Sumitomo Chemical

Stakeholder engagement
Sumitomo Chemical discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups. Furthermore, its stakeholder engagement activities cover nature, nutrition, and social areas.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Sumitomo Chemical discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy.

GHG emissions
Sumitomo Chemical has targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions to 50% by 2030 compared to its 2013 baseline. The company has also set a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions.

Solid and air pollution
Sumitomo Chemical has policies, partakes in activities, and discloses quantitative data related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging, including the proportion of recycled plastics used in manufacturing processes. It also reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Water
Sumitomo Chemical demonstrates reducing water withdrawal in its own operations, and has a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality, reports a decrease in water pollution, and regularly reports on water pollution.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Act ethically
Sumitomo Chemical has disclosed its global tax strategy and also established a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to voice concerns and report instances of bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
Sumitomo Chemical has a publicly available policy statement that emphasizes its commitment to prioritizing the health and safety of its workers. Furthermore, the company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Additionally, the company openly discloses the percentage of women in its direct operations workforce for each job category. It also sets a clear objective to have 10% of women occupying managerial positions or above by the end of fiscal 2022.

Respect human rights
Sumitomo Chemical has a publicly available policy statement that commits it to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. Additionally, the company has another publicly available policy statement that expects all suppliers to also respect these core labour rights. Furthermore, the company describes a specific process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in relation to its own operations, considering various locations and activities.

Moreover, the company states that it provides a human rights grievance mechanism that is accessible to all workers. Importantly, the company also ensures that this mechanism is accessible to external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by their operations.

Lobbying
Sumitomo Chemical has an opportunity to report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, as well as whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
Sumitomo Chemical has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Sumitomo Chemical discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate, social inclusion and biodiversity. However, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Also, while the company reports consistently against some targets including climate, it could further report consistently against all its targets. Additionally, although the company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability, there is an opportunity to link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Lastly, it states that the board of directors has expertise in sustainability. However, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

GHG emissions
Sumitomo Chemical should reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and report progress against its targets. Crucially, all its scope 1, 2 and 3 targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Sumitomo Chemical communicates that it evaluates its effects on water bodies and endeavors to minimize its environmental footprint. However, there’s no publicly available information to suggest a comprehensive assessment of its impact on nature, including biodiversity, across all its operations. Additionally, it lacks disclosures regarding dependencies on nature both in-house and within its upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
Sumitomo Chemical has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
While Sumitomo Chemical has disclosed some species in proximity to its water areas and precious aquatic benthic organisms in specific rivers, there is room to expand this by providing a complete list of species at all locations and their status according to national and international conservation lists. The company also has an opportunity to be more transparent by identifying the locations within its own operations and those of its suppliers that are adjacent to areas of high biodiversity value.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Sumitomo Chemical currently shares some information about the resources it utilizes, but there is room for improvement in terms of providing more comprehensive details. Additionally, there is no quantitative reporting available on the company’s overall circularity performance. Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to disclose its efforts towards enhancing soil health and agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices. It could also consider setting a target to improve soil health and periodically report on its progress.

Solid and air pollution
Sumitomo Chemical should commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties, as well as work on reducing the production of hazardous substances and waste. It also has an opportunity to report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. Finally, while the company has a target to reduce air pollutants, it is not time-bound.

Water
Sumitomo Chemical has an opportunity to further improve water withdrawal by engaging with suppliers and disclosing water withdrawals from water-stressed areas. It has an opportunity to set time-bound targets to reduce water pollution metrics. The company does not disclose relevant information on rights to water in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Sumitomo Chemical does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Sumitomo Chemical has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
Sumitomo Chemical could openly publish a policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption. Additionally, it could strengthen its stance by incorporating anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with business relationships, reinforcing its commitment to ethical practices. While the company conducts assessments of anti-corruption regulations and risks in various countries, it could enhance transparency by describing its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks within its own operations.

Furthermore, the company could establish a comprehensive policy outlining its approach to lobbying and political engagement. To foster transparency, it could publicly declare a policy statement confirming its abstention from making political contributions. Disclosing expenditures related to lobbying activities would provide stakeholders with a more complete picture. Moreover, it could require third-party lobbyists to adhere to the company’s lobbying and political engagement policy.

Provide and promote decent work
While Sumitomo Chemical provides certain health and safety information, it could enhance disclosure by including data on the number of hours worked. Additionally, the company could disclose a policy statement requiring its suppliers to respect the health and safety of their workers. Also, it discloses monitoring of health and safety performance in its business relationships, but there is an opportunity to provide more details about its monitoring methods.

Also, the company could share a time-bound target for paying a living wage to all workers and disclose how it determines a living wage for different regions. Moreover, it could add a requirement for suppliers to pay a living wage, accompanied by disclosure of support measures.

While Sumitomo Chemical has a modest representation of women on its board, it could further improve gender diversity. Additionally, disclosing the ratio of women’s to men’s salaries in various employee categories would contribute to transparency on gender pay equity.

Respect human rights
While Sumitomo Chemical already conducts human rights due diligence, there’s potential to provide more detailed insights into how it identifies risks and impacts within its supply chain. The company currently outlines its process for assessing human rights risks, yet it could further specify its salient human rights issues and disclose the results of its human rights risk assessment. Additionally, disclosing a comprehensive global system to address, prevent, or mitigate these issues would demonstrate a proactive commitment to human rights.