Third Party Opinion

CSR Report 2016 About Reporting Contents

This is the 5th year of being associated with third party opinion of CSR report of DOWA group. It is delightful to notice the progress in the content of the report every time. In this report, it is interesting to note that, of the 17 goals given in "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)", goal No.12 stating, "Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns" as the theme of social tasks that the DOWA group contributes to the most and explanation of concrete approach examples through core businesses.
I also notice the increased pressure given to the supply chain management all through the year. DOWA group is | distributing CSR procurement guidelines and self-checklists to key customers and is requesting improvement measures from partners with lack of initiative. In addition, they are also conducting CSR audits of key partners to grasp the actual situation so that they can confirm that they are systematically working on CSR procurement.
DOWA group is also focusing on promoting the diversity of human resources and is promoting measures based on various approaches such as creating a structure from the recruitment stage, educating overseas staff, and designing programs for female success. One of the visible outcomes was their selection in “Nadeshiko Brand of FY2015”.
I can also see the ingenuity in the page with the website. The place where the detailed explanation is necessary has URL, and the readers can check the contents by the website. The content of the report has become more substantial while the number of pages is reduced.

Towards Further Improvement

Regarding human rights, although they are taking important steps, such as implementing local inspections and interviews to the Indian operating companies, there are no human rights policies applicable to the entire DOWA group. With the growing interest in human rights issues through the supply chain, systematic initiatives about human rights due diligence are the need of the hour.
Regarding serious accidents, I think that it is difficult to deal with them in a uniform manner as there are individual circumstances, however I think that it would be good to describe the cause of the accident and future measures as neatly as possible in the page of the CSR report or the related website. It is necessary to demonstrate the commitment of a company that takes serious initiatives to prevent occupational accidents and ensure that similar accidents do not repeat.

My Expectations to DOWA’s Initiatives in the Future

In recent years, the importance of CSR reporting has been increasing worldwide. GRI, which is a guideline for CSR reporting, has been standardized in 2016 and its positioning as a global standard is becoming clearer. In the European Union (EU), a system that obligates non-financial information disclosure of the Environmental, social and governance (ESG) (non-financial information disclosure directive) shall be applied from FY2017 large companies in every region. In financial aspects, major long-term investment institutions will adopt ESG investment and it is the key to acquire stable shareholders by disclosing appropriate ESG information required by investors.
As indicated by GRI, it is important to select and disclose the materiality (important issue) for the DOWA group from two standpoints, that is, the importance of the company’s point of view and expected value and request level from external stakeholders. This leads to blending business and CSR from the viewpoint of the management. I am looking forward to pursuing CSR unique to the DOWA group that provides consistent services from the most upstream to the most downstream of the value chain and to further improve the level of CSR reporting.