Our CSR initiatives are implemented by the CSR Management Committee, which is chaired by the president and COO of Seven & i Holdings, Noritoshi Murata, and composed of the people responsible for CSR-related matters, along with three subcommittees ‒ the Corporate Ethics and Culture Subcommittee, the Consumer Affairs and Fair Business Practices Subcommittee, and the Environment Subcommittee. Working groups are set up within the subcommittees to tackle individual challenges, and initiatives are undertaken throughout the entire Group.

The person responsible for Environment is the Director and Senior Officer of CSR Department of Seven & i Holdings, Junro Ito.

Based on the opinions of stakeholders, the Company itself, and CSR experts, Seven & i Holdings reviewed the issues that it should focus on, and in the summer of 2014 determined a new set of material issues. With regard to the environment, we identified the main issues that we should address to be as follows: promoting the reduction and recycling of garbage; enhancing the energy usage efficiency of stores; raw materials procurement that helps prevent the depletion of resources; developing and promoting eco-friendly containers; and reducing CO₂ emissions throughout the product life cycle*. We are taking steps to deal with these issues through the working groups listed in the table above.

Seven & i Holdings is working to have its operating company acquire ISO 14001 certification as a way of reducing the environmental impact of all in-house divisions through introduction of environmental management systems. Currently, Seven-Eleven Japan, Sogo & Seibu, and Seven & i Food Systems have acquired the certification. (Certified companies account for 48% of the Group's total sales). These certified companies conduct internal audits every year.