In December 2020, the Sumitomo Rubber Group established its new corporate philosophy framework, Our Philosophy, with a strong emphasis on conducting sustainable business in harmony with society and the environment. As a driving force behind our company-wide strategy, we defined our Purpose as:“Through innovation, we will create a future of joy and well-being for all.”
By positioning this Purpose as the foundation for all decision-making and actions, we are committed to enhancing not only economic value but also social value, thereby contributing to the development of a sustainable society.
To realize Our Philosophy, the Group identifies material issues based on risks and opportunities across the entire value chain. Human rights are among these key material issues. We believe that understanding and appropriately addressing potential human rights challenges in our global operations is essential to responsible business conduct.
Accordingly, we strive to assess the impact of our activities on the human rights of diverse stakeholders, both internal and external. Through our business operations—from raw material procurement to the delivery of products and services—we are dedicated to respecting human rights at every stage of the value chain.
In our efforts, we refer to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, based on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises; and the Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains, published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
The Sumitomo Rubber Group Human Rights Policy has been established based on international standards, treaties, and principles, and was formally approved by the Board of Directors.
This policy tangibly describes the Sumitomo Rubber Group’s concepts on respect for human rights and serves as the highest policy governing all internal rules and guidelines related to human rights within the Group.
We communicate our policy to all relevant parties—including our executives, employees, suppliers, and group companies—and actively promote understanding and compliance across the organization.
In pursuit of sustainable procurement, our Group issued the 8th edition of the Sustainable Procurement Guidelines in July 2024.
The guidelines request that all suppliers comply with the laws and regulations regarding human rights in each country and region, and engage in efforts to respect human rights.
We have also asked our suppliers to share the guidelines with their suppliers. By the end of January 2025, we had received letters of acceptance from approximately 90% of our tire raw material suppliers.
We actively promoted initiatives in collaboration with all stakeholders across the supply chain to achieve sustainable natural rubber procurement, announcing our sustainable natural rubber policy in 2018. In 2021, we updated the policy based on the policy framework of GPSNR*1 and established the Sumitomo Rubber Group’s Sustainable Natural Rubber (SNR) Policy, in order to further strengthen our efforts to address environmental issues due to deforestation in natural rubber production areas and human rights issues related to labor conditions there.
*1 Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber
The Human Rights Subcommittee was established in February 2024 as one of the working groups under the Sustainability Promotion Committee. We have established a system in which all relevant divisions, including those at overseas bases, can participate and follow up on each division’s human rights risk survey, risk identification, and countermeasure status.
In line with the “Pillar 2: The corporate responsibility to respect” and “Pillar 3: Access to remedy” of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 2011, as well as the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, we are advancing our efforts with the input of outside experts.
In fiscal 2024, we conducted human rights due diligence* focusing on the Group’s head office and 22 manufacturing bases both in Japan and overseas.
In fiscal 2025, we will expand our activities to the value chain.
* Human rights due diligence: A series of actions in which a company identifies human rights risks in its business operations and explains and discloses information on the effectiveness of its efforts to prevent and mitigate such risks, as well as the measures taken to address them
We formulated and disseminated the Sumitomo Rubber Group Human Rights Policy as a set of regulations and guidelines regarding respect for all human rights within the Group, specifically defining the Group’s approach to respect for human rights. In addition, we held study sessions on business and human rights for officers and managers.
In 2024, we developed an overall roadmap for human rights risk identification and human rights due diligence for domestic and overseas Group companies. In addition, we conducted Group-wide education to promote understanding and awareness of human rights.
Based on the roadmap established in 2024, we will not only address human rights issues within the Group but also expand the scope of human rights due diligence into the value chain with an aim to promote respect for human rights throughout the entire value chain.
The Human Rights Subcommittee took the lead in gathering information from inside and outside the Company and assessed human rights risks based on the characteristics of our business.
Risks were assessed based on “severity” and “likelihood of occurrence.” A risk map was created to determine the priority of responses.
The Sumitomo Rubber Group has established a Corporate Ethics Helpline to report to or consult with regarding harassment and misconduct. This helpline is available to internal and external parties and guarantees anonymity.
The targets and results are as follows.
| Targets | Results | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Formulation of the Sumitomo Rubber Group Human Rights Policy | Formulated and published the Human Rights Policy in December 2023 |
| 2024 | Establishment of a Human Rights Management System and Human Rights Due Diligence Process |
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| 2025 | Establishment and implementation of human rights due diligence 1.Follow-up on human rights due diligence activities at group production bases
2.Implementation of human rights due diligence for migrant workers within the Group
3.Formulation of human rights due diligence strategies across the value chain
4.Establishment of a human rights due diligence framework for sales and logistics-related subsidiaries
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Based on the identified human rights issues, we have developed a comprehensive roadmap for human rights due diligence and are actively promoting initiatives to respect human rights.
We are implementing initiatives such as raising awareness of our human rights policy, providing human rights-related training, ensuring occupational safety and health, promoting diversity, and supporting the acceptance of foreign workers.
We are taking measures to prevent and mitigate human rights issues, such as visiting natural rubber plantations and processing facilities.
In 2025, we published our first Human Rights Report, which overviews our initiatives and progress.
