Respect for Human Rights

Mission to create value

Respecting human rights and creating an environment with high psychological safety are prerequisites for employees to work autonomously and creatively.
In order to realize a society in which everyone is respected equally, we will cooperate with all stakeholders, including suppliers, and conduct business activities in consideration of human rights on a global scale.

Policies

In 2021, we published a human rights policy that places respect for human rights at the core of our business activities in all countries and regions where we operate. This policy was formulated not only for all of our employees, but also for our business partners, including our suppliers, to understand and adopt. The Human Rights Policy is also reflected in the "Our Code of Conduct", newly formulated for the launch of Resonac, and we are working to disseminate it in all workplaces.
We are steadily continuing and deepening its human rights due diligence in line with this Human Rights Policy.

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Processes for human rights initiatives

The Resonac Group Human Rights Policy

The Resonac Group aims to contribute to the sustainable development of a global society based on its significance of existence (purpose) of "Change society through the power of chemistry".
The Resonac Group has human rights as the basis of its business activities in all countries and regions where it operates in order to realize a society in which the dignity of all people is ensured and everyone is equally respected without being left behind. We have clarified these ideas and attitudes, and have formulated a human rights policy (hereinafter referred to as this policy) here as a promise to our stakeholders.

Scope of human rights policy

This policy applies to all officers and employees (including contract employees) working in the Resonac Group (Resonac Holdings Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries). We also expect all business partners, including our suppliers, to understand and support the content of this policy, and will continue to work to ensure that this policy is respected by them.

Commitment to respect for human rights

We are aware that the businesses of the Resonac Group and all business partners including suppliers, directly or indirectly affect human rights in each process of the value chain from product development to procurement, manufacturing, distribution, use, final consumption, and disposal.
The Resonac Group is committed to prohibiting all discrimination and harassment, providing a safe working environment and reducing excessive working hours, ensuring minimum wages, and respecting freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. We also do not allow child labor, forced labor or human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation, especially in the field of supply chain management.

  • Support for international human rights principles
    The Resonac Group supports internationally recognized human rights principles (“International Bill of Human Rights”, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) “Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at work”, “the Children's Rights and Business Principles”, etc.) and make them our own standards.
    In addition, as a UN Global Compact signatory company, we will respect human rights in all aspects of our business activities and strive to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts by operating our business in accordance with "the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact" and "the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights."
  • Remediation
    In the unlikely event that the operations, products and services of the Resonac Group and its business partners including suppliers, have an adverse impact on the human rights of our customers, local communities and other stakeholders, we will endeavor to provide for remediation through appropriate procedures.
  • Compliance with applicable laws and regulations
    In making business decisions, the Resonac Group will comply with all applicable laws and regulations in each country and region in which it operates. In the unlikely event that the laws and regulations of the country or region differ or conflict with the internationally recognized human rights principles, or when faced with conflicting requirements, we will pursue ways to respect the internationally recognized human rights principles. In the context of stakeholders and circumstances where the Resonac Group cannot control decision-making, we will strive to exert influence so that this policy will be respected, and will continue to work to avoid complicity in human rights violations.
Governance

In order to fulfill our responsibility to respect human rights, the Resonac Group will maintain an internal system to steadily implement human rights due diligence initiatives based on this policy.
In addition, we will reflect this policy in relevant policies, procedures and operations so that it can be properly incorporated into our business activities.

Human rights due diligence

In accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Resonac Group will establish a process to properly assess the impact of business decision-making and execution on human rights, identify, prevent and mitigate risks that cause or contribute to serious human rights violations, and strive to provide for remediation.
In addition, in order to verify whether the adverse impact on human rights is being dealt with, we will continuously track and evaluate the effectiveness of the response.

Grievance mechanism

The Resonac Group will establish grievance mechanisms both internally and externally with the aim of early detection of concerns, including adverse impacts on human rights, and the resolution of problems. The grievance mechanisms are available to all stakeholders such as employees, business partners including suppliers, and local communities. We will ensure the anonymity of the person making the report and the confidentiality of the content of the report. In addition, we will prohibit unfavorable treatment and retaliation against the whistleblowers, and will thoroughly protect them.

Stakeholder engagement

The Resonac Group recognizes that it is important to understand the adverse impacts on human rights from the perspective of those affected. Therefore, we will endeavor to utilize it in our efforts to respect human rights by continuously conducting dialogues and discussions with our stakeholders.

Information disclosure

The Resonac Group regularly discloses information on initiatives on respecting human rights and human rights due diligence taken based on this policy through its website and other means.

Dissemination / education

The Resonac Group will not only continue to provide appropriate education and training to all officers and employees (including contract employees) but also work on capability building necessary to put this policy into practice so that this policy will permeate the company.
In addition, we will strive to respect human rights throughout the value chain by thoroughly communicating the contents of this policy to our business partners, including suppliers.

