ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has signed a memorandum of strategic partnership with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Takeshi Hashimoto, Representative Director, President and CEO; hereinafter “MOL”) to advance the use of environmental attribute certificates^*1 for decarbonization in the transportation sector.
With the conclusion of this memorandum, both companies will collaborate in marketing, PR, sales and other activities to promote the use of environmental attribute certificates as a means for companies using transportation services to reduce their Scope 3 emissions. By forming a cross-industry partnership between the air and maritime transportation sectors, this initiative represents a new model for decarbonization in Japan.^*2

Recently, the reduction of Scope 3 emissions has become an urgent issue for companies both in Japan and abroad. ITOCHU is promoting the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and MOL is promoting the use of low-carbon marine fuels. By leveraging their respective strengths and collaborating in the air and maritime logistics fields, the two companies are working to establish a framework that supports companies using transportation services in reducing their Scope 3 emissions and to realize decarbonization through collaboration across the entire transportation supply chain.

As part of this initiative, both companies, acting as user companies, traded environmental attribute certificates and reduced their respective Scope 3 emissions.
【Transaction Overview】
- ITOCHU purchased marine (maritime transport, etc.) environmental attribute certificates generated by MOL to reduce GHG emissions associated with marine transport services (Scope 3 Category 4).
- MOL purchased air (aviation logistics, etc.) environmental attribute certificates generated by ITOCHU to reduce GHG emissions related to employee air travel (Scope 3 Category 6).

This transaction was conducted using the platform provided by 123Carbon,^*3 a Netherlands-based environmental tech company.
The platform centrally manages the issuance, transfer, storage, and retirement of environmental attribute certificates under a strict audit system to ensure the traceability and reliability of transactions and ensure they are highly transparent in line with global standards.

Under its management policy, “The Brand-New Deal: Profit opportunities are shifting downstream,” ITOCHU continues to listen to the voices of all stakeholders, including markets and society, and actively promotes contributions to and efforts to achieve the SDGs.

■ Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.

■ ITOCHU Corporation