Materiality
Creation of Value
Changes are occurring in so many areas at such a fast pace these days—climate change, technological advances, people's lifestyles, and sense of values. With this in mind, the Noritake Group is working to identify social issues and needs, and continually provide new value in order to help and contribute to the development of a sustainable society.
With our Long-term Vision for 2030 in mind, our Group has identified six materiality items (priority issues) to address: "reduction of environmental impacts", "continuous provision of new value", "stable supply of high-quality and safe products", "pursuit of well-being in society", "improvement of employee engagement", and "continuous reinforcement of governance." We are advancing sustainability management to realize a sustainable society and continuously enhance our corporate value.
Materiality Identification Process
- Issue Extraction
Identify environmental, social, and governance issues with reference to GRI standards, SASB, SDGs, and other international guidelines - Evaluate importance of issues
Hold discussions in task forces consisting of representatives from each department within Noritake and conduct employee and customer surveys - Map priority issues
Mapping and evaluation based on two axes: "Importance to Noritake" and "Importance to stakeholders" - Validity Confirmation
Set specific details and targets of initiatives for issues judged to be of high importance - Resolution
Resolve identified materiality at the Board of Directors
List of materiality (key issues)
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Details of Key Initiatives | Fiscal 2023 Results （Progress） |
FY2024 Targets | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contribute to the global environment | Reducing environmental impact | Reduce CO2 emissions | CO2 emissions: 51,000 tons (-23% compared to FY2018) | CO2 emissions of 73,000 tons or less; a reduction of 25% or more compared to FY2018 | |
| Reducing waste | Waste disposals: 10,200 tons | Waste disposals: 10,000 tons or less | |||
| Provide environmentally-friendly products | 9% net sales share of environmentally-friendly products | 10% or more net sales share by environmentally-friendly products | |||
| Contribute to a convenient society | Continuous provision of new value | Provide new products | New product sales growth rate of 19% (compared to FY2022) | Achieve a sales growth rate of 25% or more (compared to FY 2022) | |
| Establishing a structure for new business creation | ・ Started operation of a development theme proposal system that solicits proposals from all employees and a development process for commercialization (Stage-Gate system) ・ Established an open innovation promotion system |
Promote open innovation | |||
| Strengthening core-technology development | Increase number of patents held by 9.5% (compared to FY2022) | Increase the number of patents held by 10% (compared to FY2022) | |||
| Stable supply of high-quality and safe products | Promote activities for improving quality | Achieve: 0 product incidents | Zero product-accidents | ||
| Reduce number of complaints by ： 26% (compared to 2022) | Reduce claim cases by 20% (compared to FY 2022) | ||||
| Formulated and deployed quality policies, and strengthened management through internal audits | Strengthen the quality assurance system | ||||
| Promoting supply-chain management | Identified issues with procurement activities in business departments | Strengthen the system for sustainable procurement | |||
| Collection rate of purchase guideline receipt acknowledgment forms of 96% Conducted questionnaire survey of key business partners |
Achieve a survey response rate of 80% or more for the Purchasing Guideline | ||||
| Contribute to the people’s well-being | Pursue a society that values well-being | Respecting human rights | Conducted questionnaire surveys of suppliers and employees | Promote human rights due diligence | |
| Providing well-being products | Sales share of well-being products of 8.2% | Sales ratio of 8% or more | |||
| Contribution to the local community | Held 9 events that enrich the dining sphere | Organize events that enrich the dining space | |||
| Accepted social studies field trips from 43 schools | Provide opportunities for social studies | ||||
| Improve employee engagement | Improving the physical and mental health of employees | Ratio of days of annual leave taken of 70.6% | Achieve a paid vacation acquisition rate of 70% or more | ||
| Stress check completion rate of 95.1% | Achieve a stress check participation rate of 90% or more | ||||
| Creating the workplace where employees can work vigorously | Created a new personnel system | Revise the personnel system | |||
| Conducted engagement surveys and established action plans based on the results | Conduct an engagement survey and utilize it for issue setting | ||||
| Fostering a culture that respects diversity | Rate of men taking childcare leave of 85% | Achieve a male childcare leave acquisition rate of 50% or more | |||
| Increase the ratio of female executives to 20% (compared to FY2022) | Increase the ratio of female managers by 20% (compared to FY 2022) | ||||
| Strengthen the foundation | Continuous reinforcement of governance | Strengthening the governance system | Transition to a company structure with an Audit and Supervisory Committee Implemented improvement measures for issues identified in the results of the Board of Directors' effectiveness evaluation |
Improve the effectiveness of the Board of Directors | |
| Established the Sustainability Management Committee (April 2023) | Strengthen the system for promoting sustainability management | ||||
| Improving information security | Deployed multi-factor authentication login and started terminal authentication for the company network | Strengthen network security | |||
| Thorough observance of compliance | Trained personnel in charge of practical operations related to the Subcontract Act, export control regulations, etc. | Conduct literacy education on laws and regulations |
Concrete efforts
Reducing environmental impacts
The Earth we live in is facing various environmental problems such as climate change and environmental pollution. The Noritake Group considers environmental consideration as a fundamental aspect of aiming for sustainability management, and has positioned the preservation of the global environment as one of the important management issues. The Noritake Group will work towards reducing CO2 emissions for the transition to a low-carbon society, reducing waste disposal volume through waste reduction efforts, and developing and providing environmentally-friendly products and services to contribute to the reduction of environmental impact.
