Background

The 2015 Paris Agreement pledged to pursue efforts to limit the increase in the global average temperature to less than 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. Subsequently, the Glasgow Climate Pact clarified that the 1.5°C limit had transitioned from a stretch target into a de facto shared goal. To achieve this goal, the world must reduce CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 45% by 2030 (compared to 2010) and reach net zero by 2050. Approximately 19% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions are generated directly by the building construction and materials industries, while indirect emissions from buildings and homes in use account for another 18%.^*1

Total household water use increased six-fold from 1960 to 2014 owing to population growth and other factors.^*2 As of 2024, 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water,^*3 and 5 billion people worldwide are expected to face water shortages by 2050.^*4

Furthermore, the volume of natural resources extracted from the earth has more than tripled in the past 50 years and is expected to increase by approximately 60% from 2020 levels by 2060.^*5
To address this situation, the world is gradually shifting from a linear economy, which mines new resources, makes products in large quantities, and eventually discards them, to a circular economy designed to close resource loops.

*1 UNEP (Opens new window) >
*2 World Resource Institute (Opens new window) >
*3  “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024” by UNICEF and WHO's Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (Opens new window) >
*4 “2021 State of Climate Services: Water” by WMO (Opens new window) >
*5 “Global Resources Outlook 2024“ by UNEP (Opens new window) >

Our Strategy

Material Issues

At LIXIL, realizing our Purpose of making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere is founded on the principle of sustainable living in coexistence with nature. To deliver on this Purpose, we have established Water Conservation and Environmental Sustainability as one of the core pillars of LIXIL’s Impact Strategy. Additionally, we have identified the following six areas as material issues to actively drive our environmental initiatives:

Climate Change
Water Sustainability
Circular Economy
Product Innovation
Environmental Management
Conservation of Biodiversity

Learn more about LIXIL’s Material Issues >

LIXIL Environmental Vision 2050

Determining the Three Focus Areas for Achieving Our Vision

Climate Change

We seek to achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 through reducing the environmental footprint of our business processes and providing environmentally sound products and services. Furthermore, we believe it is crucial to go beyond the direct emissions of our own business processes, products, and services, and actively contribute to reducing CO₂ emissions across society as a whole, including homes and buildings.

At LIXIL, we are expanding our impact to mitigate climate change and are helping make the transition to a low-carbon society by setting a long-term target to reduce CO₂ emissions to net zero by 2050. This long-term target was the first in Japan’s building materials industry to receive SBT Net-Zero approval in March 2024.

Learn more about SBT Net Zero approval >

Additionally, LIXIL is advancing adaptation to climate change by providing products and services that help mitigate the damage related to climate change, such as rising temperatures and extreme weather events, including higher rainfall, large-scale typhoons, and other natural disasters.

Learn more about Climate Change >

Water Sustainability

As a leading company in water technology products, including toilets, kitchen systems, prefabricated bathrooms, and faucets, LIXIL is advancing efforts toward global water sustainability today to ensure the maximum benefits of water for tomorrow.

To this end, we are pursuing responsible water use by improving water efficiency in our operations, reducing water withdrawal at water-stressed sites, and increasing water savings through conservation-focused products and services.
We collaborate with governments and public sector entities to improve access to safe and clean water. For regions with access to tap water, we deliver purification technology to improve both taste and safety.

Learn more about Water Sustainability >

Circular Economy

LIXIL uses various resources, including metals, wood, resin, and ceramics. LIXIL pursues sustainable resource use and company-wide circularity initiatives throughout all stages of the product lifecycle: from procurement to manufacturing, product use, and responsible disposal. We are moving toward recycle-oriented manufacturing, including the use of recycled materials and reuse-conscious design. Guided by the LIXIL Plastics Action Statement, our initiatives include reducing the amount of plastics consumed by enabling the reuse of plastics within a circular system and developing alternative materials.

Learn more about Circular Economy >
Learn more about Addressing Environment-related Laws and Regulations (Japanese only) >
LIXIL Plastics Action Statement (Opens new window) PDF: 1.3MB >

Defining Our Strategic Approach and Mid-Term Targets

We have established mid-term targets and are accelerating our efforts to achieve the LIXIL Environmental Vision 2050. To fulfill our corporate responsibility and create new value to maximize our positive impact, we address each focus area across three phases: Our Operations, Our Value Chain, and Expanding Our Impact. By steadily advancing our initiatives to maximize impact across these three phases, we aim to mitigate environmental risks and seize business opportunities, driving sustainable growth.

