Materiarities - Priority Issues for Sustainable Growth
Amid a growing need to address sustainability-related issues, we formulated the Alfresa Group's Basic Sustainability Policy, based on the Alfresa Group's Principles, and identified important sustainability issues for the Group. These issues bear a strong impact in terms of realizing a sustainable society and increasing Group value over the medium to long term, and include medium- to long-term threats and risks, as well as new business opportunities.
Important Sustainability Issues for the Alfresa Group
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1 Improvement of quality of products and services The Group helps resolve social issues, focusing on realizing a health-oriented society, by always providing reliable products and services. 2 Value creation and innovation The Group promotes digital transformation (DX) and other initiatives in order to improve customer satisfaction and productivity while also venturing into new business domains related to health and treatment. 3 Environmental protection The Group has established the Alfresa Group's Environmental Policy and strives to protect the environment through business activities intended to realize a health-oriented society. 4 Contribution to local communities The Group contributes to local health and treatments through business activities conducted by each of its Group companies. These activities have been developed over many years and are rooted in the community. 5 Active participation of human resources The Group has established the Alfresa Group's Diversity Policy and takes steps to create an environment where people can work together and display their individual talents. 6 Compliance The Group will promote sincere business activities premised on the observance of laws, internal and external regulations, and social norms. 7 Risk management The Group will formulate measures to respond to natural disasters, pandemics, system-related troubles, and other events to ensure a stable supply of health and treatment-related products and services. 8 Corporate governance The Group promotes control and supervision over corporate management in order to fulfill its corporate social responsibilities and improve corporate value.
Identification Process
STEP:1 Screen and organize social issues that the Group should address
We identified and classified relevant issues based on global sustainability reporting guidelines, the SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles issued by the Japanese government, the evaluation criteria of major ESG organizations, and the Alfresa Group’s Basic Sustainability Policy.
STEP:2 Organize the linkage between the Company’s businesses and social issues, and identify priority issues
We established a cross-departmental committee to study these issues based on their importance to the Alfresa Group and to our stakeholders, and mapped the elements that were of higher importance.
STEP:3 Examine and determine appropriateness
The Corporate Governance Committee, which is chaired by an outside director, examined the issues deemed to be of high importance, and after ensuring that the contents compiled were objective and appropriate, these materialities were resolved by the Board of Directors.
Contribution to the SDGs
The SDGs serve as a common language when tackling several social issues and pursuing the realization of a sustainable society. They are common goals that call on the combined strength of both national governments and private companies to work toward. The Alfresa Group is committed to achieving the following SDGs in particular and helping to realize a sustainable society by making efforts to resolve important sustainability issues, determined as a part of promoting sustainability management.
SDGs Pursued by the Alfresa Group
GOOD HEALTH
AND WELL-BEING
The Alfresa Group’s business activities in itself make a contribution to everyone’s health. By sincerely engaging in business activities, the entire Alfresa Group is facilitating better health for everyone. In addition, we are working to reduce the number of traffic accidents through distribution of our products, which are used in many automobile models.
DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Starting with strict compliance with labor security-related laws and regulations, one of the most important management issues for the Alfresa Group is to foster our valuable people through promoting diversity, developing talent, and creating more fulfilling workplaces. We aim to spur economic growth through the deployment of cutting-edge technologies and endeavoring to create jobs and increase employee satisfaction.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
The Alfresa Group engages in its business activities with regional communities. We also support the creation of the Community-based Integrated Care System. During emergencies, our business continuity plan (BCP) ensures the supply of ethical pharmaceutical products to places where they are needed on a national scale, so that the distribution of ethical pharmaceuticals continues uninterrupted.
Specific Measures Related to Climate Change
As part of a corporate group that operates in health-related domains, the Alfresa Group's management recognizes environmental problems as important issues that affect people's health and lifestyles. Therefore, we will address climate change by working to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases while making an active effort to use renewable energy.