NYK has received the Green Bond Award at the 2018 Sustainable Finance Awards held by the Research Institute for Environmental Finance (RIEF), which promotes “green finance” to address environmental issues. The awards ceremony was held on January 23 and attended by Katsuya Nakano, general manager of NYK’s Finance Group.

The Sustainable Finance Awards recognize the outstanding success of financial institutions and companies that promote the growth of sustainable finance and green finance in the Japanese market. This is the fourth time for these awards to be held.

NYK was acclaimed for not only becoming the world’s first company to issue labelled green bonds in the global shipping business sector but also the company’s commitment to participate in a shipping industry working group to be established by the Climate Bonds Initiative* and cooperate in formulating evaluation criteria for green bonds issued by shipping companies.

NYK will continue its efforts to keep a wide range of stakeholders involved in the company’s proactive approach to environmental investment, contribute to revitalizing the domestic green bond market, and realize a sustainable society.

In accordance with its medium-term management plan “Staying Ahead 2022 with Digitalization and Green,” the company issued green bonds in May this year to contribute to the sustainable development of society and enrichment of the company's corporate value.

To address environmental regulations that will be strengthened from 2020, the green bonds will be used to construct vessels powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), develop eco-friendly fuel, equip ships with SOx scrubber systems (a system that uses seawater and chemicals to remove sulfur from ship exhaust gases), etc.