Sustainability
Basic Policy
Our management philosophy is “Contributing to the implementation of a safe, affluent society through communications.” To achieve this goal, as a member of local society, we use our business activities to create a sustainable society while valuing communications and partnerships.
Declaration of Partnership Building [Japanese Text Only]
We have declared the “Partnership Building Declaration” in order to build new partnerships by promoting collaboration and coexistence with our supply chain partners and value-creating businesses.
Multi-Stakeholder Policy [Japanese Text Only]
In corporate management, we are committed to appropriate collaboration with multi-stakeholders in light of the growing importance of value creation not only with shareholders but also with employees, business partners, customers, creditors, local communities, and other diverse stakeholders. Based on this, we have formulated the “Multi-Stakeholder Policy” in light of the importance of returning profits to employees and giving consideration to business partners, from the viewpoint that the appropriate distribution of profits and achievements generated through value co-creation and productivity improvement to multi-stakeholders will help maintain the momentum of wage increases and sustainable economic development.
Index
Major Challenges (Materiality)
Initiatives for Environmental Issues
To implement environmental measures, we have established a environmental management system that complies with environmental laws, requirements for ISO14001:2015, and company rules and procedures.
Initiatives for Social Issues
Under the major theme in our action guidelines of aiming to “contribute to the local communities by observing social rules and taking the global environment into consideration,” we have been taking initiatives to solve various social issues through measures such as assisting with the promotion of digitalization, providing assistance for people with disabilities, and engaging in volunteering activities.
Initiatives for Employees
We aim to develop a work environment and culture in which all employees can feel satisfied with their work, enjoy both their professional and personal lives, and continue to work in good health for a long time. Through these efforts, we are promoting the continuous growth of the company, thus contributing to the creation of a safe and affluent society.
Initiatives for Governance Compliance
We are striving to develop a corporate culture by complying with the laws and regulations and strengthening our internal discipline through measures against various types of harassment.
Initiatives for Environmental Issues
Kanematsu Communications acknowledges that environmental initiatives are the social responsibility of corporations and we consider them to be a key management issue in the continuation of our businesses. To implement environmental measures, we have established a environmental management system that complies with environmental laws, requirements for ISO14001:2015, and company rules and procedures.
- Acquisition of Certification
- In March 2016, our head office (a member of the Kanematsu Group) acquired environmental management system certification (ISO14001:2015) and has been making continuous efforts to improve our system in consideration of the global environment.
- Environmental Activities
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- Changing conventional lighting to LED in our local offices, branches, and stores
- Introducing environmentally friendly vehicles (hybrid cars)
- Instituting the Building Environment and Energy Management System (BEMS) that reduces energy consumption in large stores
- Launching stores that employ renewable energy (solar power generation)
Initiatives for Social Issues
Under our action guidelines’ major theme of aiming to “contribute to the local communities by observing social rules and taking the global environment into consideration,” Kanematsu Communications has been involved in initiatives to deal with various social issues through activities such as assisting in the promotion of digitalization, providing assistance for people with disabilities, and engaging in volunteer activities.
Specific Efforts
Digital Divide
In accordance with the government’s mission to create “Human-friendly digitalization: No one left behind,” each store is actively hosting smartphone classes and lectures on digital use.
secure use of smartphones
For the safe, secure use of the internet, we are providing educational guidance for primary, secondary, elementary, junior high, and high school students as well as parents and teachers all over Japan.
the use of ICT
In addition to promoting the use of ICT to streamline internal operations and go paperless, our Corporate Sales Division provides products, such as KCS Motion (in Japanese only), that help companies facilitate digital transformation (DX).
Initiatives for Employees
Efforts toward Maintaining Work-Life Balance
Kanematsu Communications is making continuous efforts to establish a work environment that enables all of our employees to be successful in their jobs and in their private lives and to have a sense of satisfaction by maintaining a good balance between their work and non-work lives. We are doing so through measures that affect areas such as childcare, nursing care, personal interests, studies, and community activities.
