Basic Stance

Product Stewardship at Sumitomo Chemical

Under its Corporate Policy on Responsible Care (Safety, Health, the Environment and Product Quality), the Sumitomo Chemical Group promotes product stewardship^*1 and works to provide products and services that satisfy customers and can be used with peace of mind.

The “2020 Targets”^*2 were proposed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002, and we are now in an era in which risk-based management of chemicals is required in terms of both regulations and companies’ efforts to promote product stewardship, which is expected to continue.

Sumitomo Chemical promotes voluntary initiatives to enhance product stewardship, including the Global Product Strategy (GPS)^*3 /Japan Initiative of Product Stewardship (JIPS)^*3 put forward by chemical industry associations, including the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and the Japan Chemical Industry Association. We actively participate in capacity-building activities, conduct risk assessments of our products, and perform risk-based management. We will continue responding to international trends.

1. Product stewardship: The assessment of risks and protecting people’s health and the environment from those risks throughout the product life cycle, which encompasses the entire supply chain from the development of chemical products to manufacture as well as sale, use/consumption, and disposal.
2. 2020 goal: Ensure that chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.
3. GPS/JIPS: Initiatives that call on companies to conduct risk assessments of their products and to engage in appropriate chemical management based on risk in order to minimize risks throughout the supply chain. Under GPS/JIPS, toxicological information on chemical products is disclosed to the general public, including customers.

Ensuring Thorough Compliance

Sumitomo Chemical Group conscientiously adheres to various laws and regulations related to the manufacture, import, export, and sale of goods. We are working to ensure thorough compliance throughout our entire globally expanding group of companies.

Quality Assurance

The Group maintains its commitment to further improving product quality and is continually enhancing its global quality assurance system, which is tailored to each product, because the Group values the trust it has earned from customers and society and aims to further improve customer satisfaction.

Management System

As the highest body for deliberating and approving Sumitomo Chemical’s RC activities, the Responsible Care Committee is chaired by the President and comprises executive officers supervising the administrative departments and the four business sectors of the Company, and the General Manager of each Works. The Committee puts in place annual policies on RC activities, including chemical management and quality assurance activities; medium-term plans; and specific measures as they relate to responsible care. The Committee also analyzes and assesses the results of responsible care activities.

In addition, the Responsible Care Department oversees the Company’s chemical management and quality assurance activities as well as supports each Group company’s chemical management and quality assurance activities. Each department in charge of chemical management and quality assurance for Works promote appropriate chemical management and quality assurance activities for their respective Works and department.

Organization of Chemical Management and Quality Assurance Activities

Goals and Results

For goals and results for Product Stewardship / Product Safety / Quality Assurance, refer to the section entitled, “Social Activity Goals and Results.”

Examples of Initiatives

• Risk Assessment and Management throughout the Entire Product Life Cycle
• Risk Management for Product Safety
• Providing Products and Services of Stable Quality
• The Information Sharing System and Ensuring thorough Compliance
• Effective Use of SuCCESS
• Providing Toxicological Information
• Sharing Information on Chemicals in Products
• Laboratory Animal Welfare
• Responses to Latest Emergency Issues, Including Reducing Marine Plastic and Microplastics

Looking Ahead

Sumitomo Chemical promotes appropriate risk-based chemical management and continually conducts safety risk assessments of all products, including newly introduced items.

In response to strong social demand for the proper management of chemicals, the pace of establishment and revision of laws and regulations relating to chemical management is expected to pick up in even more countries and regions in the near future.

Closely collaborating with Group companies in Japan and overseas, Sumitomo Chemical consistently undertakes thorough compliance initiatives that involve carefully studying information on the regulatory trends as well as enhancing the functions of its comprehensive chemical management system (SuCCESS).

In addition, we will optimize our quality assurance system to respond to globalization and increasingly complex business formats and supply chains as we continue to work to enhance the Group-wide quality assurance level so that customers can use Group products and services with peace of mind.