CSR-Conscious Procurement Activities

Procurement Guidelines

We promote procurement activities in line with societal responsibility at our company, and have established our Procurement Guidelines based on the Shinko Way and our Procurement Policy with growing recognition of the importance of corporate social responsibility throughout the supply chain. We follow these guidelines ourselves and ask suppliers to follow them as well, to promote procurement in line with societal responsibility.
In addition, we comply with the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct and promote understanding, compliance with, and spread of the RBA Code of Conduct among suppliers.

Procurement Guidelines

１．Protection of the global environment

• Promote the procurement of materials that have minimal environmental impact.
• Promote thorough management procedures for chemical substances.

2．Compliance

• Comply with laws and regulations in Japan and overseas, as well as social norms.

３．Respect for human rights, labor, health and safety

• Respect the human rights of each individual.
• Do not commit unfair discrimination or acts that infringe human rights.
• Implement a pleasant working environment for the health and safety of employees.
• Do not use child labor or forced labor.

４．Assurance of safety and quality of products and services

• Assure the safety and quality of products and services.

５．Maintenance and promotion of information security

• Provide appropriate protection for our own information and information systems and those of third parties.

６．Fair trade and corporate ethics

(1) Fair trade
　　・Respect free, fair and transparent competition and do not conduct transactions through unfair means.

(2) Protection of confidential information
　　・Manage the confidential information of the Company and third parties, as well as personal 　　　information, in an appropriate fashion and in accordance with laws, regulations, and rules.

(3) Protection of intellectual property
　　・Understand that intellectual property is a valuable management asset, and respect the intellectual 　　　property of other companies while protecting the rights of our own.

(4) Prohibition of bribes
　　・Do not bribe public officials or use a business position to commit acts of bribery, extortion, or 　　　embezzlement.

Sharing Our Procurement Guidelines― “To Our Suppliers” ―

In order to promote the "Procurement Guidelines" throughout our company's supply chain, we have compiled "To Our Suppliers," a list of items that we would like our suppliers to promote.
We also provide information annually to all suppliers that we continually do business with through our procurement website, which posts the Shinko Procurement Policy, Procurement Guidelines, and To Our Suppliers.
In FY2022, we also provided guidance to 765 companies, 738 in Japan and 27 overseas, asking them to understand and cooperate with our company policy posted on our procurement website.
In addition to informing new suppliers of the Shinko Procurement Policy and Procurement Guidelines, etc., we established a system to confirm and evaluate the status of the new suppliers’ CSR initiatives through a questionnaire. At the start of trading, we seek to understand each other’s initiatives and to promote CSR-conscious procurement activities.

“To Our Suppliers” Contents

1. Green procurement
2. Business continuity planning
3. Excluding antisocial forces
4. Initiatives for responsible minerals sourcing
5. Corporate social responsibility

> To Our Suppliers

Dialogue with Suppliers

We have sent questionnaire surveys about corporate social responsibility conforming to the RBA Code of Conduct to our main suppliers every year. The questionnaire confirms supplier compliance with the RBA Code of Conduct and their operation of management systems in the areas of labor, health and safety, the environment, and ethics. We continuously monitor the progress made by suppliers.
In FY2022 we sent a questionnaire to our main 34 suppliers as usual, including those outside Japan.
We also send these questionnaire surveys every year to all 9 suppliers to whom we contract some processes within our plants and, based on the survey results, we conduct on-site audits twice a year to confirm that there are no issues in the condition of work sites. We request improvements as needed. We confirmed that there were no issues in terms of the RBA Code of Conduct and relevant laws and regulations during on-site audits in FY2022.
Going forward, we will continue striving to promote social responsibility throughout the supply chain through various dialogues with suppliers, including monitoring based on questionnaire surveys, on-site audits, and interviews.