Water Use Reduction

The Fuji Oil Group established the Basic Policy of Environmental Integrity in 2015.

• Fuji Oil Group Basic Policy of Safety, Quality and Environment (PDF, 331KB)

The Group’s Sustainability Committee^*1 is an advisory body to the Board of Directors that is chaired by the President and CEO. It deliberates on and monitors the material ESG issue^*2 of Water Resources from a multi-stakeholder perspective, and recommends the results to the Board. The ESG Division Head oversees the progress of initiatives for Water Use Reduction, a priority action within this material issue, to achieve our Environmental Vision 2030. ^*3

• *1 Governance, Strategy, Metrics and Targets, Risk Management > Governance

  https://www.fujioilholdings.com/en/sustainability/sustainability_management/

• *2 Governance, Strategy, Metrics and Targets, Risk Management > Strategy, metrics and targets

  https://www.fujioilholdings.com/en/sustainability/sustainability_management/

• *3 Environmental Management

  https://www.fujioilholdings.com/en/sustainability/environmental_management/

Climate change has increased the incidence of droughts and floods, which not only adversely affect agricultural production but also exacerbate water resource problems. This leaves 2.2 billion people around the world without stable access to safe water.^*1 As the global population grows and climate change worsens, it is estimated that 5 billion people worldwide will face water shortages by 2050.^*2 Using agricultural produce as our main raw material and water for manufacturing and processing our products,^*3 we recognize that the proper management of water resources is a critical issue for our Group. Deficiencies or delays in addressing environmental issues increase the risk to our business operations.
The Group has made a Group-wide commitment to reduce water consumption under the Environmental Vision 2030. We have set a reduction target in terms of water use intensity, assessment of water risks at our Group sites, and taking appropriate action. To reduce the negative impact of our water withdrawals and discharges, we diligently comply with the regulations and standards of each country or region in which we operate, or work on remediation management based on our own metrics that exceed those standards, with the ultimate goal of achieving our Group-wide target.

• Environmental Management > Strategy

  https://www.fujioilholdings.com/en/sustainability/environmental_management/

• *1 “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2017: Special focus on inequalities,” WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP), (2019),
• *2 “State of the Global Climate 2021,” World Meteorological Organization (WMO), (2021)
• *3 See ESG Data Book for total water withdrawal, breakdown by water source, total water withdrawal from regions with water risk, and other information.

Our Group manages water risks as a significant Group-wide risk. Water risks include water withdrawal, impact on water quality, storms, floods, and violations of wastewater regulations. To manage these risks, each Group company follows a PDCA cycle, which includes identifying material risks, planning and implementing a management strategy, evaluating results, and making improvements. For water-related risks at Group sites, we refer to Aqueduct^*1 and risk maps to assess water risks in regions where Group companies have operations, implement measures, and monitor them regularly. Because the results of the Aqueduct analysis conducted in FY2023 showed that Belgium was classified as a high-risk region in terms of water stress, we verified that Fuji Oil Europe (Belgium) is taking appropriate measures to reduce water withdrawal risks, such as by using canal water for industrial use and recycling wastewater. This assessment also helped us identify wastewater compliance risks at a Group company in China and flooding risk at a Group company in Indonesia as material risks. We are now implementing measures to prevent these risks from arising and to mitigate losses from risks that do occur.
For water risks related to our raw material production, we assessed risks associated with water stress, drought, water purification, flood, and water pollution in our nature-related risk analyses for palm oil and cocoa producing countries in FY2023.^*2

• Environmental Management > Risk Management

  https://www.fujioilholdings.com/en/sustainability/environmental_management/

• *1 A global water-risk mapping tool provided by the World Resources Institute (WRI)

• *2 Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration > Specific initiatives > Analysis results of nature-related risks connected with palm oil and cocoa

  https://www.fujioilholdings.com/en/sustainability/biodiversity

At least 90% complete At least 60% complete Less than 60% complete

Analysis

Water use intensity in FY2023 was 33% lower than the baseline, an improvement of six points from the previous fiscal year’s 27% reduction. This represents a 166% achievement rate relative to our 20% reduction target by FY2030. We reviewed our water use optimization at production lines in Japan. We also improved water recycling systems and revised the cleaning frequency of production facilities at Group companies outside Japan. All these actions contributed to the reduction in our water usage. In environmental management, we aimed to make improvements through environmental audits and shared our approach to water conservation and water resource efficiency. We also introduced environmental data collection systems to collect and analyze water data in a timely manner at each company, in order to improve our reduction rates at the company level.
In FY2023, we also proposed Group-wide reduction targets for water use based on the results and status of progress at Group companies.

Annual water use and water intensity

Next steps

Through the efforts of all our production sites, we were able to achieve results that greatly exceeded our water reduction target. To make more effective use of precious water resources, we will work on the following goals for FY2024.

Water conservation efforts at Group companies

Examples of water conservation activities in FY2023 are as follows:

• * Cleaning in place: An automated system of cleaning the interior surfaces of equipment without disassembling it