Rengo : Yashio Mill Recongized as a Top Level Facility Under the Saitama Prefecture Cap and Trade Type Emissions Trading Program

Rengo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kita-ku, Osaka; Chairman, President & CEO: Kiyoshi Otsubo) announces that its Yashio Mill, located in Yashio-shi, Saitama Prefecture, has been recognized as a Top Level Facility within the Excellent Large Scale Business Facilities category, under the cap and trade type emissions trading system operating as part of Saitama Prefecture Global Warming Strategy Promotion Ordinance.

The trading system was established in April 2011 to encourage systematic reductions in the total volume of CO2emissions by business facilities that utilize large amounts of energy. To be recognized as an Excellent Large Scale Business Facility, businesses are subject to an exacting assessment by a third-party organization, and must be judged as possessing outstanding global warming strategies in comparison to other similar businesses. Rengo's Yashio Mill had previously been recognized as a Quasi-Top Level Facility, but has now become the first facility in the prefecture to be recognized as a Top Level Facility.

Yashio Mill has over many years, established a consistent track record of CO2reductions: in addition to making an early change in its fuel source from heavy oil to clean, processed natural gas, the mill has also installed highly efficient, energy-saving facilities throughout the entire manufacturing process. Moreover, in recent years, Yashio Mill has formed small group activity team, named 'Teinenpi (Fuel-Efficient) Yashio Team,' which specializes in reducing energy consumption within the mill. The team invites various energy-saving suggestions from all of the mill's employees, which it then evaluates and implements; the team does not rely solely on improvements to machinery, but also puts detailed energy-saving initiatives into practice. Yashio Mill's achievements have been highly praised, and it was awarded the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award at the FY2014 Energy Conservation Grand Prize in the field of industry.
In January 2016, Yashio Mill installed a new woodchip biomass power plant, which uses woodchip taken from construction waste to provide approximately 20 percent of the mill's entire electricity needs. The plant is expected to save an additional 65,000 tons or so of CO2emissions per year.
Rengo operates on the principles of less resource and less energy, and takes as its keyword 'Less is more.' Going forward, Rengo aims to use fewer resources to create packages with even greater value, and to actively reduce its environmental impact.