Kirin Group Wins Gold Award in the ESG Finance Awards Japan's Environmentally Sustainable Company Category
- CSV
February 27, 2020
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
On Wednesday February 26, Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (President and CEO：Yoshinori Isozaki) received the Gold Award in the Environmentally Sustainable Company Category at the ESG Finance Awards Japan ceremony, an awards program established in FY2019 by the Ministry of the Environment.
ESG Finance Awards Japan is an awards program established in FY2019 by the Ministry of the Environment, aimed at recognizing the positive impact of innovative activities carried out by corporate investors, financial institutions, brokers, and companies who engage in ESG finance or environmental/societal businesses, in order to spread information and popularize ESG investment in society. Kirin is the first-ever company to receive the Gold Award.
In 2012, the Kirin Group declared that it will position CSV* at the basis of its business. The Group is committed to playing its role as a responsible alcohol producer and addressing three social issues: “health and well-being,” “community engagement,” and “the environment.” through its business.
In terms of environmental activities, this February the company announced Kirin Group Environmental Vision 2050, accelerating efforts towards a more sustainable society by focusing on the four themes of “biological resources,” “water resources,” “containers and packaging,” and “climate change.”
Kirin is also the first Japanese food company to express support for the recommendations of The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and will continue to disclose scenario analyses and other such information in a proactive manner.
- Creating Shared value. It is all about creating value that can be shared with customers and society.
Reason for Kirin’s Gold Award in the Environmentally Sustainable Company Category
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(left) Keisuke Nishimura Senior Executive Vice President,
Representative Director of the Board
(right) Shinjiro Koizumi Minister of the Environment, Japan
Preemptive information disclosure on environment-related matters is integral for a business tied to the use of natural resources. This company performed excellently both in terms of their disclosure attitude and content.
In addition, their corporate philosophy of combining economic value and societal value through CSV management seems to have thoroughly penetrated the organization, and both the Board and Group CSV Committee engage in strict sustainability governance. Through executive-level interviews it became clear that the company’s various initiatives are deeply rooted in their daily business processes, and that environmental activities have been established in tandem with a sound governance structure.
The organization’s TCFD response comes ahead of most other companies around the globe, and we hope that they will continue to carry out best practice in the environmental sector.
(Extract from Ministry of the Environment’s website explaining reason for award)
The Kirin Group intends to proactively address various social issues in an effort to work together with everyone in the value chain to share the spirit of continuously and sustainably enjoying the blessings of nature into the future.