Crown Package: Contributing to a Sustainable Society Through Company-Wide Aligned ESG Activities

Simply Answering Business Partners’ Questionnaires Does Not Improve ESG Management

Crown Package is a corrugated cardboard manufacturer founded in Aichi Prefecture in 1962. The group employs over 2,100 people across its entire operations. Its core product is an ultra-thin corrugated board called “microflute” and the various packaging solutions that utilize it. Microflute is exceptionally versatile; it can be used for individual retail boxes as well as primary food containers, making it an excellent alternative to plastic packaging. Operating on a business model where they design, manufacture, and sell original, custom packaging for enterprises, Crown Package partners with a wide range of clients, from major corporations to small and medium-sized businesses.

Although corrugated cardboard is inherently an environmentally friendly material, Crown Package had not fully leveraged this core business characteristic for corporate PR in the past. However, management recognized that proactive external communication would be essential for the company’s long-term growth and competitiveness.

With the Tokyo Olympics putting the spotlight on the SDGs, Crown Package noticed a sharp increase in requests from major client companies asking them to complete environmental questionnaires. In response, they began to actively focus on ESG-related information disclosures and questionnaire completion.

However, the company soon ran into a roadblock. Whenever they submitted a questionnaire, they would simply receive an evaluation score back without any specific suggestions on how to improve. Because of this, it was highly unclear what actions they should take next. Furthermore, with nine business locations nationwide, there was a noticeable disparity in engagement: sites that had undergone audits requested by clients had high awareness, while non-audited sites lagged behind. This created a disjointed corporate culture lacking in company-wide unity.

While Crown Package aimed to align its management with modern expectations (such as defining its materiality, or key issues, and establishing a corporate code of conduct), it hit a wall with standalone ESG activities. To elevate performance efficiently, the company needed a partner who could work closely with them to visualize each metric and guide them through the subsequent improvement actions.

From Visualization to Actionable Steps, ASUENE’s Comprehensive Support was the Deciding Factor

Initially, Crown Package’s primary goal was to calculate its CO₂ emissions, which led representatives to visit an industry exhibition to gather information. Among the various CO₂ visualization services they evaluated, their first impression of the platform, ASUENE, was highly positive. They found the system intuitive, easy to use, and felt it offered the best cost-performance. ASUENE’s representatives explained everything clearly, giving Crown Package the confidence that they would be a compassionate, reliable partner who would walk beside them.

Although Crown Package is an unlisted company, management felt a strong sense of urgency. They knew that as Prime-listed corporate clients began disclosing their Scope 3 emissions, the company risked being excluded from their supply chains if they did not take early action. While they had been managing Scope 1 and 2 emissions in Excel, they realized they needed a dedicated system to accurately calculate and manage Scope 3, which led them to adopt the carbon accounting platform, ASUENE.

Further, because of its business focus on eco-friendly manufacturing, the company was already heavily invested in broader ESG activities. This naturally drew their interest to ASUENE ESG (currently ASUENE SUPPLY CHAIN). They compared several ESG evaluation services, but ASUENE ESG (currently ASUENE SUPPLY CHAIN) stood out. They found the system highly localized, easy to understand, and its consultants incredibly approachable. Crown Package decided to adopt the system because they weren’t just looking for an evaluation score; they wanted a service that offered the support and advice necessary to drive tangible improvements.

Reducing CO₂ and Boosting ESG Ratings Through Lightweight and Compact Packaging

As a company specializing in ultra-thin microflute corrugated cardboard, Crown Package is constantly challenging itself to see how far it can reduce the weight and physical footprint of its packaging while strictly maintaining its primary function of protecting the product inside. The company is also actively developing new eco-friendly paper materials. By driving research into new materials and innovative structural designs to create packaging with lower lifecycle CO₂ emissions, Crown Package can directly contribute to solving global environmental issues.

The company aims to be an organization where research and development naturally translate into higher ESG ratings, thereby contributing directly to the realization of a sustainable society.

To achieve this, Crown Package is using the implementation of ASUENE ESG (currently ASUENE SUPPLY CHAIN) as a catalyst. They are starting by answering the platform’s questionnaires at their headquarters first. This allows them to establish a clear baseline of where they currently stand while simultaneously raising internal awareness regarding ESG management. They hope ASUENE ESG (currently ASUENE SUPPLY CHAIN) will help them codify their internal standards, serving as the common thread that aligns the entire organization. Ultimately, their goal is to ensure that no matter which of their nine locations undergoes an ESG audit, they receive a consistently high evaluation.

At the same time, by quantifying their ESG activities, Crown Package can secure highly objective, third-party validation. Their ideal vision is for these ESG efforts to link directly to corporate PR and, by extension, drive business growth.

To keep the company on track, the CSR Promotion Office has established “Vision 2030” as their core KPI roadmap for promoting ESG management, setting specific KPIs for each identified materiality. To execute post-evaluation improvement actions, they have high expectations for the combined, comprehensive support of the ASUENE ESG (currently ASUENE SUPPLY CHAIN) system, human capital consulting, and the carbon accounting platform, ASUENE, which they already use.

Going forward, environmental demands from business partners will only intensify. By taking proactive, pioneering steps today, Crown Package aims to transform compliance into powerful corporate branding and make a meaningful contribution to society.