Hideto Kawakita
CEO International Institute for Human, Organization and the Earth (IIHOE)

IIHOE is a non-profit organization (NPO) established in 1994 for pursuing democratic and harmonious development for all life on Earth. The major scope of activities involves support for management of citizens' groups and welfare workers, as well as support for CSR activities of major companies.

http://blog.canpan.info/iihoe/ (Japanese only)

These opinions were written based on statements made on the website and interviews with human resources, general affairs and CSR personnel of Mitsubishi Chemical.

Among its CSR measures, reduction of environmental burden has progressed well based on PDCA (management cycle), and other broad-reaching matters have also begun to progress.

Points to be highly regarded

• As a member of the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) has set the MOS indexes and targets independently at eight plants, three branch offices, five business divisions, four corporate divisions and 12 affiliated companies, for the three items of sustainability, health and comfort, and has begun taking action in this area. We hope the targets, actual results, issues and countermeasures for each of the indexes of the above organizations and companies will be disclosed promptly and in detail.
• Concerning improvement of the work environment for employees, the ratio of users of maternity, childcare and nursing care leave and shorter working hour systems among MCC employees has reached 3.53%. We continuously and strongly expect that in each of your Group companies as well, efforts will be taken at a similar level and examples of users of nursing care leave and shorter working hour systems will be disclosed in-house with an even wider scope.

Matters for which measures have progressed but further efforts are expected

• Concerning the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group Corporate Ethics and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group Compliance Code of Conduct, it is highly regarded that these policies have been stated clearly for the Group. At the same time, we expect that the policies will be translated into various languages with the help of workers of overseas bases. Through their active involvement this will promote understanding and practice by employees who are native speakers of these languages. In this way, we hope the significance of the philosophy will be shared and the foundation will be laid for self-initiated practice.
• Concerning risk management that includes compliance with laws, it is highly regarded that your company has taken concerted efforts to deal with compliance violations, country-related risks involved in overseas business development, and transport of harmful and hazardous materials, and that specific actions have been taken for building the risk management networks in Asia and eliminating long-distance transport of high-risk hazardous materials, in accordance with the list of risks that would seriously affect the Group. From here forward, we expect that the series of these efforts from risk assessment to identification of priority items and formulation of countermeasures will be shared among an even greater number of employees.
• Concerning reduction of the environmental burden, it is highly regarded that despite the increase in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions that accompanied the operation of power generation facilities in dealing with the electricity shortage caused by the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of TEPCO, and the worsening of specific energy consumption accompanying the decline in production resulting from the long-term stoppage of the Kashima Plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake, the aggravation was not as serious as in 2008 and VOC emissions were reduced. This gives evidence that facility improvement and innovations in production technologies are underway. In the future, further improvement in total and specific energy consumption is expected, taking into consideration large-scale regular repair work, measures to deal with economic situations and other foreseeable circumstances.
• Concerning the revision and comprehensive implementation of safety measures triggered by the fire at the Kashima Plant in December 2007, it is highly regarded that activities for fostering safety culture have been underway. At the same time, sharing and collaborating with partner companies at an expanded scale is expected regarding joint drills and responses to disasters, taking consideration of overlapping emergencies that could occur at a time of regular repair work, such as a large-scale earthquake, typhoon or blackout.
• Concerning approaches to business partners, it is highly regarded that briefings were held with major suppliers and a self-judging questionnaire was conducted with 170 suppliers whose share in the purchased amount has reached 90%. From here forward, to develop the base for the suppliers' environment, health, human rights and safety (EHS) from a medium-term perspective, a detailed survey should be conducted on how much has been achieved for which issues, requesting that the respondents clearly indicate the evidence for their responses, in order to share issues with the business partners and establish a system that enables proactive improvement.
• Concerning strengthening of human resource diversity and utilization for the entire Group, further promotion of globalization is essential for future business development. Looking at the next 10 years for the Group, a global human resources portfolio should be formulated beyond the framework of divisions and corporations, a supervisor (global human resources officer) should be appointed to promote recruitment, human resources should be cultivated and exchanged through all possible opportunities, and systems for recruitment and training should be developed that allow the Group to proactively utilize its diverse human resources, as a truly global business entity.