Environmental initiatives

The NIKKON Group believes that it has a social responsibility to protect and maintain the global environment through sound business activities. We continually engage in activities to improve the environmental improvement for the development of a society which coexists in harmony with the environment.

1. Seek to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 by consolidating the knowledge and technology of the entire group and committing itself to reducing the environmental burdens, thus fulfilling its social responsibility.
2. Abide by the environment-related laws and ordinances and spontaneously make and continuously promote improvement plans to seek, for instance, transportation efficiency, conversion to renewable energy, and use of environment-conscious facilities.
3. Contribute to the national and local communities in cooperation with its stakeholders in achieving a sustainable recycling society.
4. Set target figures and design concrete measures regarding CO2 reduction, and spontaneously provide the stakeholders with the information on the activities for achieving the goals.

21-meter double-container trucks (commonly called 21-meter full-trailer trucks) have double the load capacity of heavy-duty 10-ton trucks. These environmentally friendly trucks reduce CO₂ emissions by 37% compared to existing heavy-duty trucks. In addition, a 21-meter double-container truck is able to transport twice as much cargo as a heavy-duty truck, with a single driver, enabling a reduction of labor and the improvement of efficiency. We will continue to use these next-generation, environmentally friendly full-trailer trucks that significantly improve transportation efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
In June 2020, NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD. received the award for excellent activities for protecting the environment through logistics at the 21st Logistics Environment Award. The company received this award in recognition of its reduction of CO₂ emissions and achievement of higher transportation efficiency.

To fulfill our responsibility as a logistics company with a corporate mission of contributing to society through business activities, we have set a target of increasing the ratio of environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles to 2% in our fiscal 2022 policy. We will continue to introduce such vehicles proactively.

In 1989, the core operating companies of the NIKKON Group began railway transportation between Fukuoka and Tokyo using privately owned 31-foot containers. We have developed unique containers based on customer needs and have been striving to reduce environmental impact for many years. (The amount of CO₂ emissions from rail transportation is 1/10 of truck transportation.) This has also reduced the workload of truck drivers.

The core operating companies of the NIKKON Group installed digital tachographs in all of their business vehicles in 2004. This has improved data analysis and eco-friendly driving training for their drivers and continued to improve fuel efficiency.

Initiatives

• Stopping unnecessary idling
• Gradual acceleration
• Engine braking
• Appropriate use of air conditioners
• Ensuring that tire pressure is checked in daily inspections, and more

Reverse logistics is the flow of goods opposite the producer-to-consumer flow. Reverse logistics includes comprehensive logistics operations, including the disposal of used products and operations related to the reuse, reselling, and recycling of unwanted goods, by-products, and similar goods. In recent years there has been a growing awareness of environmental problems and progress in the establishment of environmental laws and regulations toward the formation of a recycling-based society. Against this background, companies have the responsibility to society to build reverse logistics systems.
The core operating companies and other group companies of the NIKKON Group see the flow from procurement, production, and sales to collection, reuse, recycling, and disposal as a consistent flow and support customers' initiatives to reduce environmental impact, including the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), through standard and reverse logistics.

We have installed solar power generators at 15 NIKKON Group locations in Japan, including warehouses, for the realization of a decarbonized society. This initiative provides us with power that we consume in our business activities and increases our use of clean renewable energy, which helps to prevent further global warming. We plan to install solar power generators in our newly built warehouses and other facilities, in our efforts to generate clean energy.

The Green Management Certification is granted to trucking operators who have a certain level of achievement through their activities based on a manual on voluntary environmental protection activities created by the Foundation for Promoting Personal Mobility and Ecological Transportation together with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Japan Trucking Association.
The NIKKON Group has acquired the certification of 104 of its business sites (approx. 75% of applicable sites; as of December 31, 2021). Our goal is for 100% of the applicable facilities to be certified.

We are proactively switching from fluorescent and mercury lights to LED lights in our warehouses and offices. We are also installing LED lights in our newly established business facilities.