Pursuing Quality in Circularity to
Enhance Our Corporate Value and
Realize a Sustainable Society

Pursuing Quality in Circularity to
Enhance Our Corporate Value and
Realize a Sustainable Society

Pursue Quality in Circularity

In the more than 140 years since the DOWA Group, we have developed a business model that will contribute to the building of a recycling oriented society. As the world as a whole transition to a circular economy, the value of our business has inevitably increased, and I view contributions through our business as the Company’s new mission.
As a roadmap to fulfilling that mission, we designated “Pursue quality in circularity” as the main theme of Medium-term Plan 2027 (FY2025-2027), which we announced in May 2025. We intend to pursue even greater quality in circularity by taking pride in the contributions we have made to a recycling-oriented society over so many years and bringing together the technology and knowledge we have developed thus far.
Thus far, circularity has centered on the three Rs, reduce, reuse, and recycle, but we are now entering an age where qualitative innovation in the area of resource recycling will be required. We have set “integrated circularity” and “long-term circularity” as our core strategies, and by strengthening and growing each of our five core businesses, we aim to realize high‑quality circularity.

Widening the Scope of Circularity

To further expand our business domain, it will be essential to make our five core businesses more competitive while facilitating closer collaboration between businesses. Our Environmental Management & Recycling Business and Nonferrous Metals Business, two businesses with a high affinity, have already been working together, and their collaborations are a characteristic of the Group. New technological collaborations are also beginning in addition to these two businessesʼ collaborations. We will also proactively pursue trusted co-creation with strategic partners that can enhance our competitiveness, rather than trying to accomplish everything on our own in realizing and promoting a circular economy.
We will continue to think outside our current domain and actively expand the scope of our cycle to include fields where we can expect synergies, businesses with potential for development, and fields where we can put the Companyʼs knowledge and personnel to good use.

Balancing a Response to Climate Change with Profitability

We aim to achieve a carbon-neutral society by 2050. Under Medium-term Plan 2027, we will execute measures against climate change that enable a balance with making our businesses more competitive, based on the response policies, targets, and action plans from the last three years. We will continue to focus on developing technology to balance direct reduction of GHG emissions and a greater competitive edge for our businesses. We are also providing the market with a wide range of products and services that contribute to measures against climate change.
One of our social missions is material recycling; however, the process requires a substantial amount of energy, and expanding the volume of recycling directly leads to an increase in GHG emissions. GHG emissions are also unavoidable in the incineration processes necessary to safely treat waste. Therefore, we aim to demonstrate—through objective evaluation using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies—how the use of our products and services contributes to decarbonization across the entire supply chain, and that it is indeed possible to achieve both the Company’s sustainable growth and the realization of a carbon-neutral society.

Strengthening of Management Foundation and Risk Management

Many of our production bases in Japan are in regions facing social issues such as population decline and an aging population. This means that there is an urgent need to strengthen our management foundation by means such as introducing DX and strengthening our technical capabilities and human capital in order to continue our business activities.
In our implementation of DX, we established a foundation for our work under Medium-term Plan 2024 by integrating business data in initiatives such as transformation of our businesses and upgrades of our core systems. Realizing more transformations of our sites will be the key in Medium-term Plan 2027. We will steadily create systems optimized to the Company and each site.
It is people who take on new endeavors such as developing new technology and maintaining thorough quality control, so human resources development will be essential for the continuous growth of the Group. We will also work to create workplaces where employees can work vibrantly, so that each employee can think for themselves and develop their empathy through various experiences and challenges.
Establishing a governance system that can respond flexibly when risks materialize is also an important role of management. Regarding risk management, we have built a Four Lines Model connecting the three levels of the Company—DOWA Holdings, operating companies, and operating subsidiaries—as well as the Internal Audit Department of DOWA Holdings to further strengthen our structure.

In Conclusion

Since the Group was first established in 1884, we have sincerely engaged with various social issues and our business environment and passed on a culture of conducting good, honest business through our technology. Going forward, our new mission will be to realize sustainable economic growth based on that spirit as the Japanese government and governments around the world transition to circular economies. The phrase “Pursue quality in circularity” clearly communicates the direction the DOWA Group intends to take, and expresses our desire for as many people as possible to support us in this.
The DOWA Group will continue to pass on the tradition of good, honest business that has been passed on since we were first established and make steady progress toward the realization of a sustainable society. I would like to express my heartfelt wish for the ongoing understanding and support of our stakeholders with a long-term view.

 

August, 2025

 

SEKIGUCHI Akira
DOWA HOLDINGS CO., LTD.

Representative Director
President and Executive Officer
CEO