On June 5, 2023, the Rengo Group declared its commitment to reduce coal use at its domestic manufacturing sites to zero by 2027. According to its press release, Rengo will change the fuel used in two paper manufacturing mills.

Currently, the Kanazu Mill and Marusan Paper Mill, which are operated by a group company, use a total of approximately 125,000 tons of coal per year. The Kanazu Mill and Marusan Paper Mill will switch to LNG in 2026 and 2027, respectively, eliminating coal entirely. As a result, the coal-fired power plant (approximately 40, 000kW) at Kanazu Mill, which has been in operation since 2015 and currently sells electricity, will be converted to LNG.

The Rengo Group has declared a CO2 reduction target for 2030 of 46% from the FY2013 level, as well as a target for net zero by 2050. Although the announcement at this time is to switch to LNG, we welcome the Rengo Group’s declaration to exit from coal and hope that, moving forward, they promote the introduction of renewable energy sources, thereby speeding up the process toward zero emissions.

• Rengo press release（in Japanese）