We have been installing the PV system s (solar panels) on the roofs of some production facilities to produce clean electricity from sunlight with the aim of reducing CO₂ emissions from our production activities.

The Kikkoman Group's production departments take a fresh look at production methods, facilities, and energy sources to reduce greenhouse gases.

Reducing the amount of steam in a rotary koji making

Kikkoman Food Products Noda Factory used to use steam insulation to prevent condensation, which occurred when cold air entered the circular koji making room through gaps created by deterioration of inside walls. We were able to stop the use of steam insulation by closing the gaps, which the cold air flows into, as much as possible.

This has resulted in a reduction in the amount of steam used in the koji making process by approximately 20 percent and CO2 emissions by 360 tons per year.

An update of two chiller unit systems in March 2021

We monitor the temperature at the coolant inlet of the chiller unit systems to keep the inside of the coolant tank at a constant temperature. We have introduced models that allow efficient continuous operation. We expect a 600 to 800-t reduction in CO₂ emissions per year.

An update of 4 out of 18 compact boilers in September 2021

We have introduced models that recover heat waste of exhaust gases efficiently for reuse.Once all the 18 compact boilers have been updated, we expect a 200-t reduction in CO₂ emissions per year.

Unification of raw ingredient silos

At Kikkoman Food Products Co. (Noda Factory), we improved the large silo on the factory site to use it for various purposes and unified the raw ingredient storage. We discontinued the long-distance (appx. 300m) pneumatic conveyance from the large silo outside of the site and decommissioned the large blower for the pneumatic conveyance. This resulted in a reduction in energy used for the large blower that was equivalent to 94t-CO₂ emissions per year.

Change in temperature in the mirin fermentation and aging tank

At Nagareyama Kikkoman Co., Ltd., we succeeded in setting a proper temperature to process rice in the fermentation and aging process of moromi to produce mirin and establishing the agitation method to shorten the aging time. This saved steam used to heat the fermentation and aging tank in summer. We expect a 25.8-t reduction in CO₂ emissions per year that used to be produced by steam generation.

The Kikkoman Group directs attention to CO₂ emissions in the distribution departments such as our consolidated subsidiary, Sobu Logistics Co., Ltd. in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, and pursues a reduction in these emissions.

In May 2004, we unified our distribution center and storage facilities, and facilitated a better distribution system to avoid wasteful truck trips. We also unified the procurement distribution of raw ingredients and packaging materials such as soybeans, wheat and plastic bottles, and the product distribution. Higher ratio of loading trips to total trips (less unloaded trips) resulted in a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions in distribution.

In addition, we introduce fuel-efficient trucks with low gas emissions and encourage truck drivers to thoroughly practice ecological driving to reduce more CO₂ emissions.
Sobu Logistics obtained the Green Management Certification issued by Foundation for Promoting Personal Mobility and Ecological Transportation that raises awareness among the transportation industry and enterprise customers.
Sobu Logistics also pursues active use of railway freight transportation that has less CO₂ emissions per unit transportation volume and obtained the Eco Rail Mark company certification issued by the Railway Freight Association in FY2005.

In the Kikkoman Group’s offices, we are pursuing a wide range of approaches. They include controlling room temperatures in summer (28°C) and winter (20°C), encouraging employees to wear lightweight clothes in summer, reducing the use of lighting, turning off lights when not in use, strictly controlling the use of OA equipment, encouraging the use of video conferencing system, practicing ecological driving, and introducing fuel-efficient or hybrid cars.

The Kikkoman Noda Head Office building in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture was designed to be an "environmentally sustainable office." In keeping with the goal of maintaining harmony with the natural environment and lowering environmental loads, various advanced technological devices are employed.
The building was highly evaluated by specialists. It received the New Office Promotion Award of the Nikkei New Office Award and the Architectural Culture Award of Chiba Prefecture in 2001, the Examination Committee Encouragement Prize of the 9th Environmental and Energy Saving Architecture Award in 2002, the 4th Sustainable Architecture Award by the Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) in 2003, and the Special Award "Ten-Year Award" of the Society of Heating, Air-conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan (SHASE) in 2011.

The Noda Head Office compound consists of an Office Building (North Building) and a Conference Room Building (South Building).

In the rectangular-shaped Office Building stretching from east to west, office rooms are arranged on the north side that is less affected by sunlight to ensure stable work environments. On the south side there is the entrance hall built in a wellhole style. In addition, we installed large windows to make full use of natural sunlight and winds. Also other devices were introduced to pursue a reduction in energy usage for lighting and air-conditioning, including the luminance control system controlled by the daylight sensor, the horizontal external louvers to control the flow of sunlight into the rooms, and double-glass air flow to enhance insulation.

In addition, the building has been switching to LED lighting to promote energy savings.

Introduction of the Electric Vehicles

One car of Kikkoman R&D Center and two cars of the Kikkoman Noda Head Office have been switched to electric vehicles, and charging stations have been installed in the sites. We will consider further introduction of electric vehicles in the future, taking into account the availability of external charging stations.

Kikkoman General Hospital

The Kikkoman Group has been managing Kikkoman General Hospital as part of contributions to the local community in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, the birthplace of Kikkoman.

With a base-isolated structure, the new building constructed in 2012 is designed to maintain its functional integrity even in times of disaster. Additionally, due consideration has been given to the environment through enabling full use of natural lighting, placement of solar panels at the entrance to enable power generation, efficient use of well water, and implementation of energy saving equipment and instruments.

The Kikkoman Group actively takes part in surveys conducted by external organizations and uses evaluations on its environmental conservation activities to improve them.
We utilize external evaluation provided by CDP, which is a non-profit organization that motivates enterprises to disclose their approaches to address environmental issues such as climate change, greenhouse gas reduction, water resource conservation, and forest conservation and their impacts on the environment and natural resources and take action to reduce them. CDP asks relatively large capitalization value enterprises in major countries for responses, evaluates and scores the results, and discloses them.
The Kikkoman Group has been responding to the CDP Climate Change Questionnaire since FY2014 and utilizing the result as a tool to understand a level of its approaches on environmental conservation activities, especially on a reduction in CO₂ emissions through business activities, from objective and global perspectives.

According to the evaluation result in CDP Climate Change Report in 2023, the Kikkoman Group is classified as a leadership level and acquired an A- score. 

Among five of the eleven evaluation items, including "emission reduction activities," we received an "A" score.

The Kikkoman Group keeps pursuing even more reduction in CO₂ emissions.