Kirin Holdings: Focusing management attention on the nature risks that matter most
Company:
Kirin Holdings
Why SBTN?
For Kirin Holdings Company Limited, a leading Japanese multinational, nature is not an abstract sustainability issue. Its alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages businesses depend on water and agricultural raw materials such as barley and fruit — making changes in natural systems directly relevant to sourcing, production and long-term growth.
Those risks are already visible. Fluctuations in agricultural productivity in Brazil have contributed to higher orange procurement costs and supply pressures. For Kirin, this makes nature a concrete business issue — and strengthens the need to understand where risks and dependencies are concentrated across its value chain.
Against that backdrop, Kirin saw value in a structured way to understand where its most important nature-related risks and dependencies sit and where limited management resources should be focused.
As Hiroaki Takaoka, Senior Executive Officer for Corporate Strategy & CSV, explains:
“SBTN is a good tool for us to focus our limited management resources on the risks that really matter. It supports our decision-making.”
From complexity to clearer priorities
Kirin completed and publicly disclosed its validated science-based assessment and prioritization steps (Steps 1 & 2) across its direct operations and value chain, prioritizing freshwater because of the company’s significant dependence on agricultural raw materials. It is using feasibility studies to inform its next stages of target-setting and implementation.
Rather than waiting for perfect supply-chain data, Kirin began with information it already used for business and sustainability decisions and is working to increase its granularity over time.
The process has also required broad internal engagement. Procurement, finance, corporate strategy and operating companies have all been brought into the work, with existing governance structures used to build understanding and agreement step by step. Clearer data requirements have also helped procurement engage suppliers more productively.
Value in practice
One of the most important benefits for Kirin has been the ability to turn a complex nature agenda into a more focused management conversation.
“SBTN helps us speed up decision-making and discussion. Instead of discussing whether or not we should care about nature, the discussion now moves on to which regions, which parts of the supply chain, and which sites are most important for our business. It helps us focus our limited management resources on the risks that really matter.”
— Hiroaki Takaoka, Senior Executive Officer, Corporate Strategy & CSV, Kirin Holdings
It is also strengthening accountability. Kirin sees third-party validation as a more credible — and more efficient — way to communicate its approach than repeatedly explaining and defending a company-developed methodology to different stakeholders.
The underlying data has value beyond target-setting too. Kirin expects information on sourcing locations and commodities to support wider risk assessments, procurement, due diligence and its TNFD work. The company is using SBTN to strengthen the strategy, metrics and targets within its broader nature-related approach.
What they learned
Kirin’s experience suggests that companies do not need to resolve every uncertainty before beginning. Start with the data already available, improve it over time, and break the journey into manageable steps.
Internal communication is just as important as technical analysis. Kirin found that showing colleagues the full complexity of the methodology too early could be overwhelming; focusing instead on the immediate next step made it easier to build engagement and momentum.
Most importantly, Kirin advises companies to approach SBTN not as another compliance requirement, but as a tool for understanding the business and focusing action. For its leadership, investment in nature is part of the foundation for sustainable growth — comparable to other long-term investments the company makes to protect future business value.
Learn more
- Find Kirin Holdings’ materiality assessment and prioritization work on the SBTN Target Tracker.
- Find more case studies
