Corporate Responsibility
Sumitomo Chemical promotes "Our Sustainable Tree 3.0" through groupwide employee participation 16th November 2018
Sumitomo Chemical has taken a concrete step in furthering its Groupwide employee participation initiative, Our Sustainable Tree 3.0, aimed atachieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The latest initiative was conducted for a period of 100 days up to October 4, during which the Company received 7,700 posts (a total number of participants being 30,598) related to the SDGs from employees and executive officers of the Group companies.
The Sustainable Tree is an initiative commenced in 2016 whereby all employees and executive officers of the Company and its Group companies, both in Japan and abroad, are expected to ask themselves how they could contribute to building a sustainable society and then express their views by posting them on a designated website dedicated to the initiative. This year, which marks the third anniversary of the commencement of the initiative, the website was renewed in design and expanded in function in advance of the posting that would start in June so that it could serve more effectively as a comprehensive forum for information sharing on the SDGs. Specifically, the enhanced website provides information about “the best practices,” products and technologies followed at any of the Group companies in connection with the SDGs. Such a forum on the website, the Company believes, will offer opportunities for employees and relevant departments to interact and inspire with each other or give an impetus to promoting exchanges of information among them. In addition, the new website allows employees to gain access more readily to external information about various issues of mutual concern such as climate change and ongoing developments on SDGs.
When initiating this Groupwide project, many executive officers, both from the Company and its Group companies, stepped forward and took the lead in posting their messages on the website or expressing own commitment to the SDGs and encouraged all employees to have proactive participation. Thanks to these endeavours, employees across all the Group companies in Japan and overseas gradually deepened their understanding of the SDGs.
As a result, this year saw employees’ individual efforts taking a concrete shape, not only in the form of day -to-day work conducive to the SDGs, but also through a variety of voluntary activities . Among those activities were workshops to learn about the SDGs, e- learning programs, the use of SDG icons on internal reports and other written materials.
Toward the building of a sustainable society, all companies of the Sumitomo Chemical Group will continue to be united firmly in making the best of their creativity and boldly take on the challenges of resolving various issues facing society through offering new value created by capitalizing on the strength of chemistry.