View Sumitomo Corporation's Sustainability : Material Issues
The basis for the Sumitomo Corporation Group’s operations can be found in Sumitomo’s Business Philosophy, which has formed the foundation for Sumitomo’s sustainable development over the course of 400 years. One of the credos of this philosophy states: “Benefit for self and others, private and public interests are one and the same.” We interpret this credo advocates Sumitomo’s business activities must benefit not only Sumitomo, but also society around us to achieve sustainable growth together.
This credo has been incorporated into Sumitomo Corporation Group’s Corporate Mission Statement. Guided by our Corporate Mission Statement, we have continued to conduct our business activities with the aim of being a global organization that constantly stays a step ahead in dealing with change, creates new value, and contributes broadly to society.
It is important to reconsider how we should address social issues through our business activities. To achieve sustainable growth together with society into the future, we have identified material issues that we should address with priority by leveraging our strengths in line with Sumitomo’s Business Philosophy and Sumitomo Corporation Group’s Corporate Mission Statement.
To realize recycling-oriented society and mitigate climate change, we are working to establish frameworks for the efficient use of resources and stable supply of renewable energy. In doing so, we will achieve growth in harmony with the global environment.
We steadily procure and provide goods and services to meet the needs of people in various countries and regions and contribute to developing industrial platforms. Through these means, we will create a virtuous cycle in which we can grow and develop together with local communities.
We strive to realize more convenient and comfortable lifestyles by providing goods and services for daily use while also responding to needs for high-quality lifestyles in order to support the physical and mental health of people around the world.
We provide diverse accessibility to open up the possibility of creating new value. To this end, we will improve mobility for safe and efficient flow of people and goods, and expand the network connecting information and finance.
In order to create new value and innovation by allowing our diverse personnel to fully exercise their abilities in a variety of fields, we will promote the development and empowerment of human resources, which represent our most important management resources.
We will enhance our ability to draft and implement strategies for achieving sustainable growth and to provide appropriate supervision of these strategies, all while maintaining transparency. In this manner, we will improve management efficiency and maintain sound management.
While referring to the SDGs adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 and the international guidelines such as the IIRC’s International Integrated Reporting Framework,we exchanged opinions with institutional investors and experts. We then formulated the methodology for identifying material issues needing to be addressed in order for us to achieve sustainable growth with society.
Based on the SDGs which considered to comprehensively cover numerous social issues, each business unit compiled a list of the social issues they are currently addressing through their business and those they hope to address in the future.
Referencing these lists and considering Sumitomo’s Business Philosophy and the Sumitomo Corporation Group’s Corporate Mission Statement, we contemplated our current strengths and the roles we should assume in the future. We then selected social issues that we regard as important and that need to be addressed with high priority as well as our challenges to be overcome in creating solutions.
We exchanged opinions with outside experts such as international organizations and institutional investors, and conducted surveys covering all officers and employees to collect their opinions, so as to clarify the interests and expectations of internal and external stakeholders with regard to our corporate activities, which were incorporated into discussions of how best to classify and describe the issues that had been identified.
The selected issues and their importance were reviewed by the CSR Committee. With deliberation and approval by the Management Council and the Board of Directors, the Six Material Issues to Achieve Sustainable Growth with Society were finalized.