Current Status of Environmental Impact and Environmental Targets and Outcomes

Current Status of Our Environmental Impact

The following tables outline the environmental impact of the manufacturing activities of Kioxia Group. Although the figures show an increasing trend as a result of us increasing production capacity in response to the growing demand for communications infrastructure, we continue to work on reducing our environmental impact by means of various initiatives. In order to reduce the environmental impact per product capacity during manufacturing of our product manufacturing, when planning and implementing measures we set specific targets, including percentage changes to base year figures, in order to verify our levels of achievement.

The figures in the table below cover emissions from Kioxia Corporation, including the company’s Head Office, Yokohama Technology Campus and Yokkaichi Plant, Kioxia Iwate Corporation, and the Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (SSSTC).

Input

*Table can be scrolled horizontally.

	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022
Chemicals¹ (t)	56,418	63,539	63,241
- VOC²(t)	16,985	18,330	18,318
- PRTR³ (t)	7,214	7,539	6,669
City water⁴ (thousand ㎥)	59	71	122
Industrial water⁴ (thousand ㎥)	22,764	24,417	25,153

Output

*Table can be scrolled horizontally.

	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022
Greenhouse gas (thousand t-CO₂)	2,365	2,542	2,580
Chemicals¹ (t)	639	625	535
- VOC² (t)	599	583	495
- PRTR³ (t)	3	2	2
Waste (t)	93,914	105,737	101,604
- Recycled volume (t)	67,925	75,025	72,932
Wastewater (thousand ㎥)	17,300	18,445	18,923
NOx (t)	28.7	26.6	32.5
SOx (t)	０	０	０

¹ Chemicals targeted for reduction

² Volatile organic compounds: causative agents that generate photochemical smog, such as IPA, butyl acetate and cyclohexanone.

³ Pollutant release and transfer register: a system to ascertain, compile and disclose data on hazardous chemical substances (such as water-soluble zinc compounds, 2-aminoethanol, silver and its water-soluble compounds, etc.) discharged into the environment from any source or transported from work sites in waste. The result includes only our manufacturing and business sites in Japan.

⁴ All fresh water

For details of the environmental impact of each manufacturing site and their efforts to help reduce the environment impact, please refer to each site’s environmental reports.

Kioxia Corporation’s Yokkaichi Plant Environmental Initiatives

Kioxia Iwate Corporation Environmental Initiatives

Targets and Outcomes

Kioxia Group has established its own environmental goals and undertakes business activities that contribute to the realization of a sustainable society. The following table summarizes our environmental targets for FY2022 and their achievement status.

We again achieved all our environmental targets in FY2022 thanks to the energy-saving activities we promoted across the organization and our efforts to reduce the amounts of used and discarded chemical substances at our flash memory manufacturing plants. Our employees also actively participated in a variety of social contribution and biodiversity conservation initiatives, primarily at our manufacturing plants.

We have set numerical targets per product capacity basis for the environmental impact of our product manufacturing activities using FY2017 as a base year; we have also made strenuous efforts to reduce CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions. Our business plan included the expansion of our production lines, and the environmental impact of our activities is therefore expected to have increased compared with the previous year; however we will continue to pursue our cross-functional environmental initiatives.

The figures in the table below cover emissions from Kioxia Corporation, including the company’s Head Office, Yokohama Technology Campus and Yokkaichi Plant, Kioxia Iwate Corporation, and SSSTC.

*Table can be scrolled horizontally.

Environmental targets and objectives		FY2022 Targets	FY2022 Results	FY2022 Achievement Status
Development of products which has less environmental impact in manufacturing processes	Reducing the environmental impact of production processes through miniaturization of devices	3 or more measures per year	3 measures	✔
Mitigation of global warming	CO₂emissions from energy sources (Rate of change from FY2017)	≤ 50.0%	44.3%	✔
Mitigation of global warming	PFCs⁵ emissions (Rate of change from FY2017)	≤ 65.0%	49.5％	✔
Promoting efficient use of resources	Total amount of waste generated minus amount of valuable waste (Rate of change from FY2017)	≤ 51.6%	40.4％	✔
	Total waste generated (Rate of change from FY2017)	≤ 54.2%	42.8％	✔
	Water intake (Rate of change from FY2017)	≤ 50.9%	42.1％	✔
Reduction of environmental risk	Emissions of chemical substances to air and water (Total amount, rate of change from FY2017)	≤ 26.6%	21.4％	✔
Biodiversity conservation	Biodiversity conservation	Periodic monitoring of indicator species	Periodic monitoring of indicator species	✔
Promotion of environmental communication	Social communication	Charity eco bazaars, collection of recyclable waste, donations, etc.	Held charity eco bazaars, collected recyclable garbage, made donations, etc.	✔
Promotion of environmental communication	Community communication	Local communication at manufacturing sites	Communicated with local people (e.g., meetings with local residents' associations)	✔
Raising environmental awareness	Raising environmental awareness	Measures for raising awareness	Held awareness-raising programs (e.g., monthly environmental events)	✔

(✓: Achieved, ×: Not achieved)

⁵ CFC alternatives used in the manufacture of semiconductors. PFCs gases have high global warming potential. The substances used by our group are CF₄, C₄F₈, CHF₃, SF₆, NF₃, CH₂F₂, CH₃F, CH₄, and N₂O.

Removing VOC

Kioxia Group is committed to reducing emissions of chemical substances. In order to control the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), we have installed abatement equipment in 100% of the targeted manufacturing facilities constructed since 2011.

Effective Use of Resources

We are striving to promote the effective use of resources throughout our entire supply chain with the aim of reducing our environmental footprint. In addition to collecting and recycling waste generated during manufacturing, we are proactively reducing our consumption of chemicals and gas by improving manufacturing processes and using packaging that consider environmental impacts.

Since 2022, we have also launched a cross-organizational project aimed at ensuring the effective use of resources and the reduction of waste.

Recycling and Reuse of Waste Generated during Manufacturing

When circuits are formed on wafers during semiconductor manufacturing, circuit patterns are transferred by applying the same mechanisms used by cameras when exposing and developing film. All residual cleaning solvents are collected at our manufacturing sites in Japan, distilled and refined by an outside contractor, and then reused.

At Kioxia Corporation’s Yokkaichi Plant, hydrofluoric acid used in wafer cleaning and circuit shape processing is also collected and processed at an artificial fluorite production facility. By recovering the calcium fluoride (artificial fluorite), the amount of sludge containing hydrofluoric acid is reduced by approximately 30%. The recovered calcium fluoride is used as a fluorine-based material by fluorine-based product manufacturers as an alternative to fluorite, an imported natural resource, helping to curb imports of this scarce mineral.

In addition, polyimide, used as a film-forming material for wafers, used to be disposed of after use, but as a result of a reevaluation of its potential value following a change in composition, it can now be reused. After recovery, it is distilled and refined and used mainly as a raw material for paints.

Use of Environmentally Conscious Packaging

Kioxia Group has been expanding its use of environmentally conscious packaging. Memory chips and silicon wafers are transported between us and subcontractors or material suppliers during manufacturing and processing. To maintain the quality of these delicate components, we use durable plastic cases that provide effective protection during transportation and ensure cleanliness. Kioxia Group in Japan inspects and recycles these cases after use, with almost 90% of wafer packaging currently being reused.

When packaging SSD products for delivery to business customers, we use both plastic inner trays that achieve high shape accuracy to firmly anchor the contents and are recyclable,⁶ and corrugated cardboard packaging materials (e.g., inner and outer boxes for transportation) that are strong and easy to recycle.