- Support for Childcare
- We are taking the initiative to create an environment in which the employees can engage in both childcare and work, and many, regardless of sex, are using this system. When they return to work after taking parental leave, they are basically assigned to the section they previously belonged to in order to ensure a comfortable work environment.
- Support for Nursing Care
- Various support policies, including leave and vacation, are in place so that the employees can continue to work while taking care of their families when such care becomes necessary.
- Support for Welfare
- For a company to perform its best, its employees have to be able to perform in their best condition, too. We focus our efforts on the well-being of our employees and support them to ensure that they can get the most out of both work and their private lives.
- Training and Award Systems and Improvement of Employee Satisfaction
- To foster employees with high performance capabilities that can be used in actual business fields, we provide various kinds of training programs, including position-specific training, external training, and self-awareness seminars. We also carry out initiatives for improving employee satisfaction, such as the annual award program.
Initiatives for Health Issues
We are making efforts to keep up on our employees’ health status through periodic health checks, stress checks, health management questionnaires on presenteeism and smoking rates, and data on absenteeism. Thanks to the health management initiatives since 2019, there has been a declining trend in health check anomaly observation rates and smoking rates, although smoking rates, high stress rates, and sick leave rates have still remained at a certain level.
Meanwhile, the results of the questionnaire on presenteeism revealed that the productivity rate has declined by about 5% since FY2020, presumably due to the effect of COVID- 19. If employees cannot exercise their inherent abilities and this leads to ongoing low productivity, the company’s sustainable development may be affected.
Therefore, in consideration of the need to work to improve employee health literacy and reduce the risks to mental and physical health, not only for individuals but for the entire workplace, we are giving a high priority to implementing the following activities while putting into place periodic health checks, specific health guidance, a reduction in smoking rates, and mental health measures.
- Disease and
Illness Prevention -
- Aiming for 100% attendance rate for periodic health checks
- Following up the examinees of secondary (more detailed) health checks based on the results of the primary check
- Promotion of
Smoking Cessation -
- Recognition of smoking rates as revealed by the smoking questionnaire
- Implementation of an online smoking cessation program provided by the health insurance organization
- Improvements to
Mental Health -
- Conducting stress checks for all employees (90% attendance rate) and follow-ups
- Providing interviews with industrial physicians and health staff to support those who suffer from high levels of stress
Initiatives for Governance Compliance
We are striving to develop a sound organizational culture by complying with the laws and regulations and strengthening our internal discipline through measures against various types of harassment.
Ensuring Compliance
We are striving to ensure that all employees understand and comply with rules and regulations through training programs on compliance, a weekly distribution of web training contents, KCSCREDO (values to be shared among employees) and others.
We have launched the internal discipline compliance committee to support and supervise compliance activities. The compliance system chart is shown below.
Harassment Measures that Value Human Rights
The company does not tolerate discrimination or practice violations of human rights against any person, at any time, for any reason.
We are working to create a workplace that is free of harassment by setting up contact points both in-house and with lawyers, establishing counselling offices for employees, providing training programs to prevent harassment, and conducting employee surveys to understand the harassment situation.
Checking System of Proper Business Operations through Audits
In order to comply with our code of conduct, achieve our management goals, and prevent fraud or errors, we have established an auditing office and a security promotion office to implement internal audits across business operations based on the internal audit plan. In addition, we have concluded an audit contract with an external auditor to undergo accounting audits to ensure proper information disclosure, transparency, and the appropriate establishment of internal discipline on financial information.
Enhancement of Information Security
To protect and manage information security, the company has developed the “basic policy for information security” concerning the handling of information properties entrusted to us by our customers and that belong to us so that all our employees can properly handle them. We are also working to prevent the leakage of personal and confidential information through training programs on information security and audits on the management status by the operational investigations.