LIXIL Environmental Vision 2050 and Mid-Term Targets

Three Phase Approach

1. Our Operations
   Business processes at our production sites, offices, and sales bases involving our employees and residents in the surrounding areas.
2. Our Value Chain
   Processes including activities related to products and services that we procure, such as mining and processing of raw materials, as well as activities related to products and services that we sell, such as packaging for transportation, logistics, and end use of our products. This involves interaction with external stakeholders, such as our business partners and end users across our whole value chain.
3. Expanding Our Impact
   This goes beyond the production and end-use phase of our products in the value chain, and extends to providing solutions that address the environmental challenges of the world. It also means contributing to the future of the planet by going beyond the framework of our existing business.

Governance Structure

In LIXIL’s governance system, the Board of Directors oversees overall company sustainability. We have also formed an Environmental Strategy Council (ESC), chaired by the Head of Corporate Environmental Management. Composed of members appointed by executive officers, the ESC meets four times a year in principle, to formulate rules and policies related to environmental governance. The council also deliberates targets, strategies, and measures to address environmental issues, including risks and opportunities related to climate change, natural capital, and biodiversity loss. The ESC also develops environmental strategy and manages and monitors company-wide targets.

The ESC outcomes on the deliberation of risks and opportunities related to climate change and natural capital are reported to the Impact Strategy Committee for a vote before being reported quarterly to the Board of Executive Officers. The Board of Executive Officers discusses and approves targets and action plans related to LIXIL’s material issues, including environmental priorities. Progress on these matters is reported semiannually to the Board of Directors for implementation and oversight.

In FYE2026, the ESC conducted target management and monitoring of the three focus areas: Climate Change; Water Sustainability and Circular Economy. Additionally, it discussed updates to the next targets and specific measures in each area, including identifying new mid-term targets in response to climate-related risks, thereby strengthening our environmental strategy. It also deliberated on and reported matters such as confirming the environmental governance structure needed to promote these initiatives and formulating policies for managing water scarcity risks.

Environmental Management Structure

As of April 2026

Targets and Progress

Given our progress toward the current mid-term targets for FYE2026, we have updated some targets looking toward FYE2031 and formulated new mid-term targets to achieve our vision.

A new mid-term target for Climate Change is the reduction of CO₂ emissions by procuring green aluminum, including recycled aluminum. Green aluminum refers collectively to recycled aluminum and non-fossil-energy-sourced aluminum.
By integrating the maximum utilization of recycled aluminum with the promotion of replacing conventional virgin aluminum with non-fossil-energy-sourced aluminum, we will accelerate the reduction of Scope 3 CO₂ emissions while remaining firmly committed to our target of a 100% recycled aluminum usage rate. We are also committed to building a stable procurement base and achieving a low-carbon society.

For Climate Change, we have achieved our target of a 100% ratio for high-performance windows sold for new detached houses in Japan by the target year of FYE2026. To ensure this achievement takes firm root and to maximize our contribution to society through improved residential insulation performance, we have extended the target year to FYE2031 and will continue promoting widespread adoption by maintaining the 100% level.

Regarding the Circular Economy, our target of reaching a 90% recycling rate for waste by FYE2026 was achieved ahead of schedule, driven by significant progress in waste recycling at overseas production sites, including our Mexico plant. Striving to reach even more ambitious goals, we have raised our target to 95% and updated it as a new target for FYE2031. Going forward, we will focus on expanding initiatives and achievements from production sites across other business activities, accelerating our efforts toward achieving a circular society. LIXIL will accelerate its initiatives as a strategic management priority and further ensure the achievement of LIXIL Environmental Vision 2050.

*1 Excluding products used for filling hot tubs or full-body bathing that are not intended for use as energy- and water-saving faucets.

*2 Excluding products designed for housing complexes.

*3 Aluminum alloy 6063.

We have established action plans for reaching our targets in each focus area and promoting relevant initiatives. Please refer to the following items for more detail.

Learn more about Climate Change >
Learn more about Water Sustainability >
Learn more about Circular Economy >

Environmental Management

LIXIL Environmental Vision 2050 aims to reduce environmental risks and enhance the environmental value we create for society. To achieve this, we continuously strengthen company-wide environmental management activities.

