Materiality (Key Issues)
As materialities, SUMCO identifies those issues it will address on a priority basis to solve social issues and enhance corporate value in a sustainable manner while responding to demands from stakeholders. SUMCO engages in ESG activities to achieve the materiality targets.
The Materiality Identification Process
SUMCO Materiality
| Materiality | Material Issue Themes | Reasons for Identification | |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | Combatting global warming | Reduction of energy consumption intensity |
Reducing the environmental impact in our business activities is a corporate responsibility for the future. To ensure that our irreplaceable global environment is passed on to the next generation, the SUMCO Group has developed an environmental management system and obtained ISO 14001 certification for all of its plants. We also conduct environmentally friendly production activities including the prevention of global warming, the effective utilization of water resources and the reduction of waste and emissions. To enhance our initiatives preventing global warming, we have added new targets aimed at achieving carbon neutrality. |
| Carbon neutrality | |||
| Resource conservation activities | Effective utilization of water resources | ||
| Contributing to the creation of a recycling-oriented society | Waste management | ||
| S | Health, hygiene and safety initiatives | Prevention of occupational accidents |
Under the principle that "the safety and health of employees take the highest priority over all," the SUMCO Group is committed to "creating a safe and pleasant workplace environment supporting good mental and physical health" through active communication in which all parties participate. On safety, we work to maintain and improve our occupational safety management system with the aim of creating a safe workplace free from occupational accidents, and with regard to health management, activities are focused on the three issues of mental health, smoking cessation and lifestyle habits. |
| Maintenance of health and productivity management | |||
| Human resources development | Enhancement of training |
To be the "World's Best in Technology" and "Empower Employee Awareness of Profit" as declared in the SUMCO vision, we will continue to invest in human resources and make enhancements to our career development program. We will enhance training opportunities with a multi-faceted approach that covers everyone from new employees to managers and officers. |
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| Promotion of women’s active participation | Raising the percentage of women in management positions |
We have set new medium-term targets for percentage of women in management positions to increase diversity boost women's active participation. We will enhance our initiatives to create a more favorable working environment for women. |
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| R&D and technological capabilities supporting customer value creation | Contributions as a development partner |
The source of enhanced corporate value is R&D and technological capabilities that support customer value creation through our "invisible assets," and as a development partner to customers, SUMCO enjoys a high global market share in cutting-edge products. Moreover, we will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, which are social issues affecting the entire world, by supporting advances in semiconductors. |
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| Increasing customer satisfaction |
To continually maintain our "first call" status as a company, we value close communication with customers. By quickly providing customers with the products that meet their needs while continuing with performance checks and follow-ups, we build robust relationships of trust. We analyze the information customers provide through QCDS (quality, cost, delivery and service) evaluations, share the insights with management and relevant departments, direct what we have learned into improvement activities and strive to improve customer satisfaction levels. |
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| Promoting CSR procurement and mitigating procurement risks | Promoting firm establishment of the CSR Procurement Policy |
We believe it is important to share CSR-related societal demands with our suppliers and jointly tackle issues in the supply chain such as human rights, labor, safety, the environment and ethics. We share the SUMCO CSR Procurement Policy with suppliers through briefing sessions, audits and other activities, and promote responsible procurement activities. |
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| Strengthening BCP in materials procurement |
Supply chain risk management is an important issue and a theme to which customers also have high levels of interest. SUMCO secures appropriate levels of inventory in line with risks, pursues advance preparations such as ensuring multiple procurement sources under normal circumstances, and has established the necessary systems to minimize the impacts on production in the event of a disaster or accident. |
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| Communication with shareholders and investors | Enhancement of IR activities |
We fully recognize that the timely and appropriate disclosure of corporate information to investors forms the basis of a sound stock market and have adopted the basic policy of continually ensuring the prompt, accurate and fair disclosure of corporate information from the perspective of investors. We proactively disclose any information that is beneficial to investment decisions, such as medium-to-long-term demand forecasts for the silicon wafer market based on end product demand forecasts. |
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| G | Enhancing risk management | Initiatives to develop BCP |
The silicon wafer business is a critical industry supporting an IT-based society, and the SUMCO Group is responsible for ensuring the stable supply of silicon wafers to the world's semiconductor device manufacturers. The Business Security Committee (BSC), which is an organization responsible for risk management, promotes risk management activities while working to improve business continuity and the ability to respond in an emergency through periodic training. |
| Promoting compliance | Ongoing enhancement of compliance awareness |
Ensuring compliance with laws, regulations and social norms to be observed forms the basis for SUMCO fulfilling its social responsibilities and is also essential for the sustainable growth of corporate value. Training on topics including the SUMCO Charter of Corporate Conduct, which prescribes the norms to be observed by employees, is conducted regularly for all employees as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen awareness of compliance. |
SUMCO Materiality Targets
| Materiality | Material Issue Themes | Targets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | Combatting global warming | Reduction of energy consumption intensity Note 1 | By 2030, reduce energy consumption rate by 14.9% compared with 2014 levels (average reduction of 1% every year) |
| Carbon neutrality | By 2030, reduce CO2 emissions (Scope 1+2) by 33% compared with 2014 levels (2.5% annual reduction); and by 2050, reduce by 100% (carbon neutrality) | ||
