Initiatives Related to Water Resource Conservation

Basic Approach

Water is essential to human life. However, water scarcity and pollution are worsening and have serious impacts on society, economic activity, and the natural environment. In the Mitsuboshi Belting Group’s business activities, water is indispensable for heating, cooling, and other processes in the manufacture of rubber products, and a stable water supply is directly linked to business continuity. Global water scarcity and water pollution have therefore become material business risks.

Based on this situation, the Group positions water resource conservation as an important management issue and promotes activities to reduce water withdrawal and manage wastewater quality to prevent water pollution. The Group also complies with applicable water-use laws and regulations at each production site, contributes to the achievement of SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, and promotes WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) initiatives as part of its occupational health and safety and social contribution activities.

Governance and Risk Management

The governance and risk management processes for the Group’s water resource conservation activities are the same as those described on the “Initiatives Related to Climate Change” page.

Strategy

The Group positions water resource conservation as one of the important pillars of its business strategy. In particular, as the stable supply of water resources is threatened by the progress of climate change, it is essential to precisely understand the actual status and risks of water use at domestic and overseas production sites and to take countermeasures.

In Japan, tap water is potable and available at relatively low cost, and water resource conservation measures have therefore not been implemented as extensively as at overseas sites. Although the Group’s production sites in Japan produce only about one-third of the power transmission belt volume produced overseas, they withdraw approximately 2.74 times as much water (FY2025: 692 thousand m³ in Japan and 253 thousand m³ overseas). Improving water-use efficiency in Japan is therefore an urgent priority. Japan is also entirely within a biodiversity hotspot*, and business impacts such as increased water stress from water withdrawal and pollution from wastewater present risks to biodiversity.

Overseas production sites are located in regions with substantially higher water stress than Japan, where high-quality water is costly. Measures to reduce water withdrawal have therefore been implemented since these sites were established. In recent years, however, water withdrawal has increased as production has expanded, while climate change has intensified water stress in some regions. The risk of production restrictions caused by water shortages has increased, making further reductions in water withdrawal necessary. Cotton used as a raw material also requires large volumes of water and pesticides during cultivation, and cotton cultivation can exacerbate water stress around production areas. Cotton produced without sufficient consideration for sustainability may therefore face exclusion from the market in the future.

Based on this current situation, the Group identified risks and opportunities related to “water resource conservation,” assessed the impacts these risks and opportunities have on the Group’s business activities, and incorporated the results into its strategy and targets. The Group analyzed and evaluated the risks of “water supply shortage” and “water stress” at each production site. Because “water supply shortage” risk and “water stress” risk vary depending on the location of each production site, the Group obtained current and future risk information from Aqueduct of the World Resources Institute, and displayed risks for 2030, 2050 and 2080 under the SSP1 RCP2.6 and SSP5 RCP8.5 scenarios in five ranks (high risk: 5 ⇔ low risk: 1).

* A hotspot is a region in which 1,500 or more endemic vascular plant species (seed plants and ferns) occur but where more than 70% of the original ecosystem has been altered.

1. Hazard Screening

Site abbreviations
　MBL(USA) : MBL (USA) CORPORATION
　MBI : PT. MITSUBOSHI BELTING INDONESIA
　SEIWA : PT. SEIWA INDONESIA
　STI : STARS TECHNOLOGIES INDUSTRIAL LIMITED
　SMB : SUZHOU MITSUBOSHI BELTING CO., LTD. (Suzhou Mitsuboshi Belting Co., Ltd.)
　MB(POL): MITSUBOSHI POLAND Sp.z o.o.
　MB(IND)Supa : MITSUBOSHI BELTING-INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED （Supa Plant）

At the seven domestic production sites, the Group judges that water supply shortage risk is hardly affected by climate change, and that the low-risk situation (levels 1 to 2) will continue until the end of the century. The current water supply shortage risk at the seven overseas production sites is somewhat higher than in Japan (levels 1 to 4), but measures such as cooling water circulation systems and mist cooling systems have already been taken, and stable operations can be continued. In addition, based on the analysis result that there will be no major change from the current water supply shortage risk until the end of the century, although no significant risk has been identified, the Group will promote the deployment of cooling water circulation systems, mist cooling systems and similar measures, as well as improvement of water consumption efficiency.

At the seven domestic production sites, the current water stress risk, like water supply shortage risk, is hardly affected by climate change, and the low-risk situation (levels 2 to 3) will continue over the long term (until around 2100). At the seven overseas production sites, the production sites in India, China and the United States are at the highest risk level 5, and the two production sites in Indonesia and the production site in Thailand are at risk level 4, which are considerably high risk levels, and this situation is expected to continue until the end of the century. It is said that the main causes worsening water stress risk lie in the social environment of the region, such as “population growth” and “water conflicts.” Therefore, the Group considers “reduction of water withdrawal” to be the basic response measure for water stress, and intends to reliably monitor and evaluate changes in the social environment of each region and take timely and appropriate responses.

