Environmental Burden Reduction Measures
Through its natural resources, CO2 emissions, waste generation from the use of energy, paper and the like in its business activities, the Group impacts natural capital and the environment, and it works to reduce environmental impacts that arise from its business activities and recognizes reducing negative impacts on society is an important matter. The Group also factors in environmental and social consideration by investee and lendee companies into its decision-making processes for loans and investment. With the aim of realizing smaller environmental impacts on social as a whole, we promote both initiatives to reduce direct environmental impacts from our business activities and initiatives to reduce indirect environmental impacts from investee and lendee companies in our portfolios.
SDGs have established goals and targets relating to a host of environmental issues. Our initiatives aimed at responding to environmental issues arising from the Group's business activities are linked to the 17 SDG goals: reduction of waste, including chemical substances such as PCBs, CFCs, and generic waste such as paper waste, and properly managing, recycling and disposing of waste (Goal 3); efficient use of water (Goal 6); use of renewable energy generated by solar panels newly installed on four branch offices since 2013 (Goal 7); certification of the head office building under the "CASBEE* for Real Estate" system (Goal 11); CSR procurement that guards against buying paper from sources deemed at risk for human rights and environmental abuses from tropical rainforest logging (Goal 12, Goal 15); and energy conservation activities aimed mainly at reducing electricity use (Goal 13). Every year, SuMi TRUST Bank provides e-learning on environmental management for all employees to deepen their understanding.