Blue Value™ / Rose Value™

Sharing QOL improvement contributions through Rose Value™

Features and characteristics of the products and services of the Mitsui Chemicals Group are often described physically using expressions such as “high rigidity,” “transparency,” and “low density.” With Rose Value™, how such features and characteristics contribute to solving social challenges, or the QOL improvement contributions provided throughout the life cycle, can be visualized.
Social values and the features and characteristics of the Group’s products and services are linked, for example: “high rigidity increases the sturdiness of food packages, reducing damage during transportation of food, leading to reduced food loss,” “transparency makes it easier to check contents, enables hygienic storage and use in medical settings, etc., which improves medical services,” and “low density makes it light and easy to handle, allowing children and the elderly with less strength to use with ease, leading to the development of an inclusive society.” The Group believes such visualization can further expand the point of contact between the Group and society.
The Group aims to maximize the QOL improvement contributions generated from implementation of Rose Value™ products and services in the society, by sharing this value or “Rose Value™” with various stakeholders throughout the life cycle.

Rose Value™ Assessment Index and Certification Criteria

Rose Value™ is assessed based on three contribution categories: (1) enriching life and society; (2) extending healthy life-span; and (3) protecting food. Based on the needs of society such as the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Targets), we set our unique assessment index, the Rose Value™ Index, from social issue perspectives such as universal design and amenity, resilient and smart city, universal health coverage, and food security, and evaluate and review for certification based on these indices how the value our Group’s products and services provide contribute to QOL improvement. The assessment index is reviewed accordingly. In response to the changing challenges and needs of society, in FY2019 we made an amendment to add a category to the assessment index for contribution to sustainable communities, including disaster prevention/mitigation and longer infrastructure life.
For evaluation and review, we not only evaluate the contributions of the end products, but evaluate extensively the contributions of the intermediate processing stage as well as the contributions this brings to the supply chain. This is because we believe evaluating the contributions extensively throughout the life cycle maximizes the QOL improvement contributions of the society as a whole.

Maximization of QOL Improvement Contributions throughout the Life Cycle
- Hypothetical Case: Product Used as Infrastructure Pipes -

*The image is a hypothetical case and may differ from information on actual products of our Group.

QOL Improvement Assessment Index— Rose Value™ Index

Contributions	Rose Value™ Index evaluation categories
Enriching life and society
	Improving comfort in people’s lives Provide products, buildings and spaces that take into consideration the needs of a variety of people.
	Enhancing nursing care Specialized nursing and caregiving is a component of “improving comfort in people’s lives”.
	Ensuring the sustainability of communities Promote disaster prevention/mitigation measures, longer service life of the infrastructure, shift to ICT in communities.
Extending healthy life-span
	Supporting physical well-being Assist, improve, and heighten functions throughout the body, either directly or indirectly.
	Advancing medical care and pharmaceuticals Raise the level of medical technology and service in every phase of health, from pre-symptomatic disease to illness. Or improve aspects of medicine functionality, quality, and production.
	Preventing and taking action against infectious diseases Prevent or take action against infectious diseases.
	Improving accessibility to nutrition and water Simplify and/or improve production and/or the delivery of nutrition and water.
Protecting food
	Improving food productivity Raise food yields as well as work efficiency; improve related equipment capabilities.
	Guaranteeing safe and stable food distribution Secure and raise the level of safety and stability in food distribution.
	Reducing food loss and food waste Reduce waste from the perspectives of maintaining food freshness, extending “best-before date,” packaging for contents separation and compartmentalization, loss when shipping, and other factors.

Contributions
	Rose Value™ Index evaluation categories
Enriching life and society
	Improving comfort in people’s lives Provide products, buildings and spaces that take into consideration the needs of a variety of people.
	Enhancing nursing care Specialized nursing and caregiving is a component of “improving comfort in people’s lives”.
	Ensuring the sustainability of communities Promote disaster prevention/mitigation measures, longer service life of the infrastructure, shift to ICT in communities.
Extending healthy life-span
	Supporting physical well-being Assist, improve, and heighten functions throughout the body, either directly or indirectly.
	Advancing medical care and pharmaceuticals Raise the level of medical technology and service in every phase of health, from pre-symptomatic disease to illness. Or improve aspects of medicine functionality, quality, and production.
	Preventing and taking action against infectious diseases Prevent or take action against infectious diseases.
	Improving accessibility to nutrition and water Simplify and/or improve production and/or the delivery of nutrition and water.
Protecting food
	Improving food productivity Raise food yields as well as work efficiency; improve related equipment capabilities.
	Guaranteeing safe and stable food distribution Secure and raise the level of safety and stability in food distribution.
	Reducing food loss and food waste Reduce waste from the perspectives of maintaining food freshness, extending “best-before date,” packaging for contents separation and compartmentalization, loss when shipping, and other factors.

Example of Rose Value™ Evaluation, Review, and Certification

Target Product: MR™
Application: Ophthalmic lens material
Functional value of product: High Abbe number, lightweight, high impact resistance, high refractive index

Our MR™ series products are used as ophthalmic lens materials due to their optical properties. Their high refractive index and strength can support the way people who wish to improve their vision see, so the products can be described as contributing to “supporting physical well-being.” They also contribute to “improving comfort in people’s lives,” as they enable thinner and lighter glasses and improve the comfort of glasses, which may allow them to be worn for longer hours. For these reasons, the MR™ series is certified as Rose Value™ product under two contribution categories; “extending healthy life-span” and “enriching life and society.”
“Improving comfort in people’s lives” is an element for realizing the social contribution “enriching life and society,” which is the broader concept, and simply “becoming more convenient/comfortable” is not considered applicable. For example, ophthalmic lens material products with medium or lower refractive indices are certified as Rose Value™ under “supporting physical well-being,” but not certified as Rose Value™ from an “improving comfort in people’s lives” perspective due to the size of the impact of contributions being insufficient. The focus is on whether they help solve social challenges, and we seek advice and views from external experts regarding the validity of certification in terms of size of the impact of social contribution.

Expectations from external expert (Rose Value™ advisor)

Since fiscal 2019, "Ensuring the sustainability of communities" has been added as a new evaluation category in the Rose Value™ Index. It includes perspectives such as disaster prevention/mitigation measures, longer service life of infrastructure, and shift to ICT in communities. This agrees with the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s pledge under VISION 2030 to roll out a social issue perspective across all of its companies and businesses, and to move away from its historical business focus on materials supply to those based on a social issue perspective. It has also set a Rose Value™ products sales revenue ratio of 40% or more as a key performance indicator in its long-term business plan targets. This is an era in which employees having excellent sensitivity to the needs and challenges of society deliver a competitive edge to a business. I believe that the Rose Value™ Index is a potent opportunity to gain such a perspective.

Mr. ADACHI Eiichiro
Senior Counselor, Japan Research Institute, Limited

*Each affiliation is from the time when the article was created.