Efforts on SDGs adopted in Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. Basic Policy

Our Company produces and sells products that span a broad range of sectors that feature a wide array of uses. Chief among these are products that make a particularly significant contribution to the SDGs, which we certify as “SDG-contributing products,” whereby we contribute to achieving the SDGs by promoting their dissemination.

As countries and companies all over the world steer a course toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, it is highly likely that we would be sidelined if we were to miss this departure. In taking on the challenge of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, we are working to respond throughout all of our supply chains. In committing to an initial 46% reduction (compared to fiscal 2013), we are naturally reducing our internal energy use and considering greening action, and the effort also includes consideration of eliminating petroleum materials from our Group’s products, and thoroughgoing calculation of life cycle assessments (LCA) as part of our recycling considerations.
In February 2021, we agreed to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Behind the assent, there are our strengthening of efforts on climate change, and the aim of actively demonstrating this stance both internally and externally. Regarding the TCDF recommended disclosure items, we have disclosed "Environmental Vision for 2050 (net zero)" in our Integrated Report issued in 2020 as a first risk management step. In terms of disclosure item indicators and targets, we are moving forward with preparations to bring greater visibility to the degree of our contributions with respect to SDGs and climate change through a certification system begun in fiscal 2018 for the revenue ratios of SDG-contributing products.

Although SDG efforts advance under the command of top management, it is the individual will and desire of each employee that generates the motive force to drive them forward. Through the activities of the SDG Promotion Committee, we have also grasped the fact that there are generational and individual differences in levels of awareness and understanding of the status of current issues. In order to keep the 6+1 Goals from becoming a mere abstraction, I think it is very important that we continue with internal educational activities such as study sessions, SDG poster displays, e-learning and use of the Company intranet, in order to pervasively inculcate the understand of SDG efforts as an issue for all employees.
At the same time, momentum is growing toward thinking of our business operations in conjunction with SDGs. Primarily through the Sustainability Promotion Committee, our Group is implementing certification of SDG-contributing products, and the ratio of our Company’s products that are certified is increasing year by year. When we first began our SDG education, there were gaps in awareness, resulting in numerous products not being certified as contributing. But now that the key points of SDGs have been clarified, those gaps have been eliminated, so that numbers of highly accurate applications accompanied by evidence have greatly increased. There has also been an increase in cases of what we call embryonic projects, in which consultation is initiated with the SDG Promotion Committee at the idea stage, and then after several months of advising, we manage to come up with a concrete proposal for new product commercialization. We have begun to closely link the thinking on SDGs to the work of each and every employee, and as this process flow becomes the standard for our Company, it leads to the embodiment of our Business Philosophy (Company Policy), which I think is exactly the ideal.

Since fiscal 2018, our Company Group has been accrediting products, technologies, and activities that contribute to the SDGs as SDG-contributing products, SDG-contributing technologies, and SDG-contributing activities. Certification is granted by the SDG Promotion Committee, subject to approval by the Sustainability Promotion Committee, upon meeting the assessment criteria: the target must be appropriately selected, and a concrete explanation of contributions must be provided, including objective figures based on actual data or publicly disclosed information.

Since fiscal 2018, our Company Group has been accrediting products, technologies, and activities that contribute to the SDGs as SDG-contributing products, SDG-contributing technologies, and SDG-contributing activities.