For a chemical company to live together with society as one of its vitally important members, all of its business activities have to seek harmony with the social and natural environments and be recognized, appreciated, and accepted by society. With this fundamental awareness in mind, the NOF Group has set forth its Management Policy Regarding Responsible Care as a set of norms to be faithfully observed by every officer and employee of the Group with a view to winning even greater trust from society.
Furthermore, NOF became a signatory of the Responsible Care Global Charter proposed by the International Council of Chemical Associations in 2014, along with declaring its support of the Charter and its commitment to practice RC activities both in Japan and overseas.

The NOF Group is working on various initiatives to ensure the Five Components of Safety. The Group classifies its RC activities into “Five Components of Safety” comprising environmental safety, plant safety, product safety, labor safety, and transportation safety. Every year, we set RC activity targets, key issues, and implementation items, which are then applied to specific measures for each works, plant, and Group company. These activities have been implemented since 1995. In addition, “dialogue with society,” including information disclosure and exchanges with local communities, has been added to the Five Components of Safety as a theme of the activities.

The RC Committee, chaired by an Operating Officer appointed by the President (Kazuyoshi Yamauchi, General Manager of the Corporate Technical Division (concurrently Director and Executive Operating Officer)), comprises business division managers and corporate division managers.
In order to ensure that decisions on RC activities made by the RC Committee are thoroughly disseminated as Group policies in a timely manner, managers and staff in charge are assigned to business divisions, plants, research laboratories, and affiliate companies to ensure the concrete rollout of RC targets.

RC activities are being developed by ensuring that the PDCA cycle is followed in an effort to “spiral up” the activities.

The NOF Group carries out RC auditing every year to ensure the effectiveness of RC activities. We have been continually conducting RC auditing at target domestic and overseas works, plants, and subsidiaries since fiscal 1998. In fiscal 2024, we conducted audits across the entire Group with the priority theme set as “legal compliance.” We checked the progress of RC activity targets and the levels of activities related to the Five Components of Safety at all works and plants, and encouraged them to make improvements.
In addition, we conduct on-site and written audits of all business works and plants to strengthen chemical substance management. In addition to reporting on new chemical substances (actual result in FY2024: 494), we confirmed the status of compliance with laws and regulations concerning chemical substance management and confirmed the status of improvements to items indicated in the FY2023 audit. Through this, we worked to improve the level of chemical substance management. We follow up on the progress of responding to all items indicated in the audit to ensure that all remedial measures are taken.
Priority audit themes for the past five years are listed on the below.

The NOF Group is promoting the acquisition of certification by competent outside bodies as a means of improving transparency and objectivity of environmental safety activities.

All of NOF’s works and plants with manufacturing divisions have acquired ISO 14001 certification, and we are systematically implementing environmental improvement activities in consideration of the particulars of business and local characteristics. Six consolidated subsidiaries of NOF have acquired ISO 14001 certification. Also, NICHIYU LOGISTICS CO., LTD. has obtained Green Management certification from the Foundation for Promoting Personal Mobility and Ecological Transportation.
　

Rate of acquisition of ISO14001 certification (production volume basis*2)

• FY2023 environmental certification：93%［Covered organizations：Domestic Group］, 90%［Covered organizations：NOF Group］
• FY2024 environmental certification：94%［Covered organizations：Domestic Group］, 91%［Covered organizations：NOF Group］

1. Acronym for Environmental Management Systems. A management system comprising a framework for an organization to formulate, implement, review, and maintain its environmental policy; and encompassing planning activities, responsibilities, practices, processes, and management resources.
2. Production volume basis: Based on the total production volume of works, plants, and affiliates with production divisions (4 non-consolidated, 7 domestic affiliates, and 6 overseas affiliates).