Through the evolution of our recycling-oriented
business model, we will contribute to the realization
of a true resource-recycling society and achieve
sustainable enhancement of corporate value.
Through the evolution of our recycling-oriented
business model, we will contribute
to the realization of a
true resource-recycling society and
achieve sustainable enhancement
of corporate value.
In line with the DOWA Group's vision to "Contribute continuously to building a sustainable future through our core businesses, the promotion of resource recycling, and the provision of excellent materials and technologies," we are driving initiatives to achieve an improvement in both our economic value and social value, thus improving our corporate value and contributing to building a sustainable world.
In our Midterm Plan 2024, we selected nine social issues that the DOWA Group should contribute to solving (The DOWA Group’s Materiality) in light of the business environment, stakeholders' expectations and requests, etc. and we are implementing initiatives to acquire opportunities through "evolution of the recycling-oriented business model" and to ruduce risks by "strengthening sustainability management," with the aim of solving the DOWA Group's Materiality.
The world is constantly changing in pursuit of solutions to social issues such as the realization of a decarbonized society and the digitization of society. As key materials supporting the realization of innovation, non-ferrous metals with different functionalities are used in devices across a wide range of fields. However, metals are non-renewable resources and production of metals is concentrated on specific countries and regions. The recycling of metals is, therefore, essential for the realization of a sustainable world.
The DOWA Group considers recycling to be a social responsibility and has been recycling metals in a cost-efficient manner ahead of the rest of the world since the 1990s. We have also continually honed technologies for adding value to metals and provided cutting-edge products and services for the realization of innovations such as clean energy and next-generation vehicles. By further stepping up such initiatives, we will help build a recycling-oriented world.
Another social responsibility we consider to be important is the proper treatment of industrial waste. As long as waste incineration is an effective waste treatment method, we will also consider the reduction of GHG emissions to be an important social responsibility of the DOWA Group. The reduction of GHG emissions from energy used in our Nonferrous Metals Business is another important issue that needs to be addressed. To fulfil these responsibilities, we ramped up our climate action initiatives from 2021. In May 2023, we published a roadmap for achieving our intermediate targets by 2030 based on the assumption of achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050 in accordance with the TCFD recommendations.
At the same time, the DOWA Group provides products and services that contribute to GHG reduction in a wide range of fields, including metal materials for EVs, fuel cells, and solar panels, lithium-ion battery recycling, and many types of nonferrous metals provided through recycling, and we have named these "DOWA Green Action". Through the expansion of DOWA Green Action, we intend to work with customers to help reduce GHG emissions in society.
By combining the contribution from sales growth of DOWA Green Action with initiatives to reduce GHG emissions, we will steadily implement climate change initiatives.
At the heart of our Company is a corporate culture that continues to hone our skills, face nature and materials head-on, and conduct good, honest business with our customers. Having conscientious employees with a sense of responsibility is, in my view, more important than anything else for the continued practice of such honest business.
We are currently driving initiatives to strengthen human capital, with key initiatives of "Developing human resources who will create change" and "Securing diverse human resources and workstyles."
In October 2022, we published our Policy for Human Resources Development and Initiatives to Develop an Environment to Cultivate Human Resources and we also revamped our in-house training system, including introducing new online training programs that employees can take if they wish to learn. Additionally, in anticipation of further decline in the working-age population in the future, we positioned the promotion of diversity as an important issue to be addressed, and we are promoting the active participation and career advancement of diverse human resources including empowering women in the workplace and accommodating diverse work styles. We are also driving digital transformation (DX; the utilization of data) mainly to save labor at manufacturing sites and reduce dependency on people.
To broaden the loop of the recycling-oriented business model with the aim of realizing a truly recycling-oriented world, collaborative creation with more stakeholders will be required. We will maintain a good, honest attitude to keep gaining the trust of our stakeholders.
By continuing to strive for the sustainable development of world and focusing on initiatives that both acquire opportunities and reduce risks, we will aim to solve the DOWA Group's Materiality and fulfil our corporate responsibilities.
September, 2024
SEKIGUCHI Akira
DOWA HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
President and representative director
