CSO Message
Our sustainability initiatives in the 2026 Medium-Term Business Plan, which began in FY2024, are at the final stage toward realizing the Meiji Group Sustainability 2026 Vision. We aim to become a leading sustainable company in the global market by FY2026 by helping to build a better future where all people, society, and the planet are healthy by pursuing sustainability at a higher level and offering Meiji's unique value for wellness.
Updated Meiji ROESG®*
Starting from the 2023 Medium-Term Business Plan, we have implemented sustainability management with Meiji ROESG as the top-priority management goal. This represents a shift to management that balances ROE improvement and ESG enhancement, aligning with the concept of sustainability transformation (SX), which integrates the resolution of social issues with sustainable business growth. With Meiji ROESG, which has further evolved in the 2026 Medium-Term Business Plan to emphasize the integration of sustainability and business, we aim to simultaneously achieve both profitable growth and sustainability.
Identification of 12 Materialities
To fulfill the 2026 Medium-Term Business Plan, we assessed the sustainability issues surrounding the Meiji Group from two perspectives: significance to our stakeholders and significance to our business. Based on these assessments, we updated the list of materialities, bringing the total to 12. We also consulted experts on the ESG Advisory Board to prioritize these materialities. We established major initiatives and quantified KPIs for each one, and we will strive to achieve these goals.
Meiji as a Sustainable Brand
As an initiative symbolizing the integration of sustainability and business, we have introduced the Meiji Sustainable Products certification system for several of our products. This is an internal framework for certifying products with which we are actively engaged in sustainability activities in each process of the value chain, from product development to consumption, and products that meet our independently established criteria will be certified. We intend to utilize this system as an incentive to incorporate sustainability into concepts for product development and marketing strategies, thereby increasing awareness of sustainability.
Toward Achieving Nature Positive
The concept of being “nature positive,” which involves stopping and restoring biodiversity loss, has been attracting attention in recent years as a new sustainability issue to put nature on the path to recovery. To achieve this, negative impacts on nature must be reduced as much as possible while also generating positive contributions, with the latter ultimately outweighing the former.
For the Meiji Group’s businesses, which are rooted in the bounty of nature, sustainable business growth requires us to become nature positive. This can only be achieved through three initiatives: carbon neutrality, circular economy, and ecosystem conservation and restoration. Since these initiatives mutually influence each other, we believe that implementing them in unison will contribute to becoming nature positive and to the sustainable business growth of the Meiji Group.
Corporate Culture Where Sustainability is Common Sense
In implementing these initiatives, it is essential to ensure that each employee sees sustainability as their responsibility and to foster a corporate culture in which sustainability is considered common sense. By integrating sustainability and business, we will realize the concept of SX, in which we create social value that contributes to the sustainability of society through our business, while also continuously improving the profitability of the Meiji Group.
June 2024