Konica Minolta Wins Silver in the Second ESG Finance Awards Japan: Minister of the Environment Award
Achieving Business Growth by Taking Advantage of Social and Environmental Issues as Opportunities and Solving Them through Business
Tokyo (March 5, 2021) – Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) is pleased to announce that it has won the Silver Award in the Environmentally Sustainable Company Category of the second ESG Finance Awards Japan (Minister of the Environment Award) organized by the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan. The commendation ceremony was held online on February 24.
Evaluated Points (Based on statement by the Ministry of the Environment)
Konica Minolta is highly evaluated because the company believes that pursuing environmental management is the key to business management and actively integrates its management strategy with solving environmental issues and the management team shows strong commitment.
The company sets an appropriate level of materiality, analyses opportunities and risks focusing on the environmental aspects, manages progress, and has a well-established cycle to review materiality.
In 2009, Konica Minolta became the first company to set an ambitious goal of achieving the Carbon Minus status by 2050. The company has practiced PDCA* to achieve the goal, and as a result, is likely to attain the goal before 2030. This is also highly evaluated.
*The PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) is a framework for achieving continuous improvement.
Konica Minolta’s Sustainability Strategy
The future is difficult to predict in a complex world characterized by population growth, developed countries with declining birthrates and aging populations, rapid digital transformation, greater use of biotechnology, multipolarity in international relations, and a worsening climate crisis. Given the uncertain future the world faces, Konica Minolta identified the social and environmental issues it must help address. The company clarified issues to be addressed by 2030, and then backcasted from that year to determine the targets it must tackle immediately.After gaining insight into social and environmental issues expected to be critical by 2030, by examining the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and macro trends, Konica Minolta conducted a materiality analysis from the perspectives of social issues that must be solved and Konica Minolta's business growth.
This led to the identification of five new material issues for Konica Minolta to tackle starting in 2020: (1) improving fulfillment in work and corporate dynamism; (2) supporting healthy, high-quality living; (3) ensuring social safety and security; (4) addressing climate change; and (5) using limited resources effectively.
These five material issues are linked to Konica Minolta's business growth strategy and are now the cornerstones for action in each business area. In alignment with the value creation process of each business unit, Konica Minolta will implement initiatives for both business growth and sustainability to create value for customers and the broader society.
About the ESG Finance Awards Japan (Minister of the Environment Award)
The Ministry of the Environment hosts the ESG Finance Awards Japan to commend institutional investors, financial institutions, brokerage firms, and companies, which have actively worked on ESG financing or environmental and social businesses and had an impact, for their advanced initiatives and to share such accomplishments in society to spread and expand ESG financing. Award winners are commended by the Minister of the Environment.
The Environmentally Sustainable Company Category commends environmentally sustainable companies that incorporate “important environment-related opportunities and risks”*1 in their management strategy to improve their “corporate value”*2 and produce positive effects for the environment while creating corporate value, to showcase them to investors and other companies.
*1:“Important environment-related opportunities and risks” refer to environment-related opportunities and risks that are likely to have a substantial impact on the capability of an organization to create value in the short, medium, and long term.
*2:“Corporate value” includes both (1) value created for an organization which is likely to produce a financial return to providers of financial capital and (2) value created for others (value for stakeholders and society as a whole) that is expected to contribute to (1) indirectly and in the future.