Topic 1 Meiji Group Integrated Report 2022

How to link sustainability to business value
Establishing a story of value creation incorporated into business unique to Meiji

Expert opinions

• It is good that the word sustainability is not used often. This represents that non-financial and financial information have been well integrated.
• Issues still remain regarding how to present the fusion of sustainability and business. It would be good to outline a story so that it is easy to understand at a glance how the Meiji Group views the future, its ideal vision, and its value creation story.
• There is nothing that links to the faces of employees. It would be good if there were examples of what kinds of people are active and in what ways.
• As for what Meiji-style health value and Meiji ROESG^®1 represent, it would be good if employees could come up with ideas and if the company includes that process of innovation and creation. This would give it more energy and better represent Meiji.
• Not a single female employee is presented so I do not have the impression that women are playing an active role. There is no denying that Meiji lags behind other companies in terms of diversity. We will look forward to seeing the company strengthen its efforts in the future.

Thus far, we have mainly been conscious of our message to investors, but moving forward, we will also consider storytelling and expressions that better present our employees. Efforts in cocoa and dairy farming are progressing, and these could become themes that lead to business reforms. These initiatives bring us closer to our original aim of contributing to ROE improvement through ESG. Management and employees will work together towards the challenge of achieving outcomes that are unique to the Meiji Group.

1ROESG is a registered trademark for a management indicator developed by Kunio Ito, a professor at Hitotsubashi University.

Topic 2 Carbon neutrality, building a roadmap

Convey the Meiji Group’s vision of the future and aim for carbon neutrality with business partners and customers as well.

Expert opinions

• In general, CO₂ reduction efforts are very difficult to understand. It is effective and very beneficial to explain using a video as you did this time.
• Scope 3 carbon neutrality cannot be achieved by the company alone. Achieving the 2030 and 2050 visions will require sharing values with business partners.
• The Meiji Group should promote CO₂ reductions for dairy farms and cocoa production areas with the intent to serving as an industry leader.
• Going carbon neutral is costly. Another important point is how to share that as added value for our customers.
• Through these initiatives, I hope consumers will come to like Meiji even more. To that effect, it is important to express the Meiji Group’s vision of the future through your products. It is also interesting to outline a future story through initiatives geared towards children.

We believe that efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions need to be made not only by our company, but across our entire supply chain in cooperation with our business partners. First, to visualize emissions in each process of the supply chain, we will introduce carbon footprint (CFP) assessments and calculate CO₂ emissions for each product. The Meiji Group is particularly focused on supporting producers, and so we will strengthen efforts to achieve a win-win relationship with producers and for the global environment.

• CARBON NEUTRALITY BY 2050 (video)

Topic 3 Future global expansion

Strengthening engagement with the leaders of overseas Group companies to achieve global sustainability and profit growth

Expert opinions

• Overseas employees account for 30% of the Meiji Group workforce, so the global adoption of sustainability activities needs to be accelerated.
• Sustainability is the common language of the non-financial world. It is important to engage with management at each overseas group company and ensure that goals are aligned.
• The Global Sustainability Meeting planned for this fiscal year will be an important opportunity to motivate employees towards taking action. This includes efforts such as sharing the Meiji vision and strategies. I hope that it will be held regularly in the future.
• It would be a good idea to build a framework that allows each company to self-assess the level of its own sustainability efforts and formulate future action plans.

Overseas Group companies have so far focused on business expansion. However, moving forward, we will treat sustainability a common language and align the vector of values with management in order to strengthen and accelerate initiatives on a level similar to efforts in Japan.