Brother Industries revises its environmental goals, saying it will reduce ratio of virgin materials used in its products, including packaging materials, to 65% or less by FY2030 through expansion of circular economy-based business, materials recycling

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February 15, 2022 (press release) –

Brother Industries, Ltd. (President: Ichiro Sasaki) today announced that it has revised the resource circulation targets of the "Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050," the environmental goals for FY2050. Under the new targets, quantitative goals have been set to reduce the ratio of virgin materials used in products, including packaging materials, to 65% or less by FY2030 through the expansion of circular-economy-based business and materials recycling.

Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050 (Text in bold show the revised parts)

	Medium-term targets for FY2030	Environmental Vision 2050
Reduction of CO₂ emissions	[Scopes 1^1 and 2^2] Achieve 65% reduction from the FY2015 level [Scope 3^3 (Categories 1, 11, and 12^4) Achieve 30% reduction from the FY2015 level	Achieve carbon neutrality^*5 in all business operations and minimize CO₂ emissions from the entire value chain so as to contribute toward creating a carbon-free society
Resource circulation	*Reduce the ratio of virgin materials used in products^6 to 65% or less^7 by FY2030 through the expansion of circular-economy-based businesses and materials recycling.* The manufacturing facilities continuously endeavor to ensure efficient use of water resources and proper treatment of wastewater	Maximize resource circulation to ensure the sustainable use of *resources^8** and to minimize the environmental impact due to wastes.
Biodiversity conservation	Assess the environmental impact of its business operations on the ecosystem and the effectiveness of restoration and conservation activities, and work to avoid and reduce the environmental impact on the ecosystem The manufacturing and sales facilities of the entire group work on ecosystem restoration and conservation activities on a voluntary basis depending on the situation in each region	Minimize the environmental impact of business operations and promote activities to restore and conserve the ecosystem beyond the impact

"Scope 1" refers to direct greenhouse gas emissions from the activities of a company
"Scope 2" refers to indirect emissions from electricity, heat, and steam purchased and used by a company
"Scope 3" refers to all indirect emissions not covered by Scope 1 or Scope 2, produced by third parties for the purpose of a company's activities
CO₂ emissions produced when procuring parts for products, when using products, and when disposing of products
Achieve overall zero CO₂ emissions from the Brother Group
Includes packaging materials
Applies to P&S, P&H, and Machinery Business (excluding industrial parts)
Changed from "natural resources" to "resources"

In the Brother Group Global Charter, which is the foundation of all global operations, the Brother Group pledges to make positive and continuous efforts to address global environmental issues in all aspects of our corporate activities in order to build a society where sustainable development is achieved. In addition, the Group established the Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050 in 2018 as the Brother Group's environmental goals to contribute to solving environmental issues on a global scale, and also set the medium-term targets for FY2030 as milestones for the Vision. In the same year, the Brother Group's CO₂ emission reduction target was recognized by the Science Based Targets initiative as a science-based emission reduction target for achieving the 2°C target of the Paris Agreement. And in 2020, the Group expressed its support for the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), an international framework that encourages analysis and disclosure of financial impacts of climate change.

Furthermore, the Group has expressed its commitment to contributing to the creation of a decarbonized society by revising its CO₂ emission reduction targets in 2021 and is aiming to become carbon neutral in all business activities and minimize CO₂ emissions throughout the value chain by FY2050. To mark the completion of a new environmentally friendly office building to be constructed at Mizuho Factory, the Group's Head Office is planning to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of FY2026 as a part of this contribution.

The Group has revised the "Resource Circulation" part formulated in 2018 and has set specific quantitative targets. The Brother Group aims to reduce the ratio of virgin materials used in products group-wide, including packaging materials, to 65% or less by FY2030 through the expansion of circular-economy-based businesses and materials recycling. In the future, Brother will continue its efforts to reduce the use of virgin materials by providing maintenance and reusing products to allow products to be used longer than before, and using recycled materials in products as much as possible, through the expansion of subscription-based businesses that connect customers and Brother.

Going forward, the Brother Group will continue to strengthen its environmental initiatives to achieve the goals outlined in its "Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050," in order to fulfill its responsibility to the global environment while contributing to the realization of the sustainable development of society, which is set forth in the Brother Group Vision "At your side 2030" as Our Purpose.

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