Zeon's Sustainability
Basic Approach
Contributing to the preservation of the Earth and the prosperity of the human race
In keeping with its name, derived from the Greek words “geo” (Earth) and “eon” (eternity),
Zeon will contribute to a “Sustainable Earth” and “Safe and Comfortable Life for People”
by providing original technologies, products, and services.
• We aspire to realize a “Sustainable Earth” and “Safe and Comfortable Life”.
• We will firmly maintain fairness and integrity in our activities to be a trustworthy company.
• Each of us will think and act proactively for a better future.
Based on our corporate philosophy of “Contributing to the preservation of the Earth and the prosperity of the human race,” sustainability at Zeon means achieving sustainable growth together with society. To achieve this, we will provide products and services that are valuable for solving global and social issues, build trust with our stakeholders through fairness and integrity and have each one of us act proactively thinking how to create a better future for the society and ourselves.
Explanation of the schematic diagram
Zeon’s Sustainability Policy can be explained with reference to the schematic diagram shown on the left to communicate its concept more clearly.
The inner arrows (1 and 2) drawn in the diagram represent the flow showing how, as a result of helping to solve social issues and thereby providing new value for society, Zeon can obtain profits from society in return for providing this value.
Furthermore, arrows 3 and 4 show how continuing to implement such a “virtuous circle” of value can lead to sustainable development for society and continued growth for Zeon.
The image in the middle of the diagram, representing two people shaking hands, denotes how, by continuing this kind of virtuous circle, the relationship of trust built between Zeon and society can be further strengthened.
Zeon's Materiality
We have determined our materiality, the Five Gears that drive Zeon, which represent the priority issues crucial for achieving sustainable growth together with society in alignment with our corporate philosophy of “Contributing to the preservation of the Earth and the prosperity of the human race.”
Five Gears that drive Zeon (materiality)
Creating a truly exciting company
We will create workplaces in which each and every one of our employees can display their abilities and experience excitement while working, and this is the most fundamental issue Zeon should address and will lead to innovation, the key to the company’s growth. Specific elements include diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DI&B); improvement of job satisfaction and engagement; and streamlining operations.
Providing unique value through innovation
Innovation is the most important keyword for Zeon to achieve growth while meeting the expectations of society and is viewed as central to the Five Gears. Providing society with value that can only be created by Zeon and cannot be imitated by others will lead to the sustainable growth of society and Zeon. Creating culture and systems that bring innovation; and creating original technologies, products, and services are the key to keeping the entire gears moving.
Establishing solid governance
To ensure that “we will firmly maintain fairness and integrity in our activities to be a trustworthy company,” one of the company’s Sustainability Policies, we need to solidify the foundation of Zeon as a company. In addition to management transparency, stable and secure production, high quality, and anti-corruption, examples of elements include information security, sustainable procurement, and human rights, which have all been recognized as important issues in recent years.
Transforming business structure to respond to social changes
Through innovation, we will transform the business structure by developing products and services that meet the expectations of society and thus shifting the focus of business. From the viewpoint of sustainability, a shift to an information-oriented society, the evolution of mobility, and health and welfare are areas in which there are high social needs, and by actively bringing innovation mainly in these areas, we will transform the business structure to respond to social changes.
Contributing to establishing a circular society
A circular society refers to a society in which limited resources are utilized to the maximum extent and environmental impacts are minimized by, for example, promoting recycling and reducing waste. Transforming the business structure by bringing innovation into the production of products and services will contribute to establishing a circular society, and this will in turn help realize our corporate philosophy.
We organized the Five Gears that drive Zeon (materiality) to show the path the company should follow in the future clarifying the relationships among Five Gears.
The below diagram indicates the Five Gears that drive Zeon as a center core to unite our efforts to realize our corporate philosophy consistently even in the rapidly changing business environment.
What the diagram shows
- The vertical axis is structured so that the lower part represents the individual, in other words, the micro level, and as we go up, it widens toward society as a whole, in other words, the macro level.
- The leftmost point on the horizontal axis denotes driving force for Zeon Group, and the rightmost point shows what the Group wants to achieve. The diagram indicates that we start from the familiar level as shown in the lower left of the diagram and that as we go to the upper right, our view further widens and we move toward longer-term issues.
