Environment

Environmental Philosophy

As a global corporation in the acoustic industry, Foster Group contributes to the realization of a sustainable society in all fields of corporate activities by considering the harmony between; The activities under the company vision of “To make contributions for future society through acoustics”, and Environment as one of essential tasks.

Environmental Policy
[Issued following the approval by senior management in July, 1993. Revised in October, 2017.]

- Preface -
Foster Group aims to contribute for “Decarbonized society”, “Resource recycling” and “Harmony with nature”, by pursuing eco-friendly technologies in the lifecycle of our products, and people of Foster Group act with priority on eco-friendliness.

1. We contribute to the realization of a sustainable society by continually improving our environmental management systems, and by communicating and cooperating with our stakeholders proactively.
2. Realization of “Decarbonized society”
   We reduce CO₂ emissions throughout our value chain including procurement of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, selling and disposal of our products.
3. Realization of “Resource recycling”
   We strive for the waste reduction by promoting effective use of resources in our group-wide activities and product development.
   We also use water resources responsibly in our manufacturing processes.
4. Realization of “Harmony with nature”
   We strive for the promotion of activities considering Biodiversity conservation, prevention of pollution and environmental load reduction by chemical substance management.
5. We comply with domestic and international environmental laws and regulations and other requirements related to our group-wide activities.
6. We develop human resources who practice environmental activities through enlightening people involved in group activities and educating employees.

【Issued following the approval by senior management in July 1993. Revised in March 2021.】

Specific Environmental Initiatives

Based on our Environmental Philosophy and Policy, we have set mid-term environmental goals to achieve by 2025 for three issues: decarbonized society, resource recycling, and harmony with nature. We are pursuing specific initiatives to achieve these goals. Countermeasures against climate change are globally important tasks, and we need to take long-term initiatives. We are taking action with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

* The Environmental Philosophy shows the goals of our Human resources development environmental activities while the preface of the Environ-mental Policy shows the direction of such activities. The six items of Environmental Policy show the prerequisites for achieving the goals, three mid-term environmental goals, and the factors for achieving them, which are reflected in the Foster Group’s environmental management system.

Mid-Term Environmental Goals 2025

To achieve the mid-term environmental goals 2025 that we set in 2020, we continue activities to reduce the environmental load from a lifecycle perspective, by working together with manufacturing sites.

Environment Management System and ISO 14001 Certification

We have obtained ISO 14001 certification at headquarters and all overseas manufacturing sites and embody the Foster Group’s Environmental Philosophy and mid-term environmental goals. At headquarters, we monitor the activities conducted at each site and check their results. We have expanded the scope of application to the Head Office of Foster Electric (1-1-109 Tsutsujigaoka, Akishima City, Tokyo) and its Shizuoka Office (6-12-2 Toro, Suruga Ward, Shizuoka City, Shizuoka) while maintaining the environment management system. We present the ISO 14001 certification at the request of stakeholders.

CO₂ Reduction (Scope 1, 2)

Activities to Preserve Biodiversity

We have set “Biodiversity conservation” as one of the tasks for “Harmony with nature,” a mid-term environmental goal, and continue to hold lecture meetings and training on biodiversity, sessions for observing the immediate natural environment, and neighborhood cleanup activities. This fiscal year, we began to prepare for information collection and other initiatives for disclosing information based on the recommendations of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

Water Risk Management

Each site manages water withdrawal and discharge by setting their standards based on local laws and regulations. The headquarters uses “AQUEDUCT”, a water risk assessment tool of the World Resources Institute (WRI), to understand the local water risks at each site. Since 2020, we have been addressing water risks by including “Reduce water consumption” in the mid-term environmental plan.

External Communications

Green Value Chain Platform

As a corporate member, we participate in a network for promoting Green Value Chains as part of the Ministry of the Environment’s Green Value Chain Platform.

URL: https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/supply_chain/gvc/

Japan Climate Initiative (JCI)

In 2020, we joined the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI) by agreeing to its declaration of “Joining the front line of the global push for decarbonization from Japan”. (The following site is in Japanese.)

URL: https://japanclimate.org/

Environmental Digital Platform

In March 2023, we joined the Environmental Digital Platform operated by Konica Minolta, Inc.

URL: https://edpf.konicaminolta.com/

Chemical Substance Management

The Group has set forth its autonomous management standard, which reflects the applicable laws and regulations of countries, including the RoHS Directive and REACH regulations, and customers’ requests for handling environmentally hazardous substances contained in its products to minimize their impact on the environment. We eliminate any controlled substances from our products via eco-friendly procurement and management of necessary parts and/or materials purchased. Based on the aforementioned scheme, we have established an optimum management system for the efficient search and collection of information about chemical substances that are contained in parts and materials and precise communication of information necessary in the supply chain.
In addition, to ensure communications of related information, we provide our suppliers with briefing meetings every year primarily at our overseas sites.

Environmental Consideration at Headquarters

Our headquarters employs environmental load reduction technologies such as lighting control by daytime sunlight, air conditioning by outside air, ice thermal storage air conditioning system, and doubleskin facade. Electricity consumption is controlled further by limiting maximum power consumption during the day, promoting Cool Biz and Warm Biz campaigns, turning off all the lights in the building for lunch breaks, having employees work from home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and promoting the replacement of all of the lights in building with LEDs. The headquarters strongly promotes active participation in climate control measures by procuring clean energy prior to the other sites in the Group. In addition, as part of our ESG activities, we have ended the use of disposable plastics and paper cups and use reusable cups for the beverages sold in the cafeteria. Further, when renovating the tea server, we introduced a product that uses an environmentally friendly refrigerant.

