Sumitomo Chemical Establishes New Indicator of Avoided GHG Emissions Achieved Through the Use of its Products and TechnologiesーScience Based Contributions

Jun. 15, 2023

Sumitomo Chemical has established a new indicator to more clearly show the degree to which its products and technologies contribute to achieving carbon neutrality: Science Based Contributions (SBC). Using the SBC indicator, the Company will calculate and visualize its contributions to avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and accelerate its efforts to realize carbon neutrality across society through its products and technologies.

Since 2015, Sumitomo Chemical has been advancing its Sumika Sustainable Solutions initiative, an in-house effort to recognize the Sumitomo Chemical Group’s products and technologies that contribute to climate action and the reduction of environmental impact, taking the entire product life cycle into consideration, and to step up their development and dissemination. In fiscal 2022, the number of Sumika Sustainable Solutions products and technologies reached 66, with revenue reaching approximately 680.0 billion yen, and their share of the Company’s revenue increased to 24%.

The SBC indicator represents the amount of GHG emission reductions achieved in society through the use of Sumika Sustainable Solutions products and technologies sold and provided by the Group that are  quantitatively and scientifically calculated.^*1 The calculation is based on the carbon footprint^*2 and sales volume of each of the products, as well as the production capacity of licensees’ plants using the technologies. The calculation method is validated by external experts.

Discussions are becoming more active globally about avoided GHG emissions calculation rules and related issues. Sumitomo Chemical hopes that the SBC indicator will serve as a catalyst for promoting more in-depth discussions on avoided GHG emissions in various areas and industries.

Method of calculating avoided GHG emissions using the SBC Indicator
The SBC indicator is calculated based on the carbon footprint and sales volume of each Sumika Sustainable Solutions product, as well as the production capacity of licensees’ plants using Sumika Sustainable Solutions technologies, following the steps (1) through (3):

The Company carefully selects those Sumika Sustainable Solutions products and technologies that are expected to reduce definite amounts of GHG emissions and calculates their respective SBC indicators—contributions to emissions reductions by customers and licensees—as avoided emissions that those products and technologies have achieved in society. The SBC indicator in fiscal 2022^*3 totaled 8.30 million tons of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent), with 2.70 million tons for those Sumika Sustainable Solutions technologies and 5.60 million tons for those Sumika Sustainable Solutions final products.

Utilizing the SBC indicator, Sumitomo Chemical will step up its disclosures and strive to promote stakeholders’ understanding of the contributions of the Group’s products and technologies to society, while also advancing its efforts toward achieving global carbon neutrality.

*1 While taking on the challenge of reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions as its obligation on its own initiative, Sumitomo Chemical will implement the SBC indicator as a separate initiative to make visible the contributions that the Company makes to society’s reduction of GHG emissions through its technologies and final products.
Scope 1 emissions: Direct GHG emissions by businesses (from burning of fuels and industrial processing)
Scope 2 emissions: Indirect GHG emissions from purchases of utilities such as electricity and heat from outside the plant
*2 Carbon footprint: GHG emissions of a product across its life cycle, from the procurement of raw materials to the manufacture, use, and disposal of the product, expressed as a CO₂ equivalent.
*3 The fiscal 2022 SBC indicators for the selected technologies and products were calculated as follows:
For the technologies: Contributions to emissions reductions by licensees using the technologies were calculated by comparing the Company’s propylene oxide (PO)-only process with the average of other PO manufacturing processes, such as the chlorine process, and by comparing the Company’s hydrogen chloride oxidation process with the salt electrolysis process.
For the products: As for methionine, contributions to the reduction of N₂O in poultry waste were calculated by comparing feed using methionine with feed not using methionine. Regarding the Sumisoya herbicide, contributions to emissions reduction achieved by no-till farming in the U.S. were calculated by comparing no-till farming for soybean cultivation with the conventional farming method. As for a seed treatment agent and a paddy rice nursery-box treatment agent, contributions to emissions reduction achieved by avoiding the use of some crop protection chemicals were calculated by comparing these treatment methods with conventional methods.

Contact

Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.
Corporate Communications Dept.
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