Environment
Establishing a New Supply Chain Base with Focus on Sustainability
In December 2020, Shiseido completed the construction of the Osaka Ibaraki Factory and West Japan Distribution Center in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, in a bid to enhance production and distribution of prestige skincare products.
The production and supply network system of this new base is strongly focused on sustainability. Specifically, since the factory and distribution center are located next to each other, we expect to reduce CO₂ emissions during product transportation by more than 60 tons per year. In addition, the factory has an environmentally friendly building structure with excellent heat insulation properties, which reduces energy consumption and cuts approximately 30% in CO₂ emissions, while recirculation and reuse of the cooling water used in manufacturing reduces 65,000 tons of water consumption per year.
Promoting Development of Environmentally Friendly Packaging
Given that CO₂ emissions and marine plastic waste are imminent environmental issues that require global solutions, we are enhancing our efforts to address these issues, for instance, by developing sustainable packaging. We support the concept of a circular economy and have established our goal to achieve 100% sustainable packaging by 2025. We will advance our efforts throughout the product lifecycle based on our 5Rs (Respect, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Replace) policy on product packaging.
In 2021, we carried out various initiatives on environmentally friendly containers and packagings. Our programs included not only reduction of plastic usage, but also global promotion of refillable packagings to facilitate reuse of product packagings; launch of a product on Loop, a package reuse platform; use of mono material packagings suitable for recycling; and use of packagings made with sugarcane-derived polyethylene that produces less CO₂ emissions than oil-derived polyethylene. In addition, joint development with KANEKA CORPORATION allowed for the application of Kaneka Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet, a material expected to have excellent biodegradability, to cosmetic packagings. Furthermore, we are shifting sales promotion materials from plastic-based to paper-based through a coalition of four household goods and cosmetics companies.
In addition, we are working with retailers and industry peers to collect and recycle empty used packagings from our consumers so that we can reuse them as resources.
With these initiatives, we aim to develop packagings that contribute to solving environmental issues along with achieving good usability and beautiful design through innovations leveraging our unique technologies as well as external collaborations.
“Doraemon” watches over in ELIXIR’s global sustainability campaign (program to introduce refillable containers)
We will also make an equity investment in R Plus Japan Limited (“R Plus Japan”) to engage in recycling of used plastics for a sustainable world. R Plus Japan promotes the development of efficient recycling technology for used plastics with less environmental impact in partnership with a U.S. biochemical venture company, Anellotech Inc. In order to contribute to the resolution of global plastic issues, R Plus Japan, together with Anellotech Inc., aims to bring the technology to practical use by 2027 through cross-industry collaboration including companies in sorting and processing of collected plastics, monomer manufacturing, polymer manufacturing, packaging container manufacturing, trading, and beverage and food manufacturing, among others.
In Japan, we participated in the “Plastic Circular Challenge 2025” set up by the World Wildlife Fund Japan and are working to solve plastics issues and climate change problems for a more sustainable world.
Participation in the Eco Beauty Score Consortium
Shiseido participated in the Eco Beauty Score Consortium in 2021 to meet the demands of global consumers for sustainable product selection and information transparency. To date, 36 global cosmetics and personal care companies and professional organizations have joined forces within the Eco Beauty Score Consortium. They collaborate on a common, scientifically based approach to environmental impact assessment and scoring systems throughout the product life cycle in cosmetics, a common tool that allows non-professionals to assess the environmental impact of individual products.
Society
Award for Excellence at the Japan Mécénat Awards 2021 for Social Contribution Activities through Makeup
At the Japan Mécénat Awards 2021, sponsored by the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts, we received a Mécénat Award for Excellence for the LAVENDER RING MAKEUP & PHOTOS WITH SMILES project that aims to support cancer patients. We first participated in multilateral project LAVENDER RING in 2017 to help cancer patients express their will to stay true to themselves through the power of beauty. We will continue tackling social issues and provide support for those with similar concerns by further strengthening our ties with other companies, organizations, hospitals, and schools, while making use of our management resources as well as knowledge and experience gained through our core business.
Enhancing Heritage Training to Leverage Our 150-year History for the Future
Shiseido’s heritage, accumulated over the 150 years since its founding, is our strength. To sustain future innovation with this strength and knowledge, we are enhancing our heritage training for employees.
We held a series of lectures entitled BEYOND OUR HISTORY for sales staff and beauty consultants in Japan. The lecture conveyed our history from founding to the recent years and thoughts and ideas of our predecessors who built our backbone along with some memorable episodes, directly reaching over 2,000 employees online and offline. We also produced and distributed video contents based on the lectures, so that even more employees can learn the Shiseido spirit that has been passed on since its founding. As a global initiative, we created SHISEIDO ARCHIVES, a database of materials and information collected and maintained by the Shiseido Corporate Museum, now available on our intranet for employees across the world. Roughly 130,000 entries have now been published in the archives, and we will accelerate the employee use of archives by further increasing the amount of available data and enhancing its functions in the future. For brand holders and R&D divisions which engage in the development of our value, we have created special programs for experiencing ART & SCIENCE, an integral part of Shiseido’s DNA. By appreciating contemporary art and heritage infused with Shiseido’s aesthetics, our employees draw inspiration for creating unique new value.
Through these activities, we aim to inspire each and every employee with Shiseido’s heritage so that they will create unique value not found elsewhere.
