We are engaging in activities to reduce environmental impact in the entire product life cycle.
Reducing Environmental Impact in the Entire Product Life Cycle
Suntory Group generates various by-products and waste from a wide range of business activities. We are committed to reducinge environmental impact by quantitatively understanding our impact on the environment throughout a product's life cycle - from planning to development to disposal and recycling.
In addition, following the expansion of business overseas, we assess the environmental impact of overseas production sites to determine the environmental impact on a global scale. Suntory actively communicates with the suppliers throughout the entire supply chain.
Product Life cycle
Assessing Water Risk
The Suntory Group commits to water sustainability as a priority initiatives in the Basic Principles of Suntory Group's Environmental Policy. Suntory conducts various water assessments at the Institute for Water Science. To carry out business in a sustainable way, we conduct water risk assessment and promote environmental management. We also conduct water risk assessment when entering new businesses.
WRI Aqueduct Water Risk Assessment by Suntory Group's Plants
For the risk assessment, we used the Baseline Water Stress country score, developed as part of World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, as an index that can evaluate sites around the world in common at the global level, to identify countries with high water stress from the countries where our plants are located.
(*Covered 26 production plants in Japan and 64 production plants overseas owned by companies that collectively account for more than 90% of the Suntory Group's sales.)
| Baseline Water Stress | |
|---|---|
| Extremely high | India |
| High | Mexico and Spain |
| Medium-high | France, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia |
| Low-medium | Japan, America, England, the Philippines, and Nigeria |
| Low | Canada, Ireland, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and New Zealand |
Created based on the Baseline Water Stress score for each country adopted in the Aqueduct Risk Atlas by the World Resources Institute.
https://www.wri.org/applications/aqueduct/country-rankings/
Hofste, R., S. Kuzma, S. Walker, E.H. Sutanudjaja, et. al. 2019. "Aqueduct 3.0: Updated Decision-Relevant Global Water Risk Indicators." Technical Note. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at: https://www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-30.
In addition to Baseline Water Stress, we have adopted 2040 Water Stress, which evaluates water stress in 2040 based on future scenarios such as climate change. Plants with either Baseline Water Stress or 2040 Water Stress scores of "Extremely High" or "High" are defined as plants with high water risk in the Suntory Group. The percentage of water withdrawals at plants with high water risk is 19% of all of our plants.
The Suntory Group conducted local surveys and assessments that focused on plants with high water risk. We have also consistently conducted water assessment surveys of our major suppliers since 2016.
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*Plants located in a country with a Baseline Water Stress score of "extremely high" or "high" in the Aqueduct by the World Resources Institute.
Quantitative Evaluation Through Natural Capital
It is said that food and beverage companies that use agricultural goods as ingredients, use much more water in its agricultural supply chains than in own operations. The Suntory Group has calculate the water usage and GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions in its upstream supply chain.
Ratio of Water Use by Raw Material and by Region in the Upstream Supply Chain (2015)
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*The ratio is for raw materials used by production sites in Japan
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*The calculation is based on data from the Water Footprint Network (WFN)
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*Total of green water (rain water, etc.) and blue water (irrigation water, etc.)
Ratio of GHG Emissions by Procurement Item in the Upstream Supply Chain (2015)
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*The ratio is for procurement items used by production sites in Japan
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*The calculation is based on the Eora MRIO multi-region input-output table database