Eco-Logy Link and the idea of yelling
encouragement to the Matsumoto Yamaga Football Club and to the people
in the hometown area through environmental conservation activities, mainly
resource collection. On match days, we collect waste paper from thestadium, as well as waste paper brought in by supporters. On other days,

Local residents with disabilities sort resources collected in SYN ECO’s
Mottainai BOX. ASTOCO Inc.’s pre-employment transition support programfacility is located on the same site. By offering training that closely
resembles the actual work performed at the company, we provide anenvironment that allows people with disabilities to understand what
employment would be like. This approach helps them to go about theirtraining and work with peace of mind. By collaborating with local people
who are in second careers, as well as lecturers, we foster local awarenessof and support for people with disabilities.

As part of Shizuoka Prefectural Fujinomiya Higashi High School’s cultural
festival, students from the school interviewed Fujinomiya-based ENVIPROHOLDINGS Inc., ECONECOL Inc. and VOLTA Inc. about our business andcommunity relations. In addition to the interview, we provided plant andoffice tours.

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