Under our Corporate Mission of “Materials Innovation - We create value through materials to enrich society, people and the environment,” we aim to help bring about a sustainable environment and society by creating value through corporate activity. In 2015, we identified priority issues (in other words, our “materiality”) after organizing sustainability issues based on “Importance for the JSR Group (Internal Factors)” and “Importance for Stakeholders (External Factors).” Our Group's materiality is reviewed as needed, and we are advancing sustainability management using “integrated thinking”^* in conjunction with our preparation of a set of new medium-term management policies.

* Integrated thinking: A way of thinking that sees corporate activity in its entirety by integrating financial and non-financial information

We postponed the announcement of the new medium-term management policies initially planned for FY2020 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic and impacts of structural reforms taking place in the petrochemical market.
Nonetheless, we spent two years reassessing our materiality through the "JSR Sustainability Challenge"^* based on points raised in a dialogue with experts we held in 2019.
These new priority issues were formulated from the two components of Business Activity and Management Foundation. These issues were also reflected in the medium-term management policies announced in March 2021 and represent the very core of our resilient management foundation.

* JSR Sustainability Challenge: An initiative where hearings were conducted to grasp the positive and negative social impacts of the Group’s five business segments to determine the material impacts, both positive and negative, of JSR Group’s business activities.

• JSR Report 2021 “Management Policies”
• Download JSR Group Sustainability Report 2020
• JSR Report 2020 – JSR Sustainability Challenge / Summary of Business Activities
• Download JSR Group Sustainability Report 2021
• Sustainability Report 2021 – JSR Sustainability Challenge / Management Foundation Implementation Process and Summary

We believe that our materiality will evolve amid continuing changes in what society demands of us as well as in our various stakeholders' views and needs. Going forward, we will therefore continue to identify and review materiality through the following operations.

1. 1.Each year, we will confirm validity by conducting checks through engagement with experts, employees, responsible care activities, and the like.
2. 2.Whenever we formulate new medium-term management policies, we will ensure (and periodically review) the transparency and acceptability of the processes that we apply when specifying materiality by exchanging views with experts.

In addition, we asked Mr. Keisuke Takegahara of the Development Bank of Japan, Inc. who enlightened us with his views during the 2019 dialogue with experts and through the “JSR Sustainability Challenge,” to comment on our new issues of materiality. Details can be found using the links below.

We will strive to advance sustainability management across the entire Group further by taking such outside insights into account.

 

• Looking back at the process of developing the “new materiality” from the 2019 dialogue

In FY2021, we established Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for our new issues of materiality. During this process, the Sustainability Promotion Department, with the support of the Corporate Planning Department, discussed and shared sustainable management issues facing JSR Group together with business departments, corporate departments, and Group companies to determine specific KPI and numerical targets. For details, please refer to the table below “Materiality Initiatives and KPI.”

The materiality affecting our business activity—specifically, the Group’s Digital Solutions Business, Life Sciences Business, and Plastics Business—was determined to be providing products and services that contribute to society by having various effects on improving quality of life and happiness, achieving a society of longevity, and environmental conservation.

Based on this, we identified sustainability products in each business segment from among JSR Group’s product lineup and then established KPI such as net sales, sales volume, and share of sales for each, with final targets set for FY2024.

The materiality affecting our business foundation underpinning business activities was determined to be environmental conservation and impact reduction, employee DE&I work styles, safety and health, respect for human rights, and supply chain. In turn, we established medium- to long-term issues and KPI for each. The background and characteristics are described below.

Climate change and resource depletion are issues threatening the very future of humankind. To resolve these worldwide social issues, JSR Group will begin by aiming to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2050 and eliminate waste bound for landfills entirely.

Data shows that companies with diversity in terms of workforce gender and corporate culture have a higher probability of achieving excellent business performance and as a result this is believed to lead to greater corporate value, too. JSR Group aims to establish diversity in terms of gender and culture. As the first initiative toward this transformation, we will focus on promoting the active participation of women in the workplace and increasing the ratio of female managers at JSR.

For safety, we will use the number of accidents occurring after safety activities and results of the safety culture survey for measuring the progress of this process as KPI and adopt uniform standards for evaluating safety performance globally. For health, we targeted White 500 certification for JSR. During and after the pandemic, we have positioned the balance between employee health and productivity as an important management issue that we are now working diligently to address.

Companies are responsible for setting an example when it comes to respect for human rights. To fulfill this responsibility, each and every JSR Group employee must deepen their understanding of human rights. Through e-learning and other means, we will focus on initiatives that educate our people about human rights continuously and systematically.

To share societal needs and JSR Group’s philosophy with suppliers and to prevent risks before they materialize, we distribute booklets containing JSR Group’s CSR/sustainable procurement and human rights policies to foster supplier understanding and we ask that they submit a written endorsement. With regard to conflict minerals and cobalt, which pose concerns in terms of child labor and other human rights abuses, we will use commonly used questionnaires worldwide to monitor JSR Group’s use of these commodities and suppliers’ responses to preventing human rights abuses.

We will review the status of materiality issues to be implemented in FY2022 and beyond every six months using KPI and take additional action as needed. In addition, evaluation results for each fiscal year will be shared with the Sustainability Promotion Committee and Executive Committee for making improvements to activities to be implemented in subsequent fiscal years.