Murata’s CSR management is evolving steadily. In fiscal 2008, the Company stipulated its CSR Charter and set up the CSR Management Committee with the president as its chairman, putting in place a system for overseeing relevant committees on such subjects as governance, the environment, contribution to society and local communities. Murata also established social targets to be achieved as part of operational goals, and formulated various policies, including the Basic Policies for Activities to Contribute to Society and Local Communities, enabling employees to understand more clearly what they should do. I highly appreciate these achievements, which indicate the evolution of Murata’s CSR activities. However, these activities have thus far been based on what the Company considers to be of importance, or “materiality.” In addition to such materiality based on its own perspective, henceforth Murata will need to analyze the materiality required by society, through seeking opinions from a wider scope of stakeholders, and quantify the social targets wherever possible and effective.
As stated in the message from top management, Murata places its highest value on customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. I was able to form a clear idea of Murata’s highest value, which is also well represented by substantial contents of the sections of Features (pages 8 to 12), Customer (pages 17 to 19), and Employees (pages 20 to 23). Moreover, I am impressed that the Company has started efforts to introduce employee satisfaction surveys and an occupational health and safety management system aimed at creating workplaces free from work-related injuries. Looking ahead, I recommend that the Company should establish systems for performance evaluations of customer and employee satisfaction, and systems for disclosing the evaluation results to stakeholders.
Currently, Murata has set CO2 emissions reduction targets per unit of production, and has already achieved the Company’s ambitious target of 35% reductions compared with the fiscal 1990 levels. Nowadays, however, companies are coming under increasing social pressure to reduce the total volumes of CO2 emissions. Murata’s message from top management expresses a strong determination to continue Company-wide initiatives to further reduce CO2 emissions by promoting “visualization” of the amounts of CO2 emitted in production processes. Henceforth I expect Murata to set long-term targets for reduction of total volumes of CO2 emissions to be actively pursued across the Group, taking the lead in the industry’s efforts.
With overseas customers accounting for 78% of its total sales, Murata has become highly global. For fiscal 2009, the Company plans to target integrating its environmental management system of plants in China with that in Japan. I believe that such CSR activities based on a global perspective will assume even greater importance for Murata. In the future, it will become essential to establish and implement a system to identify the needs of stakeholders not only in Japan but also around the world. I sincerely hope that Murata will further step up its CSR commitments.
