Mitsubishi Corporation

Sustainability strategy
The company 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.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder groups.

No leading practices were identified in the ecosystems area.

No leading practices were identified in the traceability area.

No leading practices were identified in the social responsibility area.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and describes the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its supply chain. It further indicates that it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses how it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships. It also discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, it reports the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and a target to increase the percentage of women in management-level positions above 15% by FY 2025.

Act ethically
The company discloses a policy on bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contractual agreements with business relationships.

Sustainability strategy
Mitsubishi Corporation discloses some sustainability objectives/targets but could further establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. While the company reports against some targets including ecosystems, traceability and social issues, it has an opportunity to report consistently against all its targets.

Accountability for sustainability strategy
Mitsubishi Corporation discloses a remuneration policy related to climate but can further link this policy to improvement in covers ecosystems, traceability and social issues. While stating that the board of directors has the expertise in climate and social inclusion, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose whether its highest governance body has specific expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Stakeholder engagement
Mitsubishi Corporation has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its engagement activities.

Lobbying and advocacy
Mitsubishi Corporation has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Additionally, it can report any (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Although Mitsubishi Corporation demonstrates a commitment to sustainable seafood, there is an opportunity for improvement by providing quantitative evidence of its progress in this area. For example, while the company discloses a target to source 30% of its tuna product from certified fisheries by 2030, there is an opportunity to report how it is making progress towards this target.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Mitsubishi Corporation sources from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries. Furthermore, one of Mitsubishi Corporation’s subsidiaries, Princes, operating in the United Kingdom, states that 99% of its tuna originates from fisheries that are either certified, engaged in a fishery improvement project (FIP) or pole and line. However, the company has an opportunity to improve by disclosing how it addresses the impacts of the fisheries it sources from that are not certified or engaged in an improvement project.

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
Mitsubishi Corporation does not disclose any information about how it addresses aquaculture related impacts at the group level, other than it sources some Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified products. However, its Norwegian subsidiary Cermaq demonstrates that it has a sea lice management system as well as a medicine use management system, quantitatively reporting on the use of treatments such as in-feed treatment and antibiotics.

Traceability systems and commitments for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
Mitsubishi Corporation (and its subsidiaries) sources products that are certified by the Marine Council Stewardship (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which implies that chain of custody certification is in place for those products. However, Mitsubishi Corporation does not have a public commitment to traceable seafood, nor does it disclose any information about how it traces and verifies the origins of seafood products. The company therefore can improve in this area by having a commitment to implement the Global Dialogue for Seafood Traceability (GDST) and provide information about the traceability system(s) in place in its operations and supply chain.

Risk-based approach to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
Mitsubishi Corporation (and its subsidiaries) sources products from fisheries that are certified by the Marine Council Stewardship (MSC) which helps mitigate IUU risks in those fisheries. However, the company can improve by demonstrating how it assesses IUU risks across its entire portfolio and how it addresses any identified risks.

Disclosure of the source of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
Mitsubishi Corporation does not disclose an overview of the sourcing of its seafood products (including its subsidiaries). The company can improve its performance by disclosing an overview of its fishing and aquaculture operations and the seafood products it sources, including information about species, geographic location and management status.

Forced Labour
Mitsubishi Corporation has an opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain such as a prohibition to pay recruitment fees, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
.Mitsubishi Corporation has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and regions. Also, it could adopt procurement practices and develop supply chain relationships that improve fisher and farmers’ income resilience.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
No evidence was found of a group-level approach to verify decent working and living conditions on fishing vessels. Mitsubishi Corporation can improve in this area by developing and implementing a group-level approach to monitor conditions on vessels and show how risks are mitigated and improvements are implemented, where needed.

Respect human rights
Mitsubishi Corporation has a publicly available statement committing it to respect specific workers’ rights in its operations and supply chain but has an opportunity to reference all the ILO fundamental rights at work and place them in a formal policy document. Additionally, although the company conducts human rights due diligence, it could describe a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, and its salient human rights issues. It could further specify what it considers to be salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered and how it acts to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues through a global system.

Provide and promote decent work
While Mitsubishi Corporation states that it respects the health and safety of workers in its operations and supply chain, it has an opportunity to formalise this commitment in a public policy document. Additionally, the company states that it pays a legal wage and expects the same in its supply chain. However, it could disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or state that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. It could also describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and how it works to support its suppliers in paying a living wage. Furthermore, the company could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose the representation of women on the highest governance body along with the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Act ethically
While Mitsubishi Corporation states that it has an anti-corruption system and procedures in place along with a mechanism to raise related concerns, it has an opportunity to disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption and clearly state that a grievance mechanism is accessible to all stakeholders. It could also disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement beyond a personal level in a public policy document and state that it does not make political contributions and divulge its lobbying expenditures.