Message From the Officer in Charge of Sustainability
Hiroshi Tsuga
Sustainability has been gaining momentum in recent years with the implementation of mandates on the disclosure of company information on sustainability. The KONOIKE Group has held quarterly meetings of the Sustainability Committee since its establishment two years ago. However, we believe that the current structure of five subcommittees under the umbrella of this Committee does not adequately cover the issues. As such, we newly established the Human Capital Working Group and the Technology Capital Working Group.
The Environmental Subcommittee and these two working groups work on initiatives regarding the three non-financial targets of Environment, People, and Technology. Each initiative was implemented in the PDCA cycle one year ago.
Environment
The KONOIKE Group aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 35% by FY3/2031, compared to FY3/2019, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We set the goal of achieving a 20% reduction by FY3/2025, the final year of our medium-term management plan. To achieve this, we work on the complete transition to renewable energy-derived electricity for our own facilities’ electricity contracts, as well as on the conservation of resources and energy. These efforts resulted in a 17% reduction at the end of FY3/2023. The Group will introduce new technologies and improve productivity, in addition to the aforementioned initiatives, enabling the reduction of our environmental impact through our business activities.
In addition, the KONOIKE Group began aggregating Scope 3 emissions, whereas previously we had only calculated Scope 1 and 2. Going forward, we will explore measures to reduce CO2 emissions throughout the entire supply chain.
People
As stated in our corporate philosophy, the foundation of the KONOIKE Group is driven by our respect for humanity and relationships of trust. This attitude is the source of our strength. Ensuring that employees are happy and excited to work for our Group, both physically and mentally, will result in the sustainable enhancement of our corporate value. As such, our 2030 Vision identifies people as non-financial indicators and calls for human capital management of people that enhance the corporate value over the medium to long term. We encourage human resource development based on management and business strategies, as well as initiatives to improve employee engagement. In FY3/2023, the KONOIKE Group conducted our first wellbeing survey in to visualize our Group as it is today. The Group will continue to conduct this survey and build a PDCA cycle of issue identification, formulation and implementation of measures, evaluation, and issue improvement, to further strengthen our human capital.
We also established a new human rights policy and will continue to work with our business partners to address human rights issues based on this policy.
Technology
As stated in our 2030 Vision, we believe that people are the source of the KONOIKE Group value, and technology is the key to creating further added value for our people. This technology is defined as a wide range of intangible assets that include a combination of digital technology (such as new technologies and digital transformation) and analog technology (such as improvement activities, creating a safe environment, and quality) available to individual employees as well as in the field.
Our medium-term management plan calls for strengthened field innovation through new technology, business innovation through digital transformation (DX), and improvement of safety and quality through new technology. We aim to provide services unique to the KONOIKE Group by encouraging the sharing of experience, wisdom, and expertise, which tend to be individualized. At the same time, we also encourage the use of new technologies and digital transformation (DX) in the future. For example, our Technology Library visualizes examples of services actually implemented and their effects at each site to facilitate the horizontal deployment of technology within the Group. All employees have access to this knowledge base to generate new ideas, thereby strengthening the creation of added value.