- The Five Gears in the diagram interlock with each other , transmitting power from the lower left to the upper right. This represents the momentum toward realizing what Zeon Group wants to achieve, in other words, its corporate philosophy.
- Dialogue and communication are important to keep each of the gears rotating smoothly, and this is depicted as a lubricant.
- Keeping the Five Gears rotating leads to solving two major issues for the entire globe behind Zeon’s materiality: achievement of carbon neutrality and coexistence of nature and humankind, including the conservation of biodiversity.
Examples of elements of each material issue
The diagram below indicates examples of specific elements in each of the Five Gears that drive Zeon. Creating culture and systems that bring innovation and creating original technologies, products, and services are two elements of the gear Providing unique value through innovation. They are depicted as larger circles in the diagram because they particularly constitute key elements in keeping all Five Gears moving.
Positioning of the Five Gears that drive Zeon (materiality)
The Five Gears that drive Zeon (materiality) represent the material issues that the company should address to realize its corporate philosophy in accordance with the Sustainability Policy.
Based on the concept of the Five Gears that drive Zeon, we have set various KPIs and implemented initiatives in the Medium-Term Business Plan: STAGE30.
Materiality determination process
In April 2023, we launched the cross-sectional Materiality Determination Project consisting of members from various positions and age groups, which discussed material issues for about eight months, and in December 2023, the project determined the Zeon Group’s materiality with the approval of the Board of Directors. We took below steps to determine Zeon’s materiality.
1. Consideration of concepts and axes
We started to determine our materiality based on the concept of double materiality with two axes: the impact on our finances (financial materiality) and the impact of our actions on society and the environment (sustainability materiality).
Based on general elements, we discussed elements that should be included in the two axes used above taking into account the principles and values Zeon considered important. Specifically, elements that should be emphasized in and added to financial materiality included Zeon’s originality, higher motivation of employees, and the safety and stability of operations, while those for sustainable materiality included employees’ eagerness, the history and milestones of Zeon, and the ideas that were put into the company’s corporate philosophy and business.
2. Extraction of candidates for materiality
Based on the social issues recognized by each division when formulating the Medium-Term Business Plan Phase 2, we added the items presented in the project’s discussions and those that would be regarded as important in future international discussions and extracted candidates for materiality as a basis for further discussion.
3. Evaluation and analysis of candidates for materiality
Based on the axes examined in Step 1, the project members discussed and evaluated the importance of the candidates for materiality extracted in Step 2. Then, to reflect social expectations and demands on materiality when determining it, we evaluated the importance of the candidates for materiality using factors such as the degree of attention paid by international NGOs, rating agencies, and other organizations and future market forecasts while obtaining advice from consultants. We reflected the results of these two-level evaluations, analyses of differences therein, etc. on discussions to determine materiality.
4. Interviews with top management
Furthermore, through interviews, we understood what the management considered as Zeon’s strengths and challenges, its thoughts on how the company should be in the future, etc. and reflected these in our discussions.
5. Close examination and narrowing down of materiality and consideration of how to express it
We further discussed what key elements of materiality were so that we could depict scenarios for the future of Zeon Group and society. Then we formulated a materiality proposal while figuring out effective ways to express it with the relationships among material issues, timeline, and other factors in mind.
6. Approval by the Board of Directors
The proposed materiality was finally approved by the Board of Directors in December 2023 through deliberations at the Executive Committee.
Stakeholder Engagement
We believe that building relationships of trust with stakeholders is essential for us to continue to grow sustainably together with society to realize our mission of “Contributing to the preservation of the Earth and the prosperity of the human race.”