LIXIL Environmental Sustainability Principles

LIXIL strives to help people live in harmony with the planet. We pursue a broad range of activities to protect the global environment throughout all processes, from product development, conscious design, raw material procurement, production, distribution and logistics, product use, and end-of-life disposal. The LIXIL Environmental Sustainability Principles encompass five elements to foster our commitment. These principles apply to all employees, including executive officers and directors, and serve as our policy for collaborating with external stakeholders, including suppliers and other key business partners. Revision of the principles is determined by the resolution of the Board of Executive Officers.

• Continually improve environmental management systems and performance
• Adhere to rigorous compliance
• Develop and provide environmentally sound products and services
• Reduce environmental impact in every process of the business operation
• Promote stakeholder engagement

LIXIL Environmental Sustainability Principles (Opens new window) PDF: 189KB >

Environmental Auditing

Internal Auditing

We have established an internal audit system that integrates our environmental policy into our business operations. Audits cover all our manufacturing and non-manufacturing sites and consolidated subsidiaries in Japan. We regularly assess the effectiveness of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and its compliance with laws and regulations at our production plants through audits based on ISO 14001 standards. The ISO 14001 management system encompasses initiatives such as improved energy and water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, and effective management of hazardous waste and air pollutants. Internal audits at non-manufacturing sites and consolidated subsidiaries in Japan are conducted using our in-house EMS and ISO standards. We are steadily broadening the scope of these audits. When internal audits identify exceptions, we implement and verify remedial measures, ensuring the effective operation of our management system. The environmental department at headquarters also conducts audits for environmental managers in our business units.

Acquiring ISO 14001 Certification

We are strengthening environmental governance by expanding ISO 14001 certification at production sites. In FYE2026, ISO 14001 certified sites reached 90.4% and the remaining 9.6% of sites are also guided by ISO 14001 standards in their environmental management.

ISO 14001-Certified Sites (FYE2026)

List of ISO-certified sites (Opens new window) PDF: 44KB >

Environmental Education

We actively engage with our employees to improve their understanding and enhance awareness of LIXIL’s environmental strategy and priorities, including our efforts to address climate change, reduce the consumption of energy and water, and decrease waste through the circular use of resources. We explore and introduce educational training programs and awareness-raising campaigns tailored for the intended target group. We provide basic environmental training opportunities for new recruits on LIXIL’s environmental strategy, overall approach, and strategic targets and vision. We also distribute annual environmental education content for all employees via e-learning channels to provide information about our annual core initiatives and environmental trends. We provide more specialist environmental training to implement EMS by educating all EMS managers and operators on the laws and regulations to be upheld at each site. We also distribute monthly reports on environmental trends and activities to directors, executive officers, and other executive management, which are also available for all employees on our internal social media platform.

Internal Evaluation

We have introduced a stock-linked compensation system for executive officers to encourage their contribution to enhancing the company’s mid- to long-term corporate value, including ESG factors. For eligible officers, the ratio of stock-linked compensation to total compensation is set higher, subject to deliberation by the Compensation Committee.

At LIXIL, integrating our environmental strategy into business operations is a key management priority, as outlined in the LIXIL Playbook—our roadmap for achieving mid- to long-term targets. To honor employee contributions toward these goals, we host the annual LIXIL AWARDS. In June 2026, the awards recognized over 870 projects, including many environmental initiatives focused on reducing CO₂ emissions, improving energy efficiency, and transitioning to more environmentally sound production processes.

Learn more about Internal Awards Program >

Separately, our business divisions in Japan run an annual award program to recognize business sites and units that contribute to solving environmental challenges. Each year, the awards honor environmental footprint reduction activities at production sites in pursuit of the LIXIL Environmental Vision 2050, as well as initiatives promoting products and services that help solve environmental issues.

Reducing the Environmental Footprint across the Product Lifecycle Through Product Innovation

LIXIL operates in over 150 countries, with our products serving more than one billion people, every day. Since many of our housing materials and building fixtures have a long service life of 10 to 20 years, reducing our environmental footprint across the entire product lifecycle—from raw material procurement and manufacturing to product use, disposal, and recycling—is essential to conserving the global environment.
Resource-derived emissions during raw material procurement and those from energy and water consumption during product use account for the vast majority of emissions throughout the lifecycle of LIXIL products. To go beyond minimizing the environmental impact of our own products and further contribute to reducing the footprint of entire buildings, customers, and society, LIXIL is accelerating innovation from the very beginning of product planning and design. We are driving initiatives to lower energy consumption during building use by utilizing low-carbon raw materials and components, actively incorporating recycled materials, optimizing resource efficiency, and enhancing product performance, particularly thermal insulation. Furthermore, we design our products with a focus on durability to extend lifespans and facilitate future reuse and recycling. Through these comprehensive efforts, we will minimize the environmental footprint of our entire value chain while creating new environmental value, driving product development that actively contributes to a decarbonized society, customers, and buildings.