| Resource conservation activities | Effective utilization of water resources | High and stable water recycling rate | |
| Contributing to the creation of a recycling-oriented society | Waste management | Conversion of waste into valuable resources and improved recycling rate | |
| S | Health, hygiene and safety initiatives | Prevention of occupational accidents | Accident frequency rate of 0.2 or lower |
| Maintenance of health and productivity management | Maintaining certification in the Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization Recognition Program (White 500) | ||
| Human resources development | Enhancement of training | Increasing training time compared with the previous year by utilizing web-based training | |
| Promotion of women’s active participation | Raising the percentage of women in management positions | (Japan) Current: 1%→2030: 10% (Consolidated) Current: 6.5%→2030: 12% |
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| R&D and technological capabilities supporting customer value creation | Contributions as a development partner | Maintaining a worldwide share of over 50% in cutting-edge fields | |
| Increasing customer satisfaction | Maintaining high evaluation with the leading customer satisfaction score | ||
| Promoting CSR procurement and mitigating procurement risks | Promoting firm establishment of the CSR Procurement Policy | Holding briefing sessions for suppliers and conducting CSR audits | |
| Strengthening BCP in materials procurement | Continuing to maintain multiple procurement sources and implementing supplier safety training | ||
| Communication with shareholders and investors | Enhancement of IR activities | Maintaining the number of IR activities for investors | |
| G | Enhancing risk management | Initiatives to develop BCP | Implementing BCP training |
| Promoting compliance | Ongoing enhancement of compliance awareness | Implementing compliance education |
SUMCO Materiality Initiatives and Achievements in 2021
In pursuit of medium- to long- term targets, SUMCO works on continuous improvement.
Our initiatives and achievements in 2021 are as outlined below.
| Materiality | Material Issue Themes | Initiatives and Achievements in 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | Combatting global warming | Reduction of energy consumption intensity Note 1 | A 12.7% reduction (from 2014 levels) was achieved in fiscal 2021, well exceeding the 6.8% target for that year.
The reduction from the previous year was 4.5%. |
| Carbon neutrality | In September 2021, we set new targets aimed at achieving carbon neutrality. In addition to ongoing energy-saving activities, we began considering the following measures. ✓ Further introduction of renewable energy (solar power generation, etc.) ✓ Introduction of non-fossil electricity (J-Credit, Non-Fossil Certificates, etc.) |
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| Resource conservation activities | Effective utilization of water resources | We achieved a water recycling rate of 38.8%, maintaining the same level as in previous years. | |
| Contributing to the creation of a recycling-oriented society | Waste management | We achieved a waste recycling rate of 77.2%, maintaining the same level as in previous years. | |
| S | Health, hygiene and safety initiatives | Prevention of occupational accidents | Although we carried out regular safety education and training, working to raise safety awareness, the lost work day accident frequency rate was 0.37. |
| Maintenance of health and productivity management | We won recognition as one of the “White 500” as a healthy enterprise for three consecutive years. Aware that the good health of employees is a key management resource, we took initiatives toward maintaining and promoting health and improving the working environment. |
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| Human resources development | Enhancement of training | Training time in 2021 was increased over 1,500 hours, or around 8%, from the previous year. We sought to make training more effective, with online training as the norm. |
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| Promotion of women’s active participation | Raising the percentage of women in management positions | In September 2021, we set targets for raising the percentage of women in management positions. Besides offering diverse working arrangements conducive to women’s active participation, we actively promoted mid-career hiring of women. |
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| R&D and technological capabilities supporting customer value creation | Contributions as a development partner | We maintained a worldwide share of over 50% in the leading-edge logic chip field. As customers continue to invest in this area, we maintained our top supplier position, winning recognition as a development partner for our high technology development strength and stable quality. |
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| Increasing customer satisfaction | We maintained an overall average rating of no less than 85 points (100 point scale) in supplier evaluations by customers. By sharing the supplier evaluations throughout the Group and using them for improvement activities in each division, we won high ratings from customers in quality and technology. |
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| Promoting CSR procurement and mitigating procurement risks | Promoting firm establishment of the CSR Procurement Policy | Although on-site auditing could not be performed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we conveyed to suppliers our CSR procurement policy in supplier briefing sessions, seeking to further instill this policy. | |
| Strengthening BCP in materials procurement | We sought to diversify our procurement sources as a hedge against the risk of disasters and accidents. We held a total of six supplier safety education sessions, for each of the plants. |
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| Communication with shareholders and investors | Enhancement of IR activities | In the midst of the pandemic, we held a similar number of IR events for investors as before the pandemic, relying on web conferences and telephone conferences. | |
| G | Enhancing risk management | Initiatives to develop BCP | In 2021, we worked on further developing BCP based on the findings in the previous year by the Business Security Committee (BSC). We also held drills to prepare for the loss of headquarter functions in the event of an earthquake directly under Tokyo, as well as conducting comprehensive disaster prevention drills and BCP drills at each plant to prepare for accidents. |
| Promoting compliance | Ongoing enhancement of compliance awareness | Again in 2021, we conducted training for all employees on the SUMCO Charter of Corporate Conduct. |
- Note 1. Calculations are those made using the “Tool for preparation of periodic reports under the Act on the Rational Use of Energy,” issued June 29, 2021 by the Energy Efficiency Division, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Department, the METI Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.
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