ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will switch the electricity used at its Tokyo Head Office building to real CO2-free electricity as part of its “RE100 commitment,” starting from electricity for January 2020.
ITOCHU will source its real CO2-free electricity, together with a Non-Fossil Fuel Energy Certificate(*) showing the environmental value of not emitting CO2, from TEPCO Energy Partner, Incorporated (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Nobuhide Akimoto, Representative Director & President), which supplies electricity to the Tokyo Head Office. The Non-Fossil Fuel Energy Certificate includes the tracking information (information about type of energy sources and power plant location) of Maebashi Biomass Power Plant (Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture), which is operated by a subsidiary of Kandenko Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Morito Yoshimi, President), and will be used at the Tokyo Head Office building in combination with purchased electricity.

This initiative can also be used to prove compliance with “RE100,” a global initiative of businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity, in response to the global trend towards decarbonization.

In April 2018, ITOCHU identified material sustainability issues(Materiality)that incorporate an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) perspective and put forth “Address climate change (contribution to realization of low-carbon society)” as one of these.

ITOCHU is involved in a variety of concrete initiatives in this area including solar power, wind power and other renewable power generation and power storage-related projects, and EV and LNG projects.

Furthermore, in February 2019, ITOCHU announced its “Policy on Coal-fired Power Generation Business and Thermal Coal Mining Business,” and its short-term business plan for FY2019 included the establishment of a “target for reducing CO2 emissions throughout the Group and across its supply chain.” Additionally, in May 2019, ITOCHU announced its support for the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) and ITOCHU has since implemented advanced initiatives related to climate change, including scenario analysis in line with TCFD recommendations. The goal of making the Tokyo Head Office real CO2-free electricity is in keeping with this trend and is one of ITOCHU’s concrete initiatives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.