Environmentally Conscious Design

Product-related Environmental Assessment

Our product-related environmental assessment is a comprehensive framework to evaluate and continuously improve the environmental performance of new products at every stage of development. This process examines products from multiple perspectives, including reducing raw material consumption, using recycled materials, improving energy- and water-saving performance during use, and designing for future recyclability. In Japan, we divide the product lifecycle into three stages—produce, use, and recover—guided by the principle of minimizing the environmental footprint while maximizing social value. By conducting these assessments for all new products, we ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations and contribute to achieving a low-carbon, circular society.

Product-Related Environmental Assessment Steps

Evaluation Criteria for Product-related Environmental Assessment

* F☆☆☆☆ (four-star) is the highest rating in the formaldehyde emissions level rating scheme.

Obtaining third-party-verified EPD and Introducing LCA Globally

With the growing importance of transparent, quantified environmental disclosures in the building and construction materials sector, we are conducting objective assessments of our primary products across the entire value chain. Based on ISO 14025 (Type III Environmental Declarations), an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a third-party-verified report that quantitatively discloses a product or service's environmental impact using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. LCA calculates these impacts, including CO₂ emissions, by aggregating all inputs and outputs across the product's entire lifecycle—from raw material procurement and manufacturing to product use, disposal, and recycling. LIXIL is actively working to obtain EPDs in each region by leveraging this objective third-party verification.

With the tightening of regulations for calculating CO₂ emissions for buildings in the EU, in FYE2026, the GROHE brand obtained International EPDs for 18 product groups (including 738 SKUs). In Japan, we acquired SuMPO EPDs for two window sash products for commercial buildings and our PremiAL series of low-carbon recycled aluminum profiles. LIXIL currently has a total of 56 EPDs across the GROHE, American Standard, and LIXIL brands (as of March 2026). We are also calculating CO₂ emissions for other products based on the energy, water, and resources consumed at each stage of their lifecycles. Aligned with the GHG Protocol, LIXIL’s simplified LCA is tailored to our specific business characteristics and applied to calculate CO₂ emissions across the entire supply chain, from procurement, production, sales, and distribution to consumer use.

Management of Chemical Substances

LIXIL is advancing efforts to help contribute to mitigating environmental pollution, while pursuing comfort and improved lifestyles. This includes appropriately managing chemicals and reducing substances that may affect human health and the environment across all of our business processes and products by 2030. This goal represents a key milestone to support our Environmental Vision 2050.

Learn more about Management of Chemical Substances (Opens new window) PDF: 107KB >

LIXIL prioritizes the appropriate management of chemical substances contained in its products to support compliance and product quality. As a global enterprise, we have established a robust governance structure to ensure consistent chemical substance management across all our operating sites, both in Japan and abroad.
In Japan, we have established a cross-functional system in which the Environment, Procurement, and Quality corporate functions collaborate with our business divisions. By leveraging their specialized expertise, these functions ensure prompt and reliable operations, ranging from monitoring regulatory changes to ensuring on-site compliance. We have also established chemical substance management systems at our sites and businesses outside Japan to drive these initiatives. Under these frameworks, we work to enhance our management platforms and further strengthen governance, increasing our adaptability to regulatory revisions, mitigating the risks of environmental pollution, lawsuits and product recalls, and enhancing the credibility of our products.

Management of Chemical Substances in Our Business Operations

LIXIL is committed to appropriately managing any chemical substance contained in its products based on the laws and regulations of each market in which it operates (EU RoHS Directive, REACH Regulation, etc.) and our own guidelines.

In Japan, we ensure appropriate chemical substance management by incorporating chemical substance criteria into our product-related environmental assessments during the design and development stages. Additionally, to guide suppliers throughout the procurement and management phases, we have formulated the LIXIL Chemical Substances Management Rank Guidelines, which classify prohibited and controlled substances and stipulate their handling protocols. Our corporate environmental management and procurement departments collaborate closely to require suppliers to submit material composition data to prove the non-use of chemical substances listed in our guidelines. Furthermore, we regularly monitor domestic and international regulatory trends to keep our guidelines up to date, while sharing these developments with relevant departments to foster internal awareness. We have also implemented a dedicated chemical substance management system to streamline data collection from suppliers, accumulate internal databases, and ensure appropriate information management, including disclosing chemical details to our customers.