The Group also expanded its water stress assessment across the supply chain and confirmed that cotton production regions, which supply one of the Company’s raw materials, overlap with areas of high water stress in northwestern India. Current water stress in this region is rated at the highest level, 5, and substantial improvement is unlikely in the future. The Procurement Guidelines formulated in FY2023 explicitly request water resource conservation initiatives, and the Group will promote the use of sustainable materials, including sustainable cotton, throughout the supply chain.

The risk and opportunity assessment found that water shortages associated with climate change and increasing water stress caused by changes in the social environment may constrain water withdrawal for the Group’s production activities. Failure to respond could delay product supply, while appropriate measures could strengthen customer trust through stable supply. The use of cotton produced in regions with high water stress could also have a significant adverse impact on the Company’s reputation and trigger adverse stakeholder reactions, including potential boycotts, similar to concerns associated with cotton produced using forced labor. On the other hand, as water-related businesses, development of dams, reservoirs, irrigation channels and other facilities for the efficient use of water resources is expected to progress, and demand is expected to increase for the Company’s waterproofing sheets and installation services used for these facilities.

2. Results of Identification of Risks and Opportunities and Impact Assessment

Although the financial impact of production stoppages will be very minor on a consolidated basis because the global production complementary system will function, on an individual production-site basis, a decrease in sales corresponding to the shutdown period is expected. In addition, it is difficult to separately estimate sales of waterproofing sheets resulting from activation of water-related businesses alone, but sales in the construction materials field including this in FY2025 were 6,769 million yen per year, an increase of 18% compared with FY2020.

Targets

To date, in order to reduce water consumption, the Group has introduced “cooling water circulation systems,” “mist cooling systems” and similar measures, mainly at overseas production sites where the water withdrawal environment is more severe than in Japan. In the production of rubber products, the “vulcanization” process, which expresses rubber elasticity through a chemical reaction, is essential. In this process, sulfur and other materials are added to rubber and reacted (vulcanized) at high temperature (100°C or higher), followed by cooling after vulcanization. During vulcanization, high-pressure steam generated from water is used, and cold water is used for cooling. In this way, the Group’s production activities depend on water, and water supply shortages are a risk that restricts production activities. Therefore, the Group has carried out activities to reduce water consumption.

In FY2019, at MBL (USA) CORPORATION, the Company’s production site in North America (located in the region classified by Aqueduct as having the highest water stress), the Company introduced a “cooling water circulation system.” The trend in annual water withdrawal before and after introduction of this system is shown in the figure. Before the introduction of the system, approximately 70 thousand m³ of water was used annually, but with the introduction of the system, annual water withdrawal was reduced to approximately 18 thousand m³. In addition, an example of introduction of a “water circulation system” at the Nagoya Plant, a domestic production site in Japan, is shown. The system was introduced in FY2022, and compared with 2021, the base year for the water withdrawal reduction target described below, water withdrawal was reduced by approximately 40%.

Reference: Trend in water withdrawal at MBL (USA) CORPORATION 　

Reference: Trend in water withdrawal at Nagoya Plant

As stated above, water withdrawal at the Group’s production sites in Japan is approximately 2.7 times that of overseas sites based on FY2025 results, making reductions in Japan an urgent priority. The Group has established the targets shown below. At overseas production sites where cooling-water circulation systems have already been introduced, water withdrawal is expected to increase as production expands. However, by maintaining and improving water-use efficiency, the Group aims to maintain the FY2021 water withdrawal intensity. Through these measures, the Group expects total water withdrawal in 2030 to be approximately 900 thousand m³, a 26% reduction from FY2021.

Sub-materiality	Measure / content	KPI
Water resource conservation initiatives	Introduction of cooling water circulation systems	Domestic site water withdrawal target: 50% reduction by FY2030 (base year: FY2021)
	Improvement of efficiency related to water consumption	Overseas site water withdrawal target: Maintain water withdrawal intensity (base year: FY2021)

Implementation Status

Water Withdrawal Reduction Activities

In FY2025, following the introduction of a water circulation system at Nagoya Plant and improvements in water-use efficiency across all sites, water withdrawal at sites in Japan was 692 thousand m³, down 21.1% from FY2021. Water withdrawal intensity at overseas sites improved to 13.33 m³/t, compared with 16.77 m³/t in FY2021.

Figure 1 Trend in Water Intake at Domestic Sites 　

Figure 2 Trend in Water Intake Intensity at Overseas Sites

Water Pollution Prevention Activities

At 10 of the Group’s 14 production sites, in accordance with laws and regulations established by the local authorities where each site is located, the Group has established management values stricter than regulatory values and conducts wastewater treatment and wastewater quality monitoring (water quality testing by a third party). The target wastewater volume accounts for 97.8% of the Group’s total wastewater volume of 923 thousand m³ (FY2025 results). Inspection items and standard values differ depending on local laws and regulations, but representative inspection items include BOD, COD, nitrogen, phosphorus, various metal ions, pH, water temperature, and suspended substances.
Against the target of “zero legal violations” for water pollution prevention activities, in FY2025 water quality testing was conducted as planned at all target sites. No measured values exceeding the standard values were observed, and the number of legal violations was zero.