Fulfill accountability of climate change measures to stakeholders through appropriate CDP responses

We provide payment services for businesses, connecting merchants (e.g., online stores, NHK, National Tax Agency, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, etc.) with various payment companies for “contracts,” “payment information,” and “money exchanges”. We have introduced payment systems, platforms, and deferred payment services to business companies and financial institutions that promote cashless and DX solutions, with annual payment processing value exceeding 11 trillion yen. (As of September 2022, consolidated figures) As cashless is promoted, we provide a one-stop connection for merchants to accept a variety of payment methods; according to a 2017 study by the Dutch Central Bank, cash payments emit more CO2 in transportation and ATM operations than card payments. We believe that promoting card payment and cashless business in Japan can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. We have been promoting decarbonization initiatives, such as switching to renewable energy and providing payment services that contribute to a paperless society. However, we lacked the internal resources to focus on sustainability-related disclosures. Our responses to evaluation agencies such as MSCI and FTSE were not sufficient, and we had not yet responded to CDP’s request for responses in 2021, thus we were not being accountable to our shareholders. We felt that we were not being accountable to our shareholders. Realizing that we had to be proactive, we launched an ESG team in August 2021 under the leadership of Executive Vice President Muramatsu and began full-scale efforts. Although we began working to answer the CDP questionnaire this fiscal year, it was difficult to figure out where to start. Under such circumstances, we decided to introduce ASUENE’s CDP response support service while gathering information on CDP responses and researching case studies of similar companies.

We were already familiar with the name of ASUENE. Though we had been working CO2 emissions calculations on our own, lack of knowledge of CDP responses was a bottleneck for us. Among the other services we had considered that time, ASUENE was most attractive because its one-stop service in the decarbonization area and the know-how it had accumulated were outstanding. We also could rely on the knowledge of their sales staff, so we asked ASUENE to assist us. First, we analyzed the risks from climate change and how our DX payment services would benefit from business opportunities in the wake of the decarbonization trend. Visualising CO2 emissions, especially the Scope 3 calculation, was highly challenging. We also haddifficulty around CDP’s questions. There were almost 200 questions and many of them were difficult to understand the intent. Not only that,they needs to be descriptive and required quantitative evidences. We built up a pattern of answers and prepared quantitative evidence while obtaining a consensus within the company. The ASUENE consulting team provided us with advice on the best response and reference examples. It was also helpful that they responded promptly when we had an unclear point two days before the deadline. Even after about two months of assistance, we witnessed a great deal of speed and knowledge. The case studies were especially helpful because it is hard to know the best practices of other companies.

The results of the CDP evaluation are not yet available (scheduled for December 2022), but if we had worked on our own, we would not have been able to submit the best answers. Thus we are confident that the evaluation is better than having answered by only ourselves. It was also very beneficial, as it can be used to expand disclosure in line with TCFD recommendations as required by the Corporate Governance Code. We believe that through our response to the CDP, we were able to fulfill a certain level of accountability to our stakeholders in our climate change measures. It was also a good opportunity for us to deepen our understanding of sustainability management and raise our environmental awareness as a company by taking a fresh look at our own company. We have been promoting decarbonization through our business, and we plan to achieve carbon neutrality in Scope 2 by the fiscal year ending September 30, 2023, in order to further accelerate our efforts. In addition, as I belong to the Global Management Planning Department of the Corporate Value Creation Strategy Division, I would like to work not only in Japan but also in overseas markets in the future.

We would like to contribute to a decarbonized society by actively promoting cashless and DX in our business. We are currently focusing on visualising and reducing our own CO2 emissions, but we would also like to reduce Scope 3 emissions in parallel. Furthermore, once the CDP scores are released, we would like to work more on sustainability management, including challenges to the non-climate change category of CDP and SBT as well. As entire countries work toward achieving carbon neutrality goals, I believe that new business opportunities will arise if the trading of carbon credits accelerates. Many of companies which use our payment services also want to work on decarbonization. It would be great if we could work together to support more companies to decarbonize their businesses. Based on our management philosophy “to pursue the material and spiritual enrichment of our comrades by contributing to the progress and development of society,” we hope to drive social innovation through our business activities and contribute to solving social issues and realizing a sustainable society. In fact, there is a strong demand from our customers for solutions that lead to decarbonization, such as paperless and DX, in order to realize a sustainable society. Through our payment and finance-related technologies, we would like to contribute to the progress toward a convenient, comfortable, and clean society by promoting online and cashless transactions.