Our Approach

LIXIL has positioned improving the quality of people’s daily lives and solving social issues through active engagement with stakeholders as one of our material issues. We are committed to proactively engaging in dialogue with all of our stakeholders, including customers, business partners, members of the communities where our operational facilities are located, shareholders and investors, and our employees and their families, to collect and reflect their opinions in our business operations and corporate social responsibility activities.

Our System

LIXIL’s CR Committee consists of the executive officers and leaders from corporate functions and our business units. The committee deliberates on the impacts upon different stakeholders as well as on our community development for and cooperation with stakeholders as it promotes sustainability initiatives. Our business units also respond to and partner with a diverse range of stakeholders.

Key Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder Cooperation in Our Three Strategic Pillars

● Global Sanitation & Hygiene
MAKE A SPLASH! Partnership with UNICEF

Through our MAKE A SPLASH! global partnership with UNICEF, LIXIL helps to establish markets for hygiene-related goods such as toilets and handwashing products and to improve the overall sanitation environment in emerging markets. We make donations to MAKE A SPLASH! And conduct various activities to increase awareness of sanitation and hygiene issues together with end users, building contractors and other professional users, and LIXIL employees.

• Toilets for All Project*: Donate a portion of the proceeds from each integrated shower toilet unit sold (FYE2020:¥26 million)
• Team Splash employee donation program: Donate through automatic payroll deductions (FYE2019-FYE2021:Total of ¥17 million)
• MAKE A SPLASH! with LIXIL Owners Club: Donation made for every newly registered LIXIL Owners Club member (FYE2021-FYE2022: ¥4.3 million); awareness-building activities through our e-mail magazine
• Donation campaign for the Netherlands and Belgium: Coordinated with the GROHE brand’s shower product sales promotion campaign (FYE2021: 140,000 euro)
• Energy for Life campaign targeting 13 countries in the EMENA region: Donate a portion of the proceeds from each GROHE brand shower product sold (FYE2022: 1.2 million euro)
• Sanitation and Hygiene Action project with Atsuto Uchida: Donation made based on the number of interactions with video and social media contents (FYE2022: ¥700,000)

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*From FYE2018 to FYE2019, we implemented the Toilets for All Project in cooperation with various different partners. We donated one SATO toilet to a country in Asia or Africa for each integrated shower toilet purchased by a customer, resulting in total donations of 400,000 units.

Partnership Agreement with USAID

Through our five-year Partnership for Better Living (PBL) agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed in October 2021, LIXIL will deploy SATO toilets and SATO Tap handwashing stations in up to 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The partnership aims to improve access to basic sanitation for two million people by 2026.

We are also collaborating with USAID’s Sons and Daughters of the Soil (SODAS) campaign in Uganda to promote the use of hygiene solutions. SODAS seeks to encourage urban workers to convey sanitation improvements when visiting their rural hometowns. We use outreach programs and social media campaigns to teach local residents how to upgrade their open pit toilets. USAID estimates 750,000 people will benefit from the campaign.

● Water Conservation & Environmental Sustainability
THINK HEAT: Let’s THINK about Eco-and People-Friendly Temperatures

THINK HEAT is a collection of initiatives in which we consider with stakeholders the importance of indoor temperature, which can cause heatstroke or heat shock, and the efficient use of heaters and air conditioners, which account for approximately 28% of household energy consumption. Our aim here is to help promote climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Cool de Peace Project

We work with local authorities to build awareness of how to prevent indoor heatstroke and install sunshade protection.

In addition to helping the city hold seminars from FYE2019 on how to prevent indoor heatstroke in Kumagaya City, Saitama, we also worked on some verification testing in houses of test volunteers and uninhabited houses equipped with external Style Shade sun blinds in FYE2020. Based on the test results, the city launched in April 2020 a new subsidy for erecting external sunshades on residential buildings, which is contributing to heatstroke prevention in the city.

In FYE2021, at Iwamatsu Kita Elementary School in Fuji City, Shizuoka, we also conducted a collaborative experiment designed to improve classroom environments in summer during the COVID-19 pandemic. We installed Style Shades in the classroom, and the students measured, discussed, and presented their findings on the effects of the shades and examined with LIXIL how to both prevent heatstroke and ensure good ventilation.

In FYE2022, we installed Style Shades in the classrooms at Iwamatsu Kita Elementary School, conveyed information on effective ventilation methods across the school, and conducted research and surveys relating to the prevention of heatstroke in the community. We also held meetings to enable students to present the results of their comprehensive learning studies and the research and to talk about heatstroke prevention in their own community. At the Iwamatsu Junior High School, also in Fuji City, we examined how effective installing sunshades was at improving classroom temperature conditions and reducing air-conditioner power consumption. In addition to producing and distributing posters on preventing heatstroke, we are also encouraging initiatives for producing shades through upcycling activities and verifying their efficacy. These activities demonstrate how environmental and SDGs education can be expanded by encouraging independent learning among students.