Human rights policy formulation process and review.

This policy is informed by the advice of external experts who have expertise and practical experience in human rights and has been formulated based on internationally recognized human rights principles, "the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact", and "the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights" with the approval of the Board of Directors.
We will review this policy on a regular basis in light of changes in the social environment and dialogues and discussions with stakeholders, and strive to enhance efforts to respect human rights.

Resonac Holdings Corporation
Group CEO
Hidehito Takahashi
October 1, 2021

Promotion system

Human rights initiatives are implemented under the leadership of the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSuO) and by the companywide Human Rights Project led by a secretariat comprising organizations specializing in sustainability and human resources. At Sustainability Promotion Meetings attended by the Group Chief Officers (CXOs) and business unit heads, including the CEO, regularly deliberate on important issues. The Management Committee also deliberates and decides on these important issues and reports the results to the Board of Directors. We are thereby enhancing our corporate governance and reducing risks posed to our business management.

Strategy for Realizing the Long-Term Vision

Roadmap for 2030

Vision for the future (2030) Issues to Be Addressed Results in 2023 Plan for 2024
  • To have established a corporate culture in which all Group employees, including those overseas, respect human rights and are able to transform diversity into co-creative and competitive strengths
  • To have implemented measures for prevention and mitigation against identified human rights risks, as well as established a series of processes to evaluate their effectiveness
  • Furthering employee understanding and implementation of our human rights policy
  • Understanding the potential and existing risks of harassment, conducting training and fostering a corporate culture to prevent harassment
  • Human rights due diligence in the supply chain
  • Conducted harassment training for executives
  • Identified issues to be addressed through human rights awareness surveys (human rights surveys) for employees
  • Implemented human rights training on a global basis
  • Conducted a preliminary investigation into overseas human rights risks, including within our supply chain
  • Expand harassment training to all managers
  • Monitor status through continued human rights surveys
  • Continue human rights training on a global basis
  • Start surveys for suppliers, focusing on high-risk regions and businesses (including compliance with European Battery Regulation)

Non-financial KPI Results and Targets

Resonac regards sustainability as the basis for its companywide strategies and has set three material issues for sustainability. Accordingly, for respect for human rights, we will work on the non-financial KPIs and measures that were set to “Gain credibility through responsible business management” toward the achievement of our long-term vision.

KPIs on material issues 2025 targets Results in 2023
Respect for human rights Establishment of a human rights due diligence process and operational structure
  • Implementation of global awareness surveys and training for employees
  • Conducted an investigation into overseas human rights risks, including within our supply chain

Due diligence for human rights

Resonac attributes importance to developing co-creative talent and helping our people to thrive. As a precondition for this, we regard it as essential that the human rights of all people impacted by our business activities are respected.

Given the importance of negative impacts on human rights in light of the company’s declared respect for human rights, the human rights due diligence conducted in 2021 focused on a risk survey and a CSR procurement process survey of Resonac Group employees in Japan. For issues thus detected, we raised awareness through training, reviewed related rules, improved the procurement process and conducted specific measures for improvement.

In 2022, in addition to the aforementioned measures, we also expanded our target of human rights due diligence to high-risk areas and chemical companies to get an overview of the Group’s risk profile.

The following shows the initiatives implemented in 2023 and plans made for 2024.

Initiative (1) Human Rights Awareness Survey

We conducted the first human rights awareness survey for employees in 2023 globally. As a result, it was found that awareness of human rights initiatives and positive sentiment among employees tended to be high in general. However, the issues listed below were identified as human rights issues. With regards to harassment, we will expand training to all managers in 2024.

  1. 1. There is room for further instilling the human rights policy and the need to respect human rights among employees.
  2. 2. Although awareness of our whistleblower system is increasing, there is room for improvement in eliminating concerns about anonymity and the disadvantageous treatment of whistleblowers.
  3. 3. Identify potential and existing harassment risks as human rights issues.

Human rights due diligence process for harassment

Initiative (2) Human rights education

Following the formulation of the Resonac Group Human Rights Policy, we have educated employees on the following issues through e-learning and other training: basic concept of respecting human rights, important human rights issues, relationship between business and human rights, examples of negative impacts caused by a failure to implement measures related to human rights, and trends regarding external requests concerning human rights-related issues.

Initiative (3) Human rights throughout the supply chain

To promote human rights-conscious business activities throughout our supply chains, we have also reflected our Human Rights Policy in our Sustainable Procurement Guidelines, which specify areas that the Resonac Group and suppliers must work together on, and we are sharing these with our suppliers. In 2024, we will also promote surveys of suppliers in high-risk areas and businesses (including surveys regarding compliance with European battery regulations).