TOMY Group Material Issues
TOMY Group Material issues
The TOMY Group defined eight material issues for achieving its sustainability vision of becoming friends with children around the world. In 2021, we moved onto the next stage by launching medium-term sustainability targets and KPIs (FY2021-FY2023). In this section, we would like to introduce the sustainability-related material issues that we defined in discussion with our stakeholders and the medium-term sustainability targets and KPIs we have subsequently set for FY2021 to FY2023.
1. Ensuring Confidence, Safety, and Quality
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Indirectly relevant SDGs
Our customers, employees and investors are very concerned about how we can ensure confidence, safety, and quality. Global society demands appropriate management of chemical substances used in products and production processes that could have a potentially damaging impact on the human body and broader ecosystems.
The TOMY Group has always prioritized initiatives that help ensure safety and product quality, and we intend to further strengthen these frameworks across the entire Group going forward.
■Action Strategy
- Pursue safety and product quality-related initiatives even more vigorously
- Adopt an even stricter response against hazardous chemical substances
2. Creating New Products, Services, and IP
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Some experts told us that they wanted the TOMY Group to contribute to the education of children through toys by using new technologies to create new products, services and intellectual property*1 and, in so doing, extend those benefits beyond the toy industry to the industrial sector as a whole.
The TOMY Group strengths lie in our timeless brand, which is loved kids and adults alike, and our rich IP*1 portfolio. While continuing to help solve social issues through our business and to provide new value through play, we are committed to promoting the healthy growth of children through our products and services as well as creating and acquiring IP, and implementing countermeasures against counterfeit products.
■Action Strategy
- Carve and nurture a brand with timeless popularity
- Solve social issues through toys
- Capture our techniques and expertise in tangible forms and hand them down to future generations
3. Promoting Universal Design
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Indirectly relevant SDGs
Consumers and our employees are very interested in promoting universal design. It was also the most talked-about issue at our kids’ symposium. The TOMY Group has always striven to create accessible-design toys that children with visual and hearing impairments can also enjoy. We intend to continue promoting ethical universal design*2, with the aim of creating products and services that anyone in the world can enjoy, irrespective of age, gender, disability and ability. We are also committed to protecting children’s human rights and respecting children’s stage of growth and diversity, and we remain sensitive to these considerations when selecting advertising and marketing expressions.
*2 Ethical universal design considers ethical and moral elements in designing products and services that are sensitive to the needs of individual people, the global environment, and society.■Action Strategy
- Promote ethical universal design in our products and services
- Promote advertising and marketing expressions that are sensitive to different child growth stages and diversity
4. Organizational Governance and Communication with Stakeholders
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Indirectly relevant SDGs
Our employee and customer surveys revealed a high level of interest among respondents in stakeholder communication. The TOMY Group does already communicate with various stakeholders. However, in future, we are determined to promote even richer communication and discussion, including the wider disclosure of ESG data, to help realize our sustainability vision of becoming friends with children around the world. We also remain committed to fostering greater compliance adherence and awareness as well as corporate ethics, another area of strong focus for stakeholders and employees. We are striving to achieve our tandem goals of a sustainable society and TOMY Group growth, and to promote our sustainability and CSR initiatives that make the world a better place through play and that make both children and adults smile.
■Action Strategy
- Continue to hold regular stakeholder dialogues
- Disclose environment, social and governance (ESG) data
- Foster greater compliance adherence and awareness as well as corporate ethics
- Construct systems that facilitate sustainability management
5. Active participation of diverse personnel
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Society increasingly expects companies to promote diversity*2 and create working environments that enable employees to achieve their full potential while juggling other responsibilities such as child or family care. Our employees submitted many different opinions on how we can best support upskilling and career-building.
The TOMY Group aims to create an environment in which diverse human resources can work together, hiring employees based on a comprehensive judgement that champions ability and individuality without reference to nationality or gender. We are also working proactively to rectify long working hours and address incidences of harassment. We will be considering ways to increase our number of senior female managers and promote diverse work styles.
■Action Strategy
- Promote systems that encourage diverse human resources to play an active role and foster a comfortable working culture
- Continue efforts to solve diversity-related issues at all global sites
- Strengthen employee engagement
6. Responsible Procurement
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Investors, ESG evaluation institutions and external experts are urging us to exercise firmer management across our entire supply chain. Environmental and human rights considerations are especially attracting attention as important issues in global society as well.
The TOMY Group has worked together with business partners to ensure appropriate factory working conditions. Looking ahead, we intend to continue pressing for responsible procurement*3 with proud determination as respected role models for younger generations.
■Action Strategy
- Build awareness of responsibility procurement policies, systematize our management system, and commit to thoroughly implement all initiatives
7. Environmental Management
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
Indirectly relevant SDGs
In light of increasingly severe environmental issues such as resource depletion and climate change, global society is becoming more attentive to the way companies manage their environmental impact. At our kids’ symposium, children also offered various opinions on how we should handle wastes and climate change.
The TOMY Group has already pursued several initiatives to help reduce environmental impact, such as Eco Toy activities, as stated in our Code of Conduct (“We will be considerate of resources and the natural environment”), but we can do more. Looking ahead, we will work to reduce or recycle single-use plastic in packaging and continue to research alternatives to plastics in our products. We also recognize that a solid response to climate change is essential, and so we are currently setting long-term targets for quantitative reductions of CO2 emissions. We will also strive to expand our disclosure of environmental data and strengthen our environmental management framework to meet the expectations of investors and ESG evaluation institutions.
■Action Strategy
- Establish a firm environmental management framework
8. Encouraging Education and Culture through Our Business
SDGs we can directly contribute to through our business
The role of toys is not simply to support healthy child development, but also to assist children to learn about science and culture, which in turn will help them shape future society when they become adults. Some experts expect us to extend Japanese toy culture to other regions around the world.
At the TOMY Group, we seek to help promote educational and cultural development through our business by using familiar toys to support next-generation educational programs such as welcoming educational field trips and visiting schools.
■Action Strategy
- Offer toy-assisted learning to help solve social issues
- Continue education support activities such as welcoming educational field trips and visiting schools
