Relationship with the Environment | Other Initiatives

Reducing Paper Consumption

Nomura Group sees the day-to-day consumption of paper as an important area where the Group's companies can play their part for the environment. The following are the main initiatives the Group is taking to reduce its paper use.

1. Office paper reduction

Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. calculated the amount of copy paper ordered and thrown away at all branch offices, and estimated the amount of A4 size copying paper used on a company-wide level, which it found came to around 1,055 tons in fiscal 2006. With this information measures were introduced to reduce paper consumption by Nomura Group as a whole, with targets of 10% and 20% down from fiscal 2006 set for the end of fiscal 2007 and 2009 respectively.

2. Slips and forms

We have revised our work flow to reduce the amount of paper used. The Operations Department of Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. and the Securities Clearing Department of Nomura Business Services Co., Ltd. have been able to achieve a 1.44 million sheet reduction in annual paper usage by discontinuing paper output of some 70 different kinds of slips and forms used in their everyday operations related to stocks and bonds.

Efforts for Reducing waste

We have adopted a number of initiatives in our efforts to meet our twin aims of reducing total waste volume as well as the amount of our waste that winds up in landfills. With our "green" purchasing practices, we have added a fourth "R", "Reduce by green purchasing", to the 3Rs of "Reduce", "Reuse" and "Recycle". We are reducing paper use through efficiency measures such as streamlining our in-house documents and converting them to data files.

Nihonbashi Headquarters

Waste recycling ratio

Paper recycling ratio

Reducing Water Use

Toilets account for the largest volume of water used at Nomura. In an effort to keep water waste to a minimum, we have improved facilities by installing sound-masking equipment to prevent unnecessary flushing and switching to water-efficient cisterns and infra-red sensor-operated sinks. As a result, our efforts begun in 2001 to reduce water usage have been a success.

Green Purchasing

Considering the environmental impacts when purchasing stationery, office supplies, and fixtures not only conserves energy and reduces waste, but also contributes to the environmental conservation practices of society as a whole. Nomura Group encourages employees to purchase environmentally-conscious products via the corporate Intranet. We have purchasing guidelines, training, and awareness programs in place so as to increase our rate of environmentally friendly purchasing. Our goal is to make all of our purchasing and procurement environmentally friendly.

Nihonbashi Headquarters

Green purchasing ratio (quantity)

Kids' ISO

Kid's ISO Mascot

Kids' ISO (Kids' ISO 14000) is a program for educating children about the environment. Organized by ArTech International Art & Technology Cooperation Organization, it teaches children about environmental management based on the ISO14001 international standard. The program operates activities throughout the world including Japan, and in addition to raising children's awareness it also promotes international exchange through the domestic and international networks that it creates. Nomura Group supports the goals of Kids' ISO and is a corporate sponsor.
Going forward, Nomura Group would like to raise the environmental awareness of its employees by getting them to implement initiatives in their own homes.

An award from Chuo City for our environmental initiatives

On December 5, 2005, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. received a letter of appreciation, from the Tokyo Metropolitan government for successfully reducing waste and recycling resources at its Nihonbashi headquarters. We are proud to be the first financial company recognized for this, especially as is located in an area that is home to some 2,600 businesses, many of them financial.
Our environmental conservation initiatives include a high ratio of recycling paper, reducing waste and voluntarily setting a 2% reduction target from the previous year's waste level. We achieved a recycling rate of 98.3% by toilet paper for our own use from used paper from our offices.