Kurita Water Industries : Sustainability Report 2021

The Kurita Group

Sustainability Report 2021

Fiscal year ended March 31, 2021

Editorial Policy

The Kurita Group Sustainability Report 2021 ("the Report") is published as a report to all stakeholders on the Groupʼs main CSR-related approaches and materiality, as well as its main initiatives during fiscal 2021.

Structure

The Report is broadly comprised of two sections on the Kurita Groupʼs CSR initiatives: a section reporting on strategic initiatives undertaken during the target period; and a section with follow up reports on each of the Groupʼs seven materiality themes. Information on other initiatives can be found on the Companyʼs website.

Organizations covered

The Kurita Group

Period covered

Fiscal 2021 (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021)

• Some information on policies, structures, and initiatives prior to and beyond fiscal 2022 is included in the report as necessary.

Guidelines referred to

GRI Standards etc

Supplementary information to the contents of the report

・In the Report, "the Company" refers to Kurita Water Industries Ltd.; "the Company and its domestic Group companies" refers to Kurita Water Industries Ltd. and its Group companies in Japan; and "the Kurita Group" refers to all Group companies including those overseas. Information pertaining to specific companies is presented using the names of the companies.

・Regarding environmental and social data, there is some variation in the figures reported for fiscal 2020 owing to revisions to the aggregation range of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions based on the GHG protocol.

Copyrights and trademarks

・Our company or our licensers hold the copyrights for all the materials posted on this report. You may not use them beyond the range of use legally permitted for private use, etc.: you cannot, for example, copy, process, transfer, or distribute them without consent from the respective copyright holders.

・TTrademarks in the materials posted on this report (product names, service names and logos) belong to our company or our licensers, and you cannot use them without consent from the holders of the respective rights.

The Kurita Group	Sustainability Report 2021

Contents

Message from the President	02
CSR Management	04
Definition and Objectives of CSR	04
Identification of Materiality	05
CSR Policy, Targets, and Achievement Status	06
Stakeholder Engagement	08
Promotion System and PDCA	11
External Evaluation	12
Priority Themes: Basic Themes	15
Provide Highly Safe Services and Products	16
Conduct Fair Business Activities	23
Respect Human Rights	27
Priority Themes: Themes for Growth Opportunities (Environmental Improvement Activities)	44
Solve Issues Related to Water Resources	52
Realize Sustainable Energy Use	59
Reduce Waste	66
Advance Industrial Production Technologies	70
Building Good Relationships with Suppliers	75
Third-Party Opinion/Response to Third-Party Opinion	79

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CSR Initiatives

Message from the President

Contributing to solving social issues with diverse solutions created from our "water knowledge"

Michiya Kadota

President and Representative Director

Redefining the Shape of Kuritaʼs Business Starting from Social Issues

The COVID-19 pandemic has set in motion dramatic changes in society, with restrictions on mobility leading to new ways of working and living. The pandemic has also transformed the Kurita Groupʼs operating environment. Although capacity utilization declined at customer plants, we have seen widespread adoption of remote working and an acceleration in digital transformation (DX), spurring the launch of water treatment facility operation and management services using remote monitoring. In the 72 years since the Kurita Groupʼs founding, we have remained steadfastly focused on the water and environment fields in order to realize our corporate philosophy: "Study the properties of water, master them, and we will create an environment in which nature and man are in harmony." The pandemic has also served to highlight the value the Kurita Group creates for society and the Groupʼs purpose - reliably providing indispensable water-related solutions to ensure business continuity at customers that support society and industry. Against this backdrop, the Board of Directors approved "Kuritaʼs value creation story" that sets out how the Group should grow together with society in order to realize its corporate philosophy and generate value for society over the long term. By clearly defining the Kurita Groupʼs purpose and its competitive advantages (water knowledge accumulated from diverse points of contact with sites) and by redefining the shape of Kuritaʼs business starting from social issues, the value creation story shows all our employees how the Group will provide new value going forward.

Toward Solving Social Issues Through Our Business Activities

The Kurita Group has worked to address social issues through its business activities in the areas of water and the environment. This approach is particularly evident in our current five-yearmedium-term management plan, Maximize Value Proposition 2022 (MVP-22), which launched in fiscal 2019. One of the planʼs priority measures is to expand and develop the CSV business, which is defined as products, technologies or business models that contribute to the attainment of the SDGs and these targets of significantly increased water-savings, CO2 emissions reduction, and waste reduction.

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In addition to the planʼs measures, we launched new initiatives in fiscal 2021. In one initiative, we participated in the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) as a Leadership Committee member. The coalition was established under the UN Global Compact (UNGC) to tackle issues related to water resources. The WRCʼs long-term goal is to protect and restore water resources in basins facing serious water resource problems all over the world. Through this initiative, the Group will gain access to new knowledge in areas where it has had little contact so far, reinforcing our capacity to create value for society.

In another initiative, we are stepping up efforts to address climate change. In addition to the Groupʼs existing contribution to reducing CO2 emissions (CO2 emissions reduction at customers - CO2 emissions from our business activities), we have set new long-termCO2 emissions reduction targets in line with the Task Force on Climate-relatedFinancial Disclosures (TCFD) Recommendations. These efforts will be supervised by the Board of Directors. Based on the common public targets of reducing emissions in the Scope 1, 2 and 3, we will take concrete steps to decarbonize our operations and those of our customers by shifting to renewable energy and stepping up the development of CSV businesses that help reduce CO2 emissions from our products at point of use by customers - the category that accounts for most the Kurita Groupʼs CO2 emissions.

These two initiatives mark the first time for the Kurita Group to seek to share issues with society and address these issues based on a long-term timeline extending to 2030 and 2050. The initiatives shift the existing focus of our environmental efforts from the narrow scope of our own business activities to shared global issues that have a wider impact on society.

I believe the Kurita Group can have a positive impact on not a few of the issues faced by the world today. We will strive to realize our corporate philosophy by dismantling the preconceived idea that we can only have an impact in areas related to existing business fields and solutions and by continuing to describe the value creation story from a long-term perspective that shows the pathway that Kurita will follow to solve issues faced by society with a wealth of diverse solutions created from our "water knowledge."

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