Sumitomo Corporation

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised in stakeholder engagement activities, as well as its engagement process.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts in relation to its sustainability strategy and reports against its targets. It also links executive salary to the company’s ESG performance, and provides experience that its highest governance body has expertise in sustainability issues.

GHG emissions
The company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. The company has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions, and reports progress against it.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company applies a mitigation hierarchy approach to its biodiversity targets. The company has conducted a biodiversity impacts assessments with the LEAP analysis. The company quantifies its dependencies on nature in its own operations.

Solid and air pollution
The company reports on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Water
The company demonstrates it is reducing water withdrawal in its own operations. The company reports the proportion of water withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company provides a commitment to respect indigenous peoples’ rights.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company demonstrates that its human rights risks and impacts identification process includes a focus on the health of local residents.

Act ethically
The company has a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption, clearly outlining the prohibition of bribery or activities that could raise suspicions of bribery towards Japanese government or other public officials. It expressly forbids its officers and employees from providing entertainment, gifts, or similar to such officials. Additionally, the policy prohibits offers, payments, or promises of payment to any foreign government or public official to influence decisions for business advantages.

Provide and promote decent work
The company commits to increasing women’s representation across various levels by FY2030: targeting at least 20% in managerial roles (currently 8.4%), 10% in general manager positions (currently 1.4%), and 30% in director and audit & supervisory board member roles (currently 18.8%).

Respect human rights
The company initiated its human rights due diligence in 2020 to proactively identify, prevent, and rectify adverse human rights impacts stemming from its business operations. This process, aligned with international guidelines such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD Due Diligence Guidance, involves desktop surveys, expert consultations, and interviews with all Strategic Business Units. It also embraces a plan-do-check-act cycle for continuous improvement, focusing particularly on high-risk areas. The company’s commitments are underpinned by its adherence to ILO core conventions, ensuring no discrimination and supporting fundamental labour rights. This includes a public commitment to the International Bill of Human Rights and specific policies targeting discrimination, child labour, and forced labour across its operations and supply chains.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company has set some targets, it does not disclose group-wide, time-bound targets on all key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain.

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
The company has an opportunity to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and report progress against its scope 3 targets. The company has an opportunity to align its targets to a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company reports that it conducts in analysis using the TNFD’s tools to understand its impacts and dependencies, it is only applied to a selection of its sites. It has the opportunity to expand its analysis across all of its operations.

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

Key areas and species
The company discloses some of its locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations, and some of the species existing in or adjacent to its own locations. However, no evidence was found that the company discloses all its locations that are in or adjacent to areas important to biodiversity, or species in or adjacent to its own locations. The company also does not disclose relevant areas and species information for its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Solid and air pollution
The company reports an increase in its plastic use and waste. The company does not report time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
While the company reports a goal to reduce water withdrawal, the target is tied to its employees, not absolute withdrawal. No evidence found that the company engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company does not report a decrease in water pollution. The company does not regularly report on water pollution metrics, nor targets to reduce water pollution. The company has an opportunity to publicly commit to the right to water and to provide its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company could improve in this area by disclosing its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights, and requirements for its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rights holders paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rights holders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company 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
While the company reviews and audits its anti-corruption programs, there is no detailed description of how it identifies bribery and corruption risks specifically. Furthermore, it lacks anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in business contracts. The company has not disclosed a policy on lobbying and political engagement nor on third-party lobbyists’ compliance, although it discloses political donations. The company has an opportunity to establish transparent policies detailing its approach to lobbying and political engagement.

Provide and promote decent work
The company offers a healthy work environment but lacks a comprehensive policy on health and safety and does not detail how it monitors such practices in its supply chain. While it meets minimum wage standards, there’s no information on achieving a living wage for employees or supporting living wage commitments among suppliers. The company has initiatives for promoting women but lacks a broader commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. There is an opportunity for the company to establish clear, measurable targets for gender representation and empowerment, along with enhanced disclosures on health, safety, and wage practices both internally and among business partners.

Respect human rights
The company has begun human rights due diligence processes and identifies various human rights issues, but lacks detailed disclosure on how it considers relevant geographical, economic, and social factors in its risk assessments. Despite a comprehensive human rights due diligence framework and a PDCA cycle to monitor and address risks, it falls short in fully disclosing how these processes are integrated into its risk management systems across all SBUs. The company has an opportunity to enhance transparency regarding how it assesses and addresses human rights risks and to provide periodic updates on the effectiveness of its human rights initiatives. Furthermore, it can benefit from detailing its global system for acting on identified human rights issues, including how it applies across its operations and supply chain.