The Otsuka Group Environmental Promotion Council was formed in 2003 to bring together staff involved in environmental and ISO initiatives, and facilitate exchange of a range of information, including on compliance with environmental regulations and technology trends. Thirteen Group companies currently participate in the council.
The council met four times in fiscal 2010 to exchange information on the following subjects: compliance with the revised Act on the Rational Use of Energy; adoption of energy-saving equipment such as LED lighting and solar power, and latest technology trends; and medium- and long-term planning for reducing CO₂ emissions under a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement. The Group has also developed a system for sharing environmental data, to facilitate the collection and sharing of accurate data and for the improvement of environmental initiatives.

Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals with a focus on the South Korean market. From its head offices in Seoul, the company oversees six sales branches and one manufacturing plant.
The Hyangnam plant embraces the philosophy that companies must take a leading stance on the environment to secure growth as trusted companies. In line with this philosophy, the plant has been operating a Health Safety Environment (HSE) Committee since 1996, to actively pursue initiatives for employee health and safety, and conservation of the global environment. The plant acquired Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 certification in 2010 as a platform for pursuing safety management.
In 2008, the plant acquired ISO 14001 certification as a basis for pursuing environmental initiatives. The plant received a Green Award in 2010 from Gyeonggi Province, in recognition of its excellent environment performance. The plant pursues a variety of ongoing initiatives, such as reducing CO₂ emissions by using natural gas-powered buses to shuttle employees. Every employee is involved in clean-up initiatives. These take place both in the community and around national parks and the Han River.

Dong-A Otsuka, which is engaged in the nutraceutical business in the South Korean market, introduced new eco-bottle packaging for Pocari Sweat in May 2011. The company previously purchased 500 ml PET bottles from a supplier, but introduced a new system using purchased preforms that are formed and filled in-house using the same line. The process takes place in near-clean room conditions, similar to a semiconductor production process, enabling the bottles to be filled at a lower temperature so that lighter, less heat-resistant PET bottles can be used.
The new eco-bottles are 6.2 grams lighter than previous bottles, for a 21% reduction in weight. This reduces usage by 200 tons of PET resin annually, equivalent to reducing 500 tons of CO₂ emissions or planting 100,000 pine trees.

Otsuka Sims (Guangdong) Beverages of China adheres to the principles of quality, safety, cost-efficiency and environmental friendliness in its manufacturing. The company focuses on measures to address global warming and rising resource prices, while striving to achieve unsurpassed levels of manufacturing efficiency, quality and environmental performance for Pocari Sweat manufacturing among Group companies. The company was the first in the Group to deploy an in-house eco-bottle production line, and has successfully built on this experience by making improvements to machinery and further reducing the weight of PET bottles, bottle caps and labels.
These initiatives led to a reduction of 224 tons of PET resin in 2010, equivalent to reducing CO₂ emissions by 672 tons annually. In addition, the company employs a system to recover waste heat from filling Pocari Sweat bottles. By using less steam, the company saves 70 kiloliters of heavy oil annually, which is equivalent to reducing CO₂ emissions by 260 tons per year.
Each division has separate teams for addressing quality, safety, cost and environmental issues. The teams meet every week to identify issues throughout the plant and rapidly execute improvements. This initiative has increased the number of improvement activities and has had a significant impact on enhancing the workplace environment. Safety has also greatly improved, and the number of occupational accidents has declined from an average of 7.5 accidents per year through 2009 to just three accidents in 2010.