Rengo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kita-ku, Osaka; President & CEO: Kiyoshi Otsubo) announces that its Yashio Mill (Yashio-shi, Saitama Prefecture) has been recognized as a Quasi-Top Level Facility within the Excellent Large Scale Business Facilities under the cap and trade type emissions trading system operating as part of the Saitama Prefecture Global Warming Strategy Promotion Ordinance.

The Saitama Prefecture cap and trade type emissions trading system, which came into force in April 2011, promotes systematic reductions in the gross-weight of CO2 emissions on facilities that used energy with a crude oil equivalent of 1,500kL/year or more for three fiscal years in a row. Being named as an Excellent Large Scale Business Facility is recognition under a system where businesses subject to the ordinance undergo an exacting assessment by a third-party organization and are judged to be actively engaging in conservation of energy compared to other similar businesses. If a manufacturer is recognized as a Quasi-Top Level Facility, its obligation to reduce CO2 emissions is reduced from 6% to 4.5%.

In this first round of assessment, the Yashio Mill was one of only two facilities recognized as Quasi-Top Level, out of 561 eligible facilities in the prefecture.

In addition to making an early change in its energy source from heavy oil to clean processed natural gas, the Yashio Mill uses residues from the paperboard manufacturing process as biomass fuel for generating electricity and heat energy. Not only that, it has focused for many years on improvements, such as the introduction of highly efficient facilities throughout the entire manufacturing process and reduction of energy use, which are in line with our environmental strategy “Less Weight, Less Carbon” (making thinner, lighter packaging with less CO2 emissions).

Alongside our “Eco Challenge 020,” which aims to reduce company-wide CO2 emissions by 32% in fiscal 2020 compared to levels in fiscal 1990, our “Rengo Group Environmental Charter” raises this target to a 50% reduction by 2050.

We will continue our efforts to further reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and also strengthen our environmental initiatives across all operating activities with “always caring about people and the environment” foremost in our thoughts.