LIXIL’s Chemical Substances Management Rank Guidelines (Opens new window) PDF: 2.0MB >

To demonstrate compliance with legal standards for substances that are prohibited in its products or require restricted management, the GROHE brand publishes the GROHE Sustainability Position Paper on its website, making it widely accessible to customers and all other stakeholders.

Reducing Substances of Concern

In developing new products, we prioritize reducing substances of concern contained in raw materials and components, beginning with products for which there is strong societal demand for reduction. For existing products, we also collaborate closely with our suppliers to advance the substitution of these substances.

Conservation of Biodiversity

Conservation of Biodiversity is a material issue that forms the common foundation for the three focus areas of our environmental strategy and is essential to LIXIL’s sustainable growth. LIXIL’s business activities rely on water, minerals, forests, and other nature-derived resources, all of which constitute natural capital underpinned by biodiversity. Today, global biodiversity is disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Biodiversity plays an important role in ensuring stable and healthy natural resources through carbon and water cycles, water purification, and climate regulation. It also helps prevent or mitigate the damage caused by flooding, drought, and other natural disasters.

We are developing comprehensive measures to avoid and mitigate our negative impacts. To understand and identify LIXIL’s dependencies and impacts on nature, we have applied the LEAP approach recommended by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and assessed our value chain activities, including upstream operations.

Our assessment revealed that among LIXIL’s key raw materials, metals such as aluminum and copper, along with ceramics, have a significant environmental footprint during mining and processing, while wood exhibits a particularly high dependency on natural capital within the forests where it is harvested.
To address these identified nature-related issues in our upstream value chain, we have established policies for biodiversity conservation within our Green Procurement Guidelines, requesting active cooperation from our suppliers. Furthermore, for wood—which we identified as a critical raw material with a particularly high dependency on natural capital and a high risk of causing negative environmental and human rights impacts—we will continue to strengthen our procurement due diligence across the entire supply chain.
Our analysis based on the LEAP approach confirmed that each of our initiatives within the focus areas is directly linked to measures for avoiding and reducing our business dependencies and impacts on natural capital. Through these integrated approaches, LIXIL will continue to minimize the environmental footprint of our operations, helping to conserve the global environment and realize a sustainable society.

Disclosure report in response to the TCFD and TNFD recommendations (Opens new window) PDF: 383 KB >

Environmental Communications

To support and contribute to the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C, LIXIL engages in public policy advocacy through industry association memberships and collaboration with our business partners. Whenever we join a new industry association, we assess whether the organization supports the Paris Agreement through its advocacy initiatives and policy engagements and conduct regular reviews to ensure alignment with our support for the Paris Agreement. Should a significant policy misalignment emerge, we seek adjustment through proactive dialogue; if unresolved, we may review our participation, up to and including reconsidering our membership.

In Japan, led by our External Affairs Department in coordination with our environmental management and business divisions, we engage in constructive dialogues with relevant government ministries. Leveraging our specialized expertise, we provide information and propose policy recommendations to promote the widespread adoption and awareness of products and services that facilitate green transformation (GX), thereby accelerating climate action and deepening policy understanding in Japan. We also strengthen collaboration with fellow member companies within industry associations to develop collective policy recommendations for the Japanese government.

The executive officer and general managers in charge of external affairs receive and review regular progress updates from each division to ensure our advocacy and public policy engagement remain closely aligned with our environmental strategy and consistent with the Paris Agreement. Any issues that could significantly affect progress toward our environmental targets are deliberated by the Environmental Strategy Council, and the Impact Strategy Committee—chaired by the executive officer in charge of Impact Strategy—before being reported to and deliberated by both the Board of Executive Officers and the Board of Directors.

Participating in Japan and Global Initiatives

LIXIL has declared its commitment to environmental conservation and is actively participating in initiatives in Japan and around the world to contribute to solving issues faced by the industry.

*1 A network of stakeholders that contribute to TNFD guidance development
*2 Companies and organizations that intend to start making disclosures aligned with the TNFD Recommendations in FYE2024 or 2025, and have registered on the TNFD website

Environmental Disclosures

To gain long-term trust from our stakeholders, we are committed to timely and transparent information disclosure.

External Evaluations & Awards

External Evaluations & Awards ＞