Construction of a Responsible Supply Chain Structure

Basic Procurement Policy and Procurement Guidelines

In order to build mutual trust and coprosperity with our suppliers and achieve a sustainable society, we have established the SAKATA INX Group Basic Procurement Policy, which serves as the guidelines and philosophy for our procurement activities, and the Procurement Guidelines, which compile common considerations in procurement and business activities.
The policy treats SAKATA INX suppliers as important partners in the provision of excellent products, goods, and services, and states that we shall fulfill our social responsibility as a company through fair, impartial, and honest procurement activities and by giving due consideration to society, global environmental protection and conservation, resource conservation, occupational health and safety, and human rights throughout our supply chain among other issues.

Due diligence for our supply chain

We conduct due diligence on the supply chain to ensure responsible procurement activities together with suppliers, including contractors or trading companies and distributors. This applies to new suppliers of raw materials in Japan and to our existing suppliers responsible for 90％ of raw materials on a purchase quantity basis. In this process, we conduct a CSR procurement survey. We distribute the SAKATA INX Group Basic Procurement Policy and the SAKATA INX Group Procurement Guidelines to check their level of understanding.

Our procurement guidelines consist of 27 clauses. They require sincere business activities in compliance, consumer protection, environmental conservation, the labor environment, respect for human rights, coexistence with local communities and the prevention of inappropriate provision of benefits, bribery and corruption.
With regard to environmental considerations, they also provide for the setting of targets in reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, reducing water consumption and proper wastewater treatment and instituting the three-R (reduce-reuse-recycle) principles for cutting waste emissions. We recommend to our suppliers that activities for solving social issues be conducted in the whole supply chain.

We give sustainability-related training to personnel engaged in procurement and purchasing duties. In addition, we perform checks on the statuses of suppliers and identify high-risk suppliers on the basis of responses to the CSR procurement survey. We then conduct interviews and dialogues with them for the purpose of remediation. We also share best practices to support them. As required, we carry out visiting inspections of suppliers. (For FY2022, we conducted visiting inspection of four suppliers.) Results and progress of these initiatives are reported to the Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by the Representative Director, President & CEO and consists of all directors, every six months and supervised by the committee.
Going forward, we will continue to conduct CSR procurement surveys as well as dialogues with, and support for, individual suppliers with a view to achieving further improvements.

Green procurement

In procuring raw materials for our products, all of our suppliers submit Chemical substance Control Sheet for the Raw Material and check the following items for each constituent of a raw material. We have also established SAKATA INX Group Environmental Management Standards for Chemical Substances . The aim of these criteria is to prevent the inflow of hazardous and harmful chemical substances. We established them to ensure compliance with laws and regulations related to chemicals and to further reduce impact on people and the environment, in addition to minimizing the negative impact of hazardous chemical substances throughout our corporate activities.

Initiatives Endorsed and Supported, Organizations Joined

Membership of Sedex

In February 2022, we joined Sedex, a membership organization that offers a platform to share information on ethical and responsible business practices in the global supply chain.

Participation in the Supply Chain Subcommittee of the Global Compact Network Japan

In February 2022, we signed the United Nations Global Compact and joined the Global Compact Network Japan (GCNJ). GCNJ member companies and organizations take the initiative in organizing thematic subcommittee activities.
We also participate in the Supply Chain Subcommittee to promote sustainable procurement.

Endorsement of the Partnership Building Declaration

In February 2022, we expressed our endorse for the Partnership Building Declaration, which declares new collaborations that transcend scale and affiliation, and adherence to desirable trading practices between parent companies and subcontractors, in order to achieve coexistence and prosperity throughout the entire supply chain.