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Our global corporate efforts in sustainability from a business perspective continue to lead to stronger competitive advantage and brand power.
Action on Sustainability So Far
In April 2024, we reorganized and enlarged our previous Sustainability Group into the Sustainability Development Division, in order to accelerate our progress. In FY2020, after establishing the KWE Group Sustainability Committee, we published our KWE Group Sustainability Basic Policy and in FY2021 we started materiality assessment and setting our KPI. Now, three years later, our sales staff and other employees have a strong interest in learning more about sustainability, and they are increasing their knowledge through regular training sessions and study groups. Awareness of the importance of working toward sustainability has taken root across the KWE Group worldwide, with a number of our group companies starting up their own working groups to take action. We are proud to say our customers and other stakeholders are reacting favorably to these steps forward. On the other hand, over the past years our customers in the United States and Europe have been increasing their demands in wide range of areas including the environment, human capital, and human rights. The KWE Group will continue to leverage its strengths in customer-first approach and local on-site capability to take action on sustainability that originates in meeting our customer's needs, leading to ongoing growth and increasing corporate value.
Material Topic Initiatives:
Looking Back at FY2023 and Creating New Priorities in FY2024
The Kintetsu Group joined the UN Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, in FY2023, and we have made steady progress on addressing our material topics. We will continue to focus on the following priority areas in FY2024.
In our environmental initiatives, we reduced Scope 2 emissions in Japan to virtually zero in FY2023 with ongoing purchases of renewable energy certificates. In order to reduce Scope 3 emissions, we started the KWE Green Consolidation service allocating the environmental value of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to our customers, as well as increasing our participation in SAF programs and entering a partnership for sustainable maritime fuels (SMF). The KWE Group submitted a commitment letter to SBTi in FY2023, with Scope 1 and 2 emission reduction targets for FY2030 and the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and in FY2024, we have drafted a roadmap to meet those goals and applied to SBTi for validation. In addition, our group companies are shifting to EV trucks, and the group is making progress on improving disclosure of information as our parent company Kintetsu Group Holdings moves toward compliance with Europe's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) by 2028.
In the social area, for our material topic data security, in FY2023 we expanded employee training in cyber-security and conducted periodic security assessments. In FY2024 we will be building a system to detect the truth of information, based on our on-site capability cultivated over many years, in response to the emerging risk posed by generative AI, and at the same time we will continue moving ahead on digital innovation to improve competitive advantage and operational efficiency.
For our material topic diversity and equal opportunity, in FY2023 we expanded educational programs to increase awareness of our KWE Group Diversity and Equal Opportunity Policy established in 2023 and to invest in our human capital. In FY2024 we will be issuing guidelines based on that policy, and setting goals and action plans by region around the world.
In social impacts in the supply chain, KWE routinized supplier requirements based on the KWE Vendor Code of Conduct in FY2023, as well as established our Human Rights Due Diligence Committee to start activity based on the KWE Group Human Rights Policy. Our Safety and Health Management Center, established in FY2023 based on the KWE Express (non-consolidated) Health and Productivity Management Declaration, took the lead in promoting employee safety and health, resulting in the Company earning recognition as a Health and Productivity Management Outstanding Organization 2024 (Large Organization) in March 2024. We will continue to help manage employee health, for example, by encouraging 100% of our people to take regular health exams.
For the material topic anti-corruption in the governance area, our Head of Group Compliance and General Counsel continued to lead employee training to ensure that the global whistleblowing system established in May 2023 operates effectively.
With our vision to be a global top 10 solution partner, a global brand born in Japan, and our Management Plan 2027, the KWE Group is moving ahead on initiatives from a business perspective to help the sustainable growth of global society.
We ask for the continuing support of our stakeholders in these endeavors.
Nobutoshi Torii
Kintetsu World Express, Inc.
President & CEO