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Main Activities | FY 2024 Targets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reducing environmental impacts | Reduction of CO2 emissions | Reduce to 73k tons or below | |
| Reduction of waste | Reduce to 10k tons or below | ||
| Providing environmentally-friendly products | Achieve a sales ratio of 10% or more |
Continuous provision of new value
Even in an era of rapid change, such as climate change, technological advancement, and changes in people's lifestyles and values, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society by understanding social needs, identifying areas for growth, and continuously providing new products and services.
While leveraging Noritake's strengths, we will actively collaborate with other companies, universities and others to provide new value continuously with a sense of urgency.
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Main Activities | FY 2024 Targets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous provision of new value | Providing new products | Achieve a sales growth rate of 25% or more (compared to FY 2022) | |
| Establishing a structure for new business creation | Promote open innovation | ||
| Strengthening core-technology development | Increase the number of patents held by 10% (compared to FY 2022) |
Stable supply of high-quality and safe products
In order to continue to be a company that is trusted and relied upon by all stakeholders, it is essential to ensure the quality of products and services that can be used safely and securely. The Noritake Group is committed to improving quality and promoting supply chain management to provide customers quickly and reliably with the "good quality" they seek, and to ensure a stable supply of high-quality and safe products.
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Main Activities | FY 2024 Targets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable supply of high-quality and safe products | Promoting activities to improve quality | Zero product-accidents Reduce claim cases by 20% (compared to FY 2022) Strengthen the quality assurance system |
|
| Promoting supply-chain management | Strengthen the system for sustainable procurement Achieve a survey response rate of 80% or more for the Purchasing Guideline |
Pursue a society that values well-being
Well-being refers to a broad sense of happiness that encompasses not only physical, but also mental and social fulfillment. The Noritake Group conducts its business activities with the goal of promoting the well-being of all people. Even in the face of the potential for corporations to infringe on human rights through globalization, we respect the rights of all people, and pursue a well-being society by making contribution to the people’s well-being and striving for co-prosperity through our business activities.
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Main Activities | FY 2024 Targets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pursuing a society that values well-being | Providing well-being products | Sales ratio of 8% or more | |
| Respecting human rights | Promote human rights due diligence | ||
| Contribution to the local community | Organize events that enrich the dining space Provide opportunities for social studies |
Improve employee engagement
The Noritake Group believes that making the workplace comfortable and providing job satisfaction to employees is a driving force behind business activities. We aim to improve employee engagement, which leads to business expansion, by creating a workplace where each employee, regardless of race, nationality, gender, age or disability, can demonstrate their experience and skills, fearlessly tackle challenging tasks and have opportunities to grow. We also promote the physical and mental health of employees.
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Main Activities | FY 2024 Targets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Improving employee engagement | Improving the physical and mental health of employees | Achieve a paid vacation acquisition rate of 70% or more Achieve a stress check participation rate of 90% or more |
|
| Creating the workplace where employees can work vigorously | Review the personnel system Conduct an engagement survey and utilize it for issue setting |
||
| Fostering a culture that respects diversity | Achieve a male childcare leave acquisition rate of 50% or more Increase the ratio of female managers by 20% (compared to FY 2022) |
Continuously strengthen governance
Corporate governance and risk management are fundamental elements that underpin the survival of a company and are essential for enhancing corporate value.
To conduct fair and transparent management, it is necessary to continuously improve the governance system and anticipate and take measures against various risks.
The Noritake Group aims to maintain and strengthen its system for making quick and flexible responses to changes in the business environment and making decisions, as well as to supervise management and execution, in order to achieve sustained strengthening of governance.
| Materiality | Applicable SDGs | Main Activities | FY 2024 Targets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous reinforcement of governance | Strengthening the governance system | Improve the effectiveness of the Board of Directors Strengthen the system for promoting sustainability management |
|
| Improving information security | Strengthen network security | ||
| Thorough observance of compliance | Conduct literacy education on laws and regulations |
