SUSTAINABILITY Promoting Community Partnerships and Social Contribution Activities

Our Group is actively promoting initiatives to contribute to solving local issues, mainly through our regional operating companies, while building cooperative frameworks, such as partnerships with local governments, in each region. As a member of the community, we make donations to local governments, create new employment opportunities for the disabled, and support job training for financially disadvantaged youth.

Established donation support programs for Hokkaido municipalities

“Hometown Support H Program” Air Water Hokkaido in our Group has established the “Hometown Support (Furusato Ouen) H Program,” in which H is pronounced “eichi” and means wisdom in Japanese. This program will provide donation support to all 179 municipalities in Hokkaido, up to a total of 1 billion yen over an eight-year period from FY2023 to FY2030. We will accept applications every year for a wide range of projects in municipalities that contribute to solving various social issues, including from the perspectives of “Global Environment” and “Wellness” of our growth axes. In selecting projects to be supported, we set up a promotion committee of the program consisting of external experts with insight into regional administration and economy. The committee will make a comprehensive judgment of sustainability, ripple effects, creativity, cooperativeness, and contribution to the region, among other factors, before deciding on the recipients of support.

Air Water Smile (a Type-A continued employment support office*) contracted dishware reuse business, contributing to reducing plastic waste

In this business, dedicated reusable dishes are leased to event operators. After use, they are collected, cleaned, and reused, thereby reducing plastic waste. We will continue to expand contracted projects that help solve such regional issues as well as provide new employment opportunities and rewarding jobs to people with disabilities.

* Welfare service that allows people with disabilities or serious illnesses who have difficulty working in general companies to work in a place with a certain level of support under an employment contract.

Social contribution activities in India

Air Water India Private Limited, a group company, is actively engaged in social contribution activities in India. The company supports vocational training for economically disadvantaged youth conducted by Pan IIT Alumni India, a program started by alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology. In addition, to support public school education, the company provided free of charge a complete set of drinking water facilities and renovated toilets to four schools in the Bellary region of the country.