Message from the Officer in Charge

Since my appointment as the officer in charge of corporate sustainability last year, I have met many people and been exposed to a wide range of information. Through these experiences, I have come to feel firsthand that the landscape surrounding sustainability is now undergoing a major change. In its Global Risks Report 2026, the World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that the world is entering an age of competition as the rules and institutions that have long underpinned stability become less effective. Even as countries review their regulations and policies, calls for action on social challenges, such as climate change and respect for human rights across supply chains, are growing. Companies are now expected to respond with greater flexibility and effectiveness than ever before. Amid these major changes, we at the Mitsui Chemicals Group continually ask ourselves what value we should provide and how we can contribute to a sustainable society.

Since 2018, when we established our Corporate Sustainability Policy and declared our intention to place ESG at the core of management, our thinking has remained unchanged. The key is not simply to respond to society’s expectations but to leverage our unique strengths to solve social challenges while growing our business at the same time.

Blue Value™ and Rose Value™ are among the initiatives that put this thinking into practice. We began developing the concept in 2011 and formally introduced the framework in 2015. Since then, we have been visualizing the environmental and social value that our products and services create. Blue Value™ and Rose Value™ are not merely a product assessment framework but a mechanism for visualizing how our business contributes to solving social challenges. They have also become an important common language for sharing that value with our customers.

We will continue to refine the framework in response to changing social challenges and customer needs. In doing so, we will evolve it into a mechanism that can better assess each business division’s growth strategy and contributions toward solving social challenges.

In recent years, the direction of climate policies and regulations has shifted in various ways across countries. Climate change nonetheless remains an issue that has a major impact on the sustainability of society, and we regard it as a critical issue that we will continue to address as a priority. We are working both to reduce our own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, through the products we provide, help reduce GHG emissions across the entire life cycle. Last year, we established a clear path to achieving our 2030 target of reducing our own emissions by 40% compared to FY2013. Beyond that, we are striving to make steady progress toward carbon neutrality by 2050 on two fronts: reducing our own environmental impact and creating value through our business.

Guided by the principle of “having a high regard for people,” we understand the importance of respecting the human rights not only of our employees but of every individual affected by the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s business activities. In recent years, in particular, I feel that companies have come under growing pressure to take responsibility for human rights management across their supply chains. We are addressing human rights issues through human rights due diligence and working to deepen employee understanding of these issues. In FY2025, we held study sessions on business and human rights for division heads, which gave many participants an opportunity to take personal ownership of human rights issues. Through these efforts, the foundation for respecting human rights is steadily taking shape. Respect for human rights is an issue that every employee involved in our business activities must keep in mind. Going forward, we will continue to embed this principle throughout the Group and translate it into effective action.

We have steadily put sustainability policies and structures in place and advanced a range of initiatives. Going a step further, we need to put sustainability into practice more fully in our business activities and link it to enhancing corporate value. This will require an environment in which each employee understands the connection between their own work and sustainability and can incorporate it into their daily decisions and actions. In that respect, I feel we still have a long way to go.