Yakult Group Materiality
We have identified six material themes to achieve sustainability as a further step in realizing our mission of contributing to the health and happiness of people around the world based on our corporate slogan, “In order for people to be healthy, everything around them must also be healthy.”
To identify these themes, we established a cross-departmental working group that performed a materiality analysis with two mapped axes: “Impact for the Yakult Group” and “Importance for the sustainability of the planet and society.” We also worked together with external experts and referenced reports from groups like the IPCC* and World Economic Forum (WEF).
Using these six themes, we will establish strategies and plans that work toward improving the sustainability of not only our own Group but also of the planet and society to make our corporate philosophy and goal of uniting “People and Planet as One” a reality.
*
IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which releases an evaluation report on climate change every five to six years. In its 2018 special report, “Global Warming of 1.5ºC”, it detailed the ramifications of a 2ºC rise in global temperature and pointed to the importance of taking immediate action to limit this rise to below 1.5ºC.
Six material themes to achieve sustainability
To realize our corporate slogan of “In order for people to be healthy, everything around them must also be healthy” and achieve sustainability, we identified three social themes to prioritize within the value chain: innovation, value co-creation with communities, and supply chain management. We also analyzed factors such as climate change scenarios and water risk to identify three environmental themes: climate change, plastic containers and packaging, and water.
Innovation
Evolve into a healthcare company, further pursue the potential of bacteria, provide new products and services, use resources effectively, and others
Value co-creation with communities
Connect closely with local communities, deliver information on health, provide safe and reliable health products and services, and others
Supply chain management
Maintain sound relationships with business partners, promote sustainable procurement, ensure stable procurement of raw materials, and others
Climate change
Reduce GHG emissions (decarbonize), proactively shift to renewable energy, introduce energy-saving practices, and others
Plastic containers and packaging
Convert to fully-recyclable containers and packaging, reduce environmental impact by changing container materials, and others
The Yakult Group’s contributions to the SDGs
The Yakult Group’s corporate activities are broadly related to all 17 SDGs, but based on our materiality we have identified the following eight goals as being most closely connected to our business. Moving forward, the entire Yakult Group will continue contributing to achieving the SDGs.