We identify societal expectations indicated in our Vision for 2030 as the SDGs. With our stakeholders comprising business partners referring to our customers and suppliers, shareholders referring to our shareholders and investors, life referring to people everywhere and their lifestyles, and employees, we strive to continue dialogue on a sustainable planet and future and promote efforts to further deepen mutual understanding.
| Stakeholders | Stakeholder relations | Main communication channels |
|---|---|---|
| Customers | We will provide safe, reliable, high-quality products and services that earn customer trust. Moreover, through communication with customers, we will develop products and services that contribute to meeting their challenges, and collaborate to develop sustainable products that satisfy the diverse requirements and expectations of the global market. |
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| Suppliers | Our goal is to realize a sustainable society through our supply chain, by promoting responsible procurement activities in conformance with our Sustainable Procurement Policy. As such, it is incumbent upon us to build robust partnerships with suppliers. We strive to gain supplier understanding of our approach to sustainable procurement, and work to achieve procurement sustainability. We also monitor the progress of each supplier’s activities and engage in dialogue toward improvement through procurement surveys and interviews. |
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| Shareholders and investors | Our information disclosure is fair, impartial, highly transparent, timely, and appropriate. We strive to bolster our corporate value through dialogue with shareholders and investors, to foster deeper understanding of our management policies and business activities. We also take external opinion seriously, and consider it in our management and information disclosure. |
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| Local community | Each of our locations contributes to community development by ensuring reliable business operations as a member of the local community. We value communication with the local community and, by building trust, collaborate to achieve a sustainable community. |
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| Employees | Our vision for 2030 is to be a company that lives up to societal expectations and the aspirations of employees. To make this vision a reality, we are evolving our personnel system and formulating personnel policies that help every employee demonstrate his or her individual abilities and work with a sense of security and energy. We also welcome opportunities for dialogue, and strive sincerely to consider each employee’s opinions. |
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Sustainability Management
Organizational Bodies and Committees
To promote sustainability initiatives on a Group-wide basis, we have established a Sustainability Conference, and a CSR Conference as a body to drive measures such as risk management and compliance. Both conferences are chaired by the representative director and comprise members of the Executive Committee and other senior management.
The Sustainability Conference deliberates and decides on important matters such as responses to climate change and human rights issues, and reports to the Board of Directors as needed depending on the importance of the agenda topics.
To address various sustainability issues across the entire organization, we have also established a Sustainability Committee under the umbrella of the Sustainability Conference to advance concrete initiatives. Furthermore, we set up specialized subcommittees for each theme as needed, establishing a system to address individual issues.
Timeline of CSR/Sustainability Initiatives
| 1995 | Joined the Japan Responsible Care Council and declared our commitment to Responsible Care |
|---|---|
| 1996 | Revised the Group-wide safety management system and established the Plant Technology Audit System |
| 1997 | Established the Safety Philosophy |
| Held the first Zeon Safety Month and the All-Zeon Safety Conference (subsequently held each year in April) | |
| Established the Code of Conduct (Zeon’s Seven Articles) | |
| 1998 | Established the Responsible Care Policy |
| 1999 | Established the Risk Management Rules |
| 2000 | Published the first Responsible Care Activity Report (1999 edition) |
| 2001 | Established the Environmental Philosophy |
| 2003 | Established Zeon’s Seven Articles Code of Conduct |
| 2004 | Implemented the Internal Reporting System |
| Published the Compliance Textbook | |
| 2005 | Conducted third-party verification for the Responsible Care Activity Report |
| 2006 | Switched from publishing the Responsible Care Activity Report to publishing the CSR Report |
| 2009 | Signed the Responsible Care Global Charter |
| 2010 | Established the CSR Policy and CSR Code of Conduct |
| Published the CSR Textbook | |
| 2011 | Began using the CSR Matrix |
| 2012 | Started the CSR Core Projects (comprehensive Zeon social contributions package) |
| 2013 | Switched from publishing the CSR Report to publishing the Corporate Report |
| 2017 | Revised the CSR Matrix based on ISO 26000 |
| Along with publishing the Corporate Report, also published a PDF version of the CSR Report on the corporate website | |
| 2018 | Revised the CSR Code of Conduct |
| 2019 | Became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact |
| Established the Zeon Group Human Rights Policy | |
| 2020 | Expressed its support for the TCFD |
| 2021 | Established the Declaration for Health and Productivity Management |
| 2022 | Established the Sustainability Policy |
| Switched from the Corporate Report to the Integrated Report; and from the CSR Report to the Sustainability Report | |
| Newly established the Sustainability Conference and Sustainability Committee | |
| 2023 | Determined the Five Gears that drive Zeon (materiality) |
| 2024 | Acquired SBT initiative certification |
| Began implementation of SDGs Contribution Product Certification program |