Business Sphere
Responsible consumption and production stand as integral pillars for businesses committed to sustainable practices as it involves compliance with product quality and safety requirements minimizing waste, adopting eco-friendly production methods, implementing circular economy models and ensuring the ethical sourcing of materials.
Y-EMEA remains its dedication towards responsible and more sustainable production approaches as a central strategic pillar for the future.
3 Spheres
In the following sections we address initiatives that contribute to each area.
Key facts
Sustainable Business Growth
Environmental product compliance
Y-EMEA has a systematic approach to ensure Environmental Product Compliance, managing legal, customer and Yazaki environmental product requirements. We are committed to ensuring the safety and sustainability of our products, operations, and supply chains. Responsible chemical management and safety practices at Yazaki bring positive impacts by reducing the use of hazardous substances and minimizing pollutant release. This approach ensures a safer workplace, protects the environment, and improves product safety.
Quality
Quality, according to Yazaki, involves meeting customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, addressing risks and opportunities, and maintaining a focus on enhancing customer satisfaction through robust project management, design, materials, processes, and competencies.
Our operations are firmly aligned with Global Quality Standards. Over time, we have developed a range of tools and systems focused on prevention, quality assurance, and ongoing enhancement. These include a Global Project Management System, quality enhancement strategies, internal knowledge-sharing programs, quality control circles, rigorous testing procedures, and continuous defect monitoring, among other essential resources. Over the years, we have recorded significant progress that has ensured consistent evolution in Y-EMEA quality assurance. Compared to 2017, there was a significant 86% decrease in the volume of customer complaints and a 70% decrease in the quality index. Additionally, we achieved a 17% reduction in claims compared to the previous year P82 (2022).
Waste management
At Yazaki, we are committed to reducing waste generation, increasing recycling rates, and promoting sustainable waste management practices throughout our operations. Waste management is an essential part of our sustainability strategy as we work toward minimizing our environmental impact and contributing to a circular economy. By focusing on responsible waste practices, we aim to reduce landfill use, prevent pollution, and ensure that valuable resources are reused and recycled whenever possible.
Innovation & Infrastructure
Our business acknowledges the critical role of innovation as a primary catalyst for business growth, emphasizing investments in resilient infrastructure at our operational sites and the potential revamping of existing structures for enhanced sustainability. Innovation is indispensable in confronting urgent global challenges, including climate change, resource depletion, and environmental degradation. It assumes a pivotal role in shaping a sustainable future by facilitating the products design and manufacturing with a diminished ecological footprint, thereby promoting a more circular and resource-efficient economy.
Design for Environment
Y-EMEA integrates a Design for Environment (DfE) approach, emphasizing early and systematic consideration of environmental aspects and requirements during product development to minimize the negative impacts of products on environment. The DfE process is aligned with the new EU Circular Economy Action Plan, facilitating circular business models, aiding in the implementation of circular strategies by way of product design that addresses end-of-life treatment, rules on mandatory recycled content for certain materials of components, improving recycling efficiency and design for life-time maximization. In addition, EU chemicals policy and legislations, in particular REACH, encourage a shift to “safe-by-design chemicals” through the progressive substitution of hazardous substances to better protect citizens and the environment.
Product Carbon Footprint
Y-EMEA is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2039, aligning with the sustainability goals of our customers and the targets set by the European Union. This ambition reflects our dedication to supporting the automotive industry's transition toward a greener future. As part of this effort, we recognize the growing importance of addressing product carbon footprint requirements set by our automotive customers. To stay ahead of these demands, we have taken a proactive approach. We have established a methodology for calculating our Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) in alignment with the Standards ISO 14040, ISO 14044, ISO 14067 and Catena-X Rule Book, as well as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard, considering emissions from raw material extraction and processing, production, distribution and storage – Cradle-to-Gate. Y-EMEA works on transparency and dialogue with suppliers and other value chain partners, obtaining sustainability primary data from their activities and products.
