Material Issues Identified for Sustainable Value Creation

Mar. 7, 2019

Sumitomo Chemical is due to launch a new Three-Year Corporate Business Plan on April 1, 2019. Prior to the launch, the Company has identified Seven Material Issues that it addresses as management challenges to sustainably create both economic value and social value.

Seven Material Issues

Material issues for social value creation	Material issues for value creation in the future
・  Contribution to reducing environmental impact ・  Contribution to solving food problems ・  Contribution to providing healthcare solutions ・  Contribution to ICT innovation	・  Promotion of technology innovation and research & development ・  Development of digital innovation initiatives ・  Promotion of diversity and inclusion

Sumitomo Chemical established its Basic Principles for Promoting Sustainability (the Principles) in January 2019, prepared in accord with the concept of “our business must benefit own self and society as one and the same,”*1 which is a credo constituting the Sumitomo Spirit. The Principles define our efforts of promoting sustainability as “contributing to establishment of sustainable society through achieving sustainable growth of business,” thereby aiming to enhance our corporate value.*2 The Seven Material Issues have been identified to serve as beacons navigating our initiatives towards contributing to establishment of sustainable society. They focus on issues of material importance mainly from two perspectives: those for creation of social value, which are initiatives directly related to Sumitomo Chemical’s current businesses, and others for creation of value in the future, which represent the Company's future-oriented initiatives.

For the initiatives geared to the Seven Material Issues to be implemented steadily, Sumitomo Chemical will establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for each relevant issues, which, the Company believes, will make it possible to better evaluate the progress of planned initiatives during the course of the new Corporate Business Plan and also to promote more effective dialogue between stakeholders within the Company as well as to facilitate communication with the Company's external stakeholders.

Toward realizing a sustainable society, all companies of the Sumitomo Chemical Group will work as one, exercising their creativity to the fullest as we seek to solve social issues through the creation of new value by harnessing the power of chemistry.

*1 It means that our business must benefit ourselves and at the same time serve the interests of the nation and society. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining harmony between the interests of a business and those of the public.

 

*2 Conceptual illustration of how corporate value should be enhanced

Reference

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