LIXIL makes pioneering water and housing products that solve everyday, real-life challenges, making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere.
As a leading company in water-related products, we create environmental value for water through water conservation, water circulation, and water purification technologies.
In order to realize the circular economy, set forth in LIXIL’s Environmental Vision, we have designated water sustainability as one of our focus areas and positioned that goal as a priority among our material issues. As a leading company in water-related products, we defined mid-term targets in FYE2023, aiming to help people enjoy the benefits of water to the full and to help secure sustainable water use on a global scale.
LIXIL provides solutions for using water resources sustainably while also creating additional environmental value for water. We do this by encouraging the use of water purification technologies and products and services that reduce water consumption, such as water-saving toilets, water faucets, and smart water controllers.
We seek to conserve water by reducing water consumption, while also cutting waste and energy use through water-purification products that can help reduce the consumption of bottled water and water delivered to the home.
It achieves considerable water savings, while also delivering strong cleaning performance. It can save up to 49%* of water used compared to conventional toilets that use eight liters of water for each long flush. Its AQUA CERAMIC sanitaryware material repels waste during each flush, making day-to-day cleaning easier and keeping it sparkling like new for 100 years.*
Water-saving toilets (Japanese only / A new page will open) >
SATIS(INAX)AQUA CERAMIC
American Standard brand offers a wide range of toilets that meet strict criteria for water saving established by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program, and save nearly 20% more water than the standard criteria set by the government organization. The brand also provides toilets that meet the California Green Building Standards (CALGreen), which mandate the conservation of water. In addition, the bowl height of these toilets conforms to the accessibility height guidelines as outlined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
American Standard water-saving toilet (A new page will open) >
Studio S Low-Profile Toilet
It saves energy and water through touchless functionality that enables water to be dispensed and stopped using an automatic sensor, and Eco Sensor functionality that separates hot and cold water. The sensor helps prevent unintended use of hot water, allowing users to save approximately 37% energy* and 30% water* compared to conventional faucets.
Water-saving and water-purifying products (Japanese only / A new page will open) >
Navish Hands-Free faucet
The GROHE EcoJoy technology is available on numerous models of showers across most of all style and price segments. The integrated flow restrictor automatically reduces water consumption to 9.5 l/min.
GROHE EcoJoy
The starting point of the lever in the mid-position only allows the flow of cold water and prevents unnecessary hot water consumption, which saves energy and CO2.
GROHE SilkMove ES
It uses high-grade filtration technology that can remove impurities such as lead, chlorine, and small particles contained in tap water to provide safe drinking water, with an improved taste. It comes with a small, innovatively designed filter that can be installed for easy access above deck at countertop level or below deck on the inside wall of the cabinet. Easy access to clean water helps prevent plastic water bottle usage and home water delivery, helping to reduce the environmental footprint.
Saybrook Faucet
It is a household water system that can dispense chilled or carbonated water from the kitchen faucet. It can also chill room-temperature water to a desired temperature. Given that as much as seven liters of water is required to produce a single liter of bottled drinking water, GROHE Blue also contributes to the conservation of water resources. The system also helps cut CO2 emissions by 61%* compared to bottled water and reduce plastic waste.
GROHE Blue
We are also developing products that can help prevent water-related troubles in the house, such as our remote-controllable GROHE SENSE GUARD that, when used together with a smartphone app, can notify users of a leaking pipe or other water problems and turn off the water supply.
We are working to use water resources sustainably in all business processes across the company. At sites that use water for manufacturing, we work to identify water-related business risks in each region and take appropriate steps to improve water efficiency, recycle water, and manage wastewater.
In order to better understand local conditions and introduce appropriate measures to address the problem of increasingly scarce global water resources, LIXIL started conducting surveys in FYE2017 to identify water risks at 67 production sites that use water in their manufacturing processes. Our risk assessment process involves first creating a geographical risk profile using the international WWF Water Risk Filter assessment tool. We then conduct surveys of sites that are revealed to be high-risk. This approach enables us to perform comprehensive water risk assessments.
Based on risk assessment results at each site, we promoted initiatives in FYE2022 to reduce water shortage risks at a total of six sites in Mexico, India, and Thailand, and achieved much higher water use efficiency than originally targeted. We then conducted another water risk assessment in March 2022 to prepare initiatives for FYE2023 onwards, which identified four sites in Mexico and Thailand as high-risk (see graph below). Going forward, we intend to regularly update our analysis and to plan and implement appropriate measures in each site to further reduce risks.
Percentage of Production Sites by Water Risk Level (As of March 2022)
Percentage of Water Intake by Water Risk Level* (As of March 2022)
LIXIL is promoting efficient water resource use through water recycling. In FYE2022, we used approximately 780,000 cubic meters of recycled water.
At our Tlaxcala plant in Mexico, we installed a water recycling system that treats manufacturing wastewater for reuse. The wastewater generated by manufacturing processes such as product cleaning and leak detection is treated using a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration system;* approximately 50,000 cubic meters of water treated with this system is reused in the manufacturing process. TOSTEM THAI (Thailand plant) has also reduced its industrial water consumption by approximately 42,000 cubic meters per year by using a water circulation system that can recycle rainwater and factory wastewater. We will continue to increase our use of recycled water and reduce water consumption at plants in the Asian and North American regions where water shortages are severe.
* A type of filtration membrane that enables water to flow through while blocking impurities such as ions and other molecules.
Tlaxcala Plant in Mexico