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2019 Activities and
Environmental Data

At the Kumon Group, we promote the assessment and reduction of the environmental burden resulting from our business activities, and promote forest preservation in accordance with our Environmental Policy.

As basic environmental actions continuing on from FY2019 the Kumon Group made efforts to reduce its usage of electricity and paper and to increase the amount of paper put out for recycling.

In addition, we promoted “work style creation” reforms to promote varied styles of work, the creation of value, and the increase of productivity. As one part of these activities we carried out digitization of paper documents and streamlining of work tasks. This led to a major reduction in paper usage.

Kumon Group environmental data for FY2019 in comparison with FY2018 were: electricity usage = 95.9%, paper usage = 80.0%, and paper recycling = 90.9%.

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The reporting period is the FY2019 (April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020), but the environmental data and activities also include data from outside this period.
*
Regarding electricity usage, the following locations are not included in this report:
KNA USA:
Manhattan Office, Washington, D. C. Office, Detroit Branch Office, Seattle Office, Boston Office, Atlanta Office, Dallas Office, Houston Office
Canada:
Montreal Office, Vancouver Office, Calgary Office, Toronto Office
KAO Indonesia:
Bandung Office, Surabaya Office
Australia:
Melbourne Office
KCN:
China Headquarters
KEA UK:
Birmingham Office, Glasgow Office
Ireland:
Dublin Branch

Electricity usage

The Kumon Group is promoting the reduction of the usage of electricity in order to reduce of production of greenhouse gases in order to slow global warming.

We engaged in many daily activities such as adjustment of air conditioning temperatures and turning out lights in areas that are not being used, setting of personal computers on energy saving mode, etc.

The amount of electricity savings in FY2019 was a result of each proactive actions such as Group companies converting to LED lighting, and changing their air conditioning equipment. In addition, as a result of office reorganization in Japan, in comparison with FY2018, Kumon China achieved a reduction of 4.8%, Kumon Asia and Oceania a reduction of 4.7%, and Kumon in Japan a reduction of 6.0%.

The Kumon Group as a whole reduced electricity usage by 4.1%. We will continue to implement energy saving activities.

graph
FY 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Electricity usage
(MWh)
13,905 14,110 13,200 12,413 11,901
Y/Y(%) 106.1 101.5 93.5 94.0 95.9

CO2 emissions

The majority of greenhouse gases emitted by the Kumon Group are generated by electricity usage. Therefore, we work on the reduction of our CO2 emissions by promoting the reduction of our electricity usage.

Comparing CO2 emissions for the Kumon Group for FY2019 to those of FY2018 was reduced by 3.5% and the consumption rate (CO2 emissions/sales) was reduced by 2.2%.

*The CO2 conversion coefficients used are the latest for each country as listed in “CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion” by the International Energy Agency (IEA). As the figures were disclosed only after our count, we retroactively corrected the data to the coefficients of the concerned fiscal year.

FY 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
CO2 emissions
(t-CO2)
7,052 7,166 6.484 6,154 5,940
Y/Y(%) 102.8 101.6 90.5 94.9 96.5

Paper usage

As the Kumon Group uses a large amount of paper for worksheets, etc., we promote the reduction of paper usage to preserve forest resources.

Digitization of documents and paperless meetings were promoted, and two-sided printing and compact page printing were carried out. In addition, digital applications and approvals were promoted over the use of paper for some matters and FAXs were digitized as part of our paperless efforts.

Comparing paper usage in FY2019 to FY2018, Kumon China achieved a 25.1% reduction and a reduction of 23.2% was achieved in Japan.

For the Kumon Group overall, paper usage was reduced by 19.8%, and the consumption rate (paper amount/sales) was reduced by 18.7%.

  • *We calculate paper purchase volume as paper usage volume
graph
FY 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Paper usage
(millions of sheets)
70.9 69.2 63.9 51.9 41.5
Y/Y(%) 99.5 97.7 92.3 81.2 80.2

Paper recycling

Each Kumon Group company promotes recycling, by placing paper recycling boxes to collect used copy papers as much as possible. Headquarters in Japan collects recyclable material on a regular basis and puts it out for recycling.

The amount of paper put out for recycling by the Kumon Group fell by 9.1% in FY2019 as compared to FY2018.

FY 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Paper recycling(t) 720.4 968.9 1223.3 1030.6 937.1
Y/Y(%) 93.6 134.5 126.3 84.2 90.9
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