Our society today faces various issues such as the depletion of natural resources, climate change, and the destruction of ecosystems, and all business activities have an impact on the environment. It is also true that environment changes can pose a risk of preventing business continuation. For this reason, Yokohama Rubber works to minimize its environmental burdens in all of its business processes. As part of these efforts, the company conducts assessments with respect to the items of the "prevention of global warming," the "recycling and circulation of resources," "resource conservation," and "safety and comfort" in the design review process for new products, to provide customers with environment-friendly products.

To clearly express this way of thinking and these activities, we have formulated the "Yokohama Rubber Environmental Policy" to declare ourselves as a world-leading environment-friendly enterprise both inside and outside the company. In addition, specific actions that should be taken by employees are stipulated in the "Yokohama Rubber Group Action Guidelines".

With the aim of achieving harmony with the global environment in line with international protocols, and in order to sustain our business management, the Yokohama Rubber Group is promoting policies of "realization of a low carbon society," "realization of a resource recycling oriented society," and "preservation of biological diversity" while assuring the global consistency of our corporate environmental management.
For realization of a low carbon society, we sell only environment-friendly products that have passed our new product design reviews, and work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) throughout the entire value chain in accordance with the medium to long-term targets.
For realization of a resource recycling-oriented society, we promote the recycling of regenerated rubber and reduction of industrial waste, and aim to achieve zero emissions at all of our production sites.
For preservation of biological diversity, we conduct surveys and preservation activities with a view to reducing water risks at our domestic and overseas production sites as well as ensuring the stable supply of natural rubber overseas.
We believe that the tree-planting and sapling-making activities in local communities and disaster areas we have done under the Yokohama Forever Forest Program will be understood as the expression of our intention to work together with local communities in order to "continue to protect our planet."
We promote these activities in collaboration with our subsidiaries in China, Asia, North America, and Europe.

Shuichi Fukutani
General Manager,
Head of Environmental Protection Promotion Department, Corporate Social Responsibility Division

• Sell only environment-friendly products.
• Achieve carbon neutrality of our own activities by 2050.
• Reduce GHG emissions from our own activities by 28% by 2030 (compared with FY2019 level). (*Equivalent to a 38% reduction compared with 2013 level)
• Promote the introduction of solar power generation systems and switching to using renewable energy-derived electricity.
• Promote the effective use of water resources in line with the characteristics of water risks.
• Develop biodiversity preservation activities at production sites.
• Achieve the goal of planting 1.3 million trees under the Yokohama Forever Forest Program by 2030.
• Promote ESG initiatives in the procurement of resources including natural rubber.
• Achieve zero environmental risks.

In the event of a caution, guidance, or recommendation received from a governing authority, we immediately take action in accordance with the emergency response standards specified in our corporate-wide guidelines.
Our environmental protection promotion department will provide advice on countermeasures while receiving advice from the legal division, and the entire company will join forces in the response.
In addition, we have a system of receiving environmental complaints from local residents living in the vicinity of our factories.
From external environment-related information received at each of our sites, we select ones involving environmental risks and opportunities, enter that information in the "external information acceptance ledger," and then determine whether the information constitutes an external complaint based on our corporate-wide guidelines.
If such information is identified as an external complaint, it will be handled in accordance with the emergency response standards of our corporate-wide guidelines.
For types of information that are not identified as an external complaint, an environmental management representative of the site will, as he or she deems necessary, contact the relevant department accordingly.
In the event of a caution, guidance, or recommendations received from a governing authority, an "external information receiving form" will be issued and simultaneously sent to our environmental protection promotion department, other Yokohama Rubber sites, and to the committee secretariats of our corporate tire production environmental task force and the MB (industrial products) production environmental task force, respectively.
At the completion of the response, an "external complaint response form" will be sent to our environmental protection promotion department.
The environmental management committee secretariat of the site will submit an answer using an "answer form" to the complainant, after reporting the entire process from the receipt of the information to the proposed answer to the complainant in writing to the site manager and gaining his or her approval.
We also have internal and external monitors to regularly check the effectiveness of the system.

External information and complaint handling flow

Based on our corporate emergency readiness and response guidelines, the environmental manager of each of our sites compiles accidents and emergencies that may have a significant impact on the environment into a List of Accidents and Emergencies and updates it every year.
In addition, in order to confirm the effectiveness of the response procedure, the environmental management representative of each site verifies the procedures for responding to the accidents and emergencies identified at the site, and provides necessary training in accordance with the relevant guidelines.
Environmental risk assessment is conducted at all of our domestic and overseas production sites. In FY2022, we conducted environmental risk assessment at all of the production sites, achieving an executing rate of 100%.
Should a case identified as an environmental accident or emergency have occurred, the responsible site will take preventive and emergency measures in accordance with our emergency readiness and response guidelines, and will report to the local governing authority in the event that environmental standards are exceeded.
Immediately after the occurrence of such environmental accident, the information will be conveyed to the relevant departments by means of a "Zero Report" in accordance with the emergency response management guidelines stipulated by the responsible department, and then, such information will be conveyed to the relevant department by using an Environmental (1) Accident, (2) Trouble, (3) Serious Near Miss, (4) Near Miss Report, as a general rule within 24 hours from the occurrence.
In FY2022, there have been no reports of a pollution or contamination incident.
The environmental manager of the responsible site will follow up the status of corrective measures after the accident or emergency in order to ensure the prevention of a recurrence and the prevention of similar accidents, and the site manager will review the procedures after the accident or emergency.
The environmental protection promotion department will work on countermeasures and the prevention of recurrence from both professional and general corporate perspectives.
The environmental managers of other sites who have received the accident/emergency information will apply the same approach based on the information to prevent the occurrence of similar accidents at their respective sites.
In addition, a corporate-wide environmental management committee will investigate the cause of the accident or emergency to make sure that countermeasures are implemented, and will follow up on the implementation to prevent recurrence, and will make the investigation findings available for reference at the ISO 14001 requirements management review.

Considering the level of impact of business activities and the level of social interest, the following have been established as our priority action items to be addressed by the Yokohama Rubber Group.