Initiatives to Achieve Zero Waste Emissions

Speakers

We are accelerating moves to develop basic technologies for next-generation speakers for eco-friendly vehicles and to introduce such technologies to commercial products.

■Development of lightweight speakers

We are developing on our own and productizing speakers incorporating technologies enabling lighter weight, by taking measures including optimization of resin and metal components, which are made with optimization design using CAE analysis, and studies of carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP) as a new material. At present, we continue to develop element technologies for lightweight speakers, aiming to reduce the weight of 6.5” lightweight speaker, which is approx. 200 g, to 100 g or less by 2025.

■VOC reduction

As initiatives to reduce the volume of VOCs remaining at production sites and in the passenger cabins of vehicles, we have cut the use of organic solvent adhesives for bonding parts and drive the development and adoption for commercial products of an adhesive with a reduced solvent content. We are also committed to the development of bonding methods which do not use adhesives, such as ultrasonic welding.

■Reduction of CO₂ emissions

We are undertaking design development activities for reducing power consumed in manufacturing speakers to cut CO₂ emissions. We are making development efforts to achieve the medium-term CO₂ emissions reduction target, by improving and changing methods of bonding parts and by reducing the use of a drying furnace in stages.

Actuators

We proactively apply environmentally friendly design to haptic vibration actuator devices, which are a part of new user interfaces for CASE*, VR, AR, and other technologies. In consideration of VOC emissions, we have adopted adhesives that do not contain harmful solvents. To reduce the labor necessary to manufacture products, we have realized quick curing using UV radiation and pulse heat soldering. In addition, to reduce solder consumption, we have developed resistance welding and put it to practical use. We will maintain our status of using adhesives that 100% do not contain harmful solvents.
* CASE: Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric

Automotive actuator featuring slim
dimensions

Headphones and Headsets

We have been active in incorporating environmental considerations in our product and/ or process design. In reducing environmentally hazardous substances in our products, we address the most up-to-date information regarding countryspecific legal requirements and the RoHS2, and propose to our customers. As a way of reducing waste volume, we have also been keen on minimizing waste materials, reusing raw materials by introducing new equipment, and developing products made of natural materials. For products with electronic circuits, we have adopted power-saving parts in our efforts to develop products with low power consumption.
For microspeakers used for headphones or headsets, we are working towards environmentally friendly product manufacturing by introducing adhesives that do not contain toluene for new microspeakers in order to reduce VOC (replacing the parts that use solvent adhesives). For microspeakers used for headphones or headsets, we are working towards environmentally friendly manufacturing by introducing toluene-free adhesives for new microspeaker products in order to reduce VOC (Replacing the parts containing solvent adhesives).

• Development target and result for toluene-free products
  ・Target for 2024: The ratio of products that do not contain toluene to be 100%.
  ・FY2022 Result: The ratio of products using toluene-free adhesives: 78%
• Plans for achieving targets
  ・Make confirmations based on requirements on the use of toluene in the development and design stage.
  ・Continue to study alternative adhesives to achieve 100% as the ratio of products using toluene-free adhesives.

Environment Lecture Presentation

Headquarters: Akishima City Cleanup Movement (Mini-Clean Activities)

Despite the many times these activities have been postponed or cancelled and the many employees working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual number of participants increased by as much as 22.1% from the previous fiscal year, to 138 (participation rate: 25.1%). The total weight of waste increased to 15.1 kg. In addition, junior high school students were able to participate in the activities through a work experience program. This fiscal year, we will also participate in the city cleanup movement of Akishima City.

Mini-clean activities

Shizuoka: Environmental training and river cleanup activities

We held a seminar and a tour of environmental facilities as part of internal training. We also participated in river cleanup activities in Shizuoka City, thus maintaining and improving the environment.

Osaka: Environmental training and awareness-raising activities

We used environment month as an opportunity to motivate employees to think on their own and had each one of them set environmental targets, such as turning off the lights in offices and targets related to energy, food and CO₂, thus increasing their awareness.

China

We performed cleanup activities around each plant to raise employees’ awareness on environmental protection.

City cleanup activities

Vietnam

We cleaned up the area around each plant. We also undertook planting activities and provided environmental training internally at each plant.

City cleanup activities

Myanmar

We provided environmental training, undertook on-premises planting activities, and held environmental competitions (including an exhibition of works created using recycled items).

Environmental competition

USA

We participated in activities to clean up neighborhood parks, a ride-sharing program for commuting (Car pool registration), and a program for planting trees in parks (Remembrance tree program).

Planting activities

1.Governance

3.Risk Management

We have established the Risk and Crisis Management Committee, which is chaired by the president, to ensure that risks which may affect business management are addressed promptly and appropriately. This committee evaluates and manages company wide risks and devises and implements measures to address them.
Especially, climate change-related risks are positioned among the top risks in the committee's total risk assessment. The Sustainability Committee identifies and evaluates such risks, implements measures to tackle them, and takes other initiatives to improve the effectiveness of risk management. Information about the statuses of risk management and measures is also shared with the Board of Directors, which supervises and monitors risk and crisis management of the overall company and tries to ensure consistency between risk management and materiality analysis, thus enhancing the total risk management in the entire company.

4.Metrics and Targets

Toward the achievement of sustainability, we have established the Foster Group ESG Management Statement, under which we aim for "Decarbonized Society" and "tireless efforts to achieve Zero Emissions" in the medium and long run. Under this Statement, we have revised our mid-term environmental goals for 2030 (Scope 1, 2) in line with the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement. We have also set a new long-term goal for 2050.