Alongside the demonstration testing and the offering of advice and information to the children, LIXIL also discloses information on our activities and verification results nationwide in Japan through our website and other channels. Going forward, we will consider expanding these activities across more schools together with local authorities.

Our initiatives have been highly praised, with the Cool de Peace Project being awarded the Grand Prize of the 2021 Japan’s Minister of the Environment Awards for Climate Action (Dissemination/Promotion Division, Adaptation Field). Following its achievement in the previous year, Iwamatsu Kita Elementary School won First Prize in the Team Category and Iwamatsu Junior High School won First Prize in the Team Category and a Top Runner award in the Public Section at the 2021 Hitosuzumi Awards run by the secretariat of the Heat Illness Prevention – Communication Project.

ECO Sharing through Windows Project

In partnership with local customers, governments, and business partners, we donate external sunshades to public childcare centers funded by a portion of the revenue earned from sales of thermal windows and other eco-friendly products that help reduce CO₂ emissions. We donated Style Shades to five facilities in the Kyushu region in FYE2020, six facilitates in the Kita-Kanto and Koshinetsu regions in FYE2021, and 15 facilities in the Kita-Kanto, Koshinetsu, Kanto, and Kansai regions in FYE2022, reducing CO₂ emissions by a total of 6,533 tons. Going forward, we plan to further promote these efforts by expanding our target areas.

Outreach Classes: Healthy Living and Good for the Environment

We have conducted outreach classes 107 times for about 3,200 people primarily at elementary schools. We offer experiment- and experience-based classes and convey tips on thermal insulation and ventilation and general daily living habits that are both good for your health and the environment. We have also managed to strengthen relationships with business partners by conducting joint activities in some regions.

Reducing Marine Plastic Pollution

To help reduce the amount of plastic in our oceans, LIXIL has been developing water purification products and working to reduce plastic use in product manufacturing and packaging. We have also been supporting the NGO everwave, a team of natural scientists, architects, engineers, and marine biologists who come together to devise ways of improving marine plastic collection. Since roughly 80% of marine plastic flows into the ocean from rivers, everwave is developing a floating platform designed to collect plastic particles in the rivers. Apart from this, they already use the so-called CollectiX garbage collection boats which locate and collect garbage in lakes or rivers. After successful tests, the CollectiX boat was used in rivers in Slovakia in FYE2021 and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in FYE2022.

Investigating the Processing of Used Paper Diapers

LIXIL has started to investigate the environmental effects of processing used paper diapers in cooperation with the Sewage and Wastewater Management Department of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Toyota City Waterworks and Sewerage Bureau, and the Sankyuen nursing home. Used diapers that contain a large amount of liquid are considered to have a heavy environmental toll when incinerated. Using a paper diaper processing machine with a crushing mechanism developed by LIXIL, we investigate the effects on water quality and the volume of CO₂ emissions generated when incinerating the reduced volume of diapers. Our aim is to realize a society in which diverse people can live with peace of mind while also conserving the environment.

mymizu Challenge to Reduce Plastic Bottles

In October 2021, we accepted the mymizu (my water) Challenge. Over 2,600 employees worldwide formed teams and competed to see how many single-use plastic bottles they could reduce by using their own reusable bottles and cups. The result was a resounding reduction of approximately 67,000 plastic bottles in one month, more than double the previous year’s achievement.

● Diversity & Inclusion
Inclusive Public Toilet Initiatives

We conduct surveys on toilet use together with universities, NPOs, and companies in order to help realize a society which offers toilets that all people can feel comfortable and safe when using.

Through our Study Group on All-Gender Use of Office Toilets, launched in partnership with Kanazawa University and Comany Inc., we investigated toilet use by transgender people and general awareness of transgender issues in the office and identified a need for more diverse toilets.

We also conducted a Fact-Finding Survey on Public Toilet Use by Children with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities in conjunction with the Foundation for Yokohama Rehabilitation Services to better understand the needs of children with developmental disabilities and their caregivers. We are now investigating the potential creation of unisex “spacious toilets” that consider odor, sound, and light.

Based on these surveys, we are pursuing the following efforts to create an inclusive public toilet environment that everyone can use with ease.

• Develop barrier-free accessible Mobile Toilet
• Establish gender-neutral toilets where people can choose the cubicle that best suits them
• Provide public toilet space that everyone can use with ease

Universal Run: Sports Prosthetic Limb Experience Class

We hold Universal Run: Sports Prosthetic Limb Experience Class at elementary schools across Japan in cooperation with athletes who use prosthetic limbs for sports. We seek to promote children’s understanding of diversity by giving them the opportunity to talk with athletes and experience what it feels like to walk with a prosthetic limb. The classes are conducted in cooperation with local schools, governments, and our local employees. So far, 17,065 children have taken part in 617 events.

Fueled by our goal to improve awareness and understanding of people with disabilities and expand opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in society, we reviewed our strategy and management structure in FYE2022. Going forward, we will enlist the support of the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan to extend the number of target schools and expand our awareness programs.

Major Partnerships