Asahi Kasei to Start Providing Carbon Footprint Data for Synthetic Rubber and Elastomers

Asahi Kasei, a diversified Japanese multinational company, has developed a system (the System¹) to calculate the carbon footprint of products (CFP²) for the synthetic rubber and elastomers products Asadene, Tufdene, Asaprene, Tufprene, Asaflex, Tuftec, and S.O.E. with CFP data provision to customers scheduled to begin in June 2022. CFP visualization is achieved utilizing the DEEP³ (Data Exploration and Exchange Pipeline) group-wide management infrastructure as a part of the System, which also enables examination of ways to further reduce CFP.

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Products made from Asahi Kasei’s synthetic rubber and elastomers range from food packaging and hygienic products to numerous medical and automotive applications. This system will help us reduce CFP in both our Health Care and Materials sectors, making it a significant contribution to Asahi Kasei’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Asahi Kasei Group made efforts to strengthen the business platform for sustainable growth from the viewpoint of Green, Digital, and People in its previous medium-term management plan, Cs+ for Tomorrow 2021. In its new medium-term management plan, announced on April 11, 2022, Green Transformation is positioned as one of the key areas for strengthening the management foundation, and Asahi Kasei is advancing reductions of its own GHG emissions as well as contributions to reducing the world’s GHG emissions for the realization of carbon neutrality. Therefore, from the perspective of GHG emissions reduction, Asahi Kasei has sequentially advanced the calculation of CFP for each product starting with the main products, and information provision to certain customers has begun.

As part of the effort to accelerate Green Transformation, Asahi Kasei has begun procuring butadiene derived from plastic waste and biomass as feedstock for solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR), a material for eco-friendly tires⁴.

The System clarifies the CFP for each synthetic rubber and elastomer product, which allows customers to calculate their own CFP. This furthermore facilitates initiatives to reduce CFP throughout the supply chain as well as in society as a whole. As various regulations related to CFP such as carbon taxes are introduced, CFP data will continue to rise in importance. The System also allows various parameters of the CFP data such as span (yearly or monthly) and scope (average of products or each product individually) to be tailored to meet the diverse needs of customers.