Press ReleasesNippon Paper Industries Obtains Highest Rating in DBJ Environmental Rating

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (President: Fumio Manoshiro; hereinafter "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has obtained the highest rating in the DBJ Environmental Rating from the Development Bank of Japan Inc. (President: Masanori Yanagi; hereinafter "DBJ"), and has received a loan based on the relevant program.

DBJ Environmentally Rated Loan Program is the world's first loan program in which the conditionality is set based on the scores evaluated on the level of corporate environmental management through the screening (rating) system developed by DBJ.

The following points were highly evaluated.

(1) With the involvement of top management, the Company has worked for a long time on identifying materiality and actively facilitating the disclosure of information to sustain the trend of non-financial information disclosure, taking important Group-wide issues and discussions on KPI^(Note) into consideration.
(2) The Company has been promoting the sustainable procurement of raw materials based on enhanced supply chain management through questionnaires and improvement requests for foreign chip/pulp suppliers, while simultaneously achieving a 100% acquisition ratio of forest certification for company-owned forests, using only forest-certified wood for making paper.
(3) While invigorating domestic forest industry through the increased usage of domestic timber for papermaking business, the Company has also been working to solve social issues on a Group-wide basis through its main businesses by focusing its efforts on research and development in order to take on challenges for the creation of new value with an eye on the development of next-generation, eco-friendly technologies and products.

Based on these evaluations, the Company obtained the highest rating in recognition of its excellent advanced environmental initiatives.

As a comprehensive biomass company shaping the future with trees, the Company will contribute to the creation of a sustainable society by utilizing its nurtured technological capabilities and promoting businesses that leverage a range of properties of wood, which are renewable resource, while simultaneously continuing to take environmentally friendly measures going forward.

(Note) Abbreviation for Key